50-70 ammunition

[luc2121]

is 50-70 ammunition still available ? if so who makes it and who sells it ? it's for an old sharps rifle
thanks

 

[mooncoon]

You can form it from 348 shells. I also found that rolling blocks at least, have an overly long throat and the government style slug mold did not shoot well in them but there is also a Loverin style bullet (several narrow grooves) that does shoot well because in effect it allows you to load the bullets farther out in the case and much closer to the rifling

cheers mooncoon

 

[dan belisle]

Old Western Scrounger used to carry it, Bertram made brass. I have a rolling block in this caliber, fun to shoot. Check the back pages of the Cowboy action shooting magazines, there should be adds for the old cartridges' suppliers there. - dan

 

[ben hunchak]

Starline makes brass for it, you can also cut down 50/90 or 50/140 brass, most take the std. .512" bullet but one should slug their bore to be sure.

 

[apu]

The Starline brass is ok and probably the easiest to source, but if you can still find Dixie brass it's way superior. Generally it's getting tough to get 50+ cal brass up here in Canada as many of the Canadian brass suppliers have issues with getting US export permits on anything 50 cal and up(that includes obsolete calibers oddly enough).

 

[tactical870]

I cast a .515 330 gr 56-50 slug for my 50-70 and it seems to shoot as well as I can with it. I'm real glad I bought all my brass before the restrictions came in.

 

[dan belisle]

The Starline brass is ok and probably the easiest to source, but if you can still find Dixie brass it's way superior. Generally it's getting tough to get 50+ cal brass up here in Canada as many of the Canadian brass suppliers have issues with getting US export permits on anything 50 cal and up(that includes obsolete calibers oddly enough).

That's because us snowback terrorists are just waiting to shoot down US airliners with our black powder 50's, don't ya know. Lol. - dan