Casting for a 45-70...my experience and some questions

Necroman99

Necroman99

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Pretty new to casting. Up to now just making powder coated bullets for my 9mm with decent success but no real finness. Its a cz shadow sp01...just casted from a lee mold, powder coated, loaded and they worked fine. Easy peasy.

Decided during the deer hunt last year that I'd like to take my next deer with a bullet I'd cast...so i set to reading and lept in and probably skipped some steps.

The gun is a 45-70 marlin guide gun (gbl circa 2013).
First thing you should do is slug the barrel...i didn't...it may not matter now but you guys can tell me what you think.

I have a reliable source for lee stuff...the price is right, they are actually sourcable as opposed to any other mold right now, and it has offered me an opportunity to try something else that i will describe here. I read that the marlins tend to like bigger bullets, so i bought the 405gn mold, and the sizer...both are supposed to produce .457 bullets. The mold produced .456 with my wheel weight alloy.

This is where i started having fun. I used many bullets coated with permatex valve lapping compund to enlarge both the mold and the sizing die...but i might have gotten a bit aggressive...which brings me to my question.

My little frakenstein setup is now producing beautiful little bullets at a consistent .461 diameter.

Safe to say if i slug my barrel it'll be under that. But how small would be too small? Is it ok for my barrel to be sizing them to 459? 458? 457?

Should i even bother?...just shootem and see what happens?

I dont regret the experiment...id just go slower next time...just tell me if you think i need to.

Was fun though!!:cool:
 
Marlin bore seem to pretty consistent at .458
.001 or .002 over will not be unsafe with cast bullet velocities.
Usually .001 over bore is the starting point. Undersize .457, you will get leading and poor accuracy but it is not always the norm - soft bullet might obturate.

Do run a lead ball in it to get your measurements. Stop guessing.
To answer your questions - at .461 you will not blow your face off, but you might expand the case too much and make chambering hard or impossible. Test chambering.
OAL might need to be shorter if the ogive touch the lands early because of the large diameter of your bullet.

Winchester case are thin - Starline thicker. You might get leading at .461
Fit is important in cast bullet performance.
 
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Necroman99 said:
I dont have a lead ball. Can i just use one of these bullets?
Click to expand...
Depending on how hard it is it might be a ##### to get through your barrel with all the bands and grooves.
You can soften it with a lighter, and I would cut it down to two bands.
Make sure your barrel is clean and lightly oiled. If it gets too difficult tap it out the way it went in.
Use a metal rod, you don't want wood to split and jam the whole rig.
 
I use paper patched boolit's in my Marlin. I cast a 50cal can full awhile ago. I used an NOE 330gr, GC, HP, 6 cavity mold. They are .461-.463 after patching. And I like to use Trailboss, 13-15gr.
I'm out to have fun, not to see how big a bruise I can handle
 
Track of the wolf sells a Lee .460 sizer.

hIHYRH7.jpg
 
I have some pure lead i can melt. I just dont have a lead ball or ball mold. I do have some sinkers but worried they are not lead. I could try pouring some "half" bullets to cut down on driving bands.
 
Necroman99 said:
I have some pure lead i can melt. I just dont have a lead ball or ball mold. I do have some sinkers but worried they are not lead. I could try pouring some "half" bullets to cut down on driving bands.
Click to expand...

Pour a regular bullet and cut it in half. Easier than trying to cast half a bullet. cheers,
 
Higginsons also sells Lee bullet sizing dies. Good prices.
All the 45-70s I've loaded for shoot .459-.460 very well. Opening your mold to .461" is orders of magnitude better than undersized.

Cheers,
Stomp :)
 
45stomp said:
Higginsons also sells Lee bullet sizing dies. Good prices.
All the 45-70s I've loaded for shoot .459-.460 very well. Opening your mold to .461" is orders of magnitude better than undersized.

Cheers,
Stomp :)
Click to expand...

Big is good as long as they chamber. When they say Marlins like big bullets it's the diameter they are referring to, particularly the micro-groove.
Can always get another sizer to take it back down to .458 or something if required.
 
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A couple things you maybe should have done, try out the bullets before modifying the mold, and slugging the barrel.
No guarantee that the bullets will work now either, Some guns are fussy about bullet selection.
Not uncommon to go through a few different molds till you find a bullet that works.
 
The nice people at Higginson Powder sells the LEE two (2) cavity 340 grain RNFT bullet mold. This is a superior bullet, easily pushed to 2000 fps if powder coated with the right powder load.
Skip any bullet that is BHN 8 or less as it will lead the barrel, & pure lead or a bit harder should be reserved for black powder loads.

BTW, nice pic Yomamma!
 
So i shot about 30 of them. Still have my face. Have measured officially yet but one of my loadings produced cloverleaf at 50yds...so experiment successful. No tools required but a power drill and some valve grinding compund to make your own custom mold and sizing die.
 
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