Powders on hand, any good 45-70 loads?

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Good day all,

So I'm in a cleaning mood this week and have some things I think I'd like to sell. Bullets, powders, ect. I just got into 45-70 (Marlin 1895 GS) and have nothing else to load for, nor do I intend on loading for anything else. So now I have a surplus. Anyway, the powders I have may not be what someone might pick from a pile if 45-70 loads were the intended use, thou I have read some threads where guys used them. And I really dont want to get rid of something I might be able to use. So now I just need to figure out what is worth keeping. The powders are as follows......


Bullseye

IMR 4227

Hi-skor 700-x

Titegroup

FFFG Goex

Now the question arises, "what kind of shooting do you do?". Well, aside from knocking around some steel and beating up some furry pests, not much else. So light too medium loads. If one of the powders is only good for heavy loads, I might put it in the for sale box. If its a good powder for plinking and small game loads, I'll keep it.

So have any of you worked with these powders in the 45-70? It'll be great to hear from you guys.

Thanks.

Ti
 
IIRC, there's a pistol powder that can be used for 45-70 light loads. But I'm not sure. Someone will be around to correct me

EDIT: I found it. It was Trailboss that you could use. Don't know about the others you listed. Sorry.
 
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Since you don't want to turn your 45-70 into a sub-.458 Magnum, go with Trail Boss. I like 5744 in my 45-70's and 50-70's when I'm not shooting BP.
 
I developed a nice light plinker load for shooting 405 grn cast with gas checks using Tightgroup (pretty sure). I'll dig in my notes tonight for details. It was a very soft shooting load & pleasant for the youngsters.
PS ......... I was shooting these in a H&R Buffalo Classic if that makes any difference.
 
Found it!
So I tested Titegroup from 8 grn up to 12 grn with best results between 9 & 10 grns. I settled on loading up 9 grns as it's a powder puff to shoot and easily holds a 6" group at 100 yards. Not any target load but a fun plinking load!
 
4227 is a great powder for lighter smokeless loads.

It does leave a rather large volume of air though and it is a touch position sensitive. I found a suggestion at Cast Boolits to use a small tuft of pillow stuffing polyester as a wadding to hold the powder. I tried it and found that it narrowed down the groups by a goodly amount. And a single package at $8 from a fabric store will easily last a lifetime from what I've seen so far in loading around 100 rounds this way.

Test how much you need to pulling out a spider web's worth of the fiber and pushing it down with a dull end of a pencil or a well polished up dowel. Then tip the case over and give it a bit of a shake. It's amazing how little wadding is needed to hold the powder in place. Just in case though I store and transport the boxes of loaded ammo bullet up so it stays that way.

I would not have thought that the fast pistol powders like Titegroup would work. But with charges that small I can see it. The massive volume of the casing would limit the pressure to a big extent.

And of course the Goex is another possible powder. It would be better if it were 2f. But 3f would work. Perhaps with a bit of cornmeal filler so it's not a full 70 grains?
 
The "King of 45 Cal Rifle Powders" is H4198 (and IMR4198) IMO. Since you have neither, your IMR4227 could approach their usefulness from "Powder Puff" to "Full House" loads.
 
Gentlemen, I want to thank you very much for the useful info. I was about to put the 4227 up for sale. I'll have to source some bullets now and get some testing in.

I have loaded some loads for the 45-70 in the past week thou. 3 round ball loads with 7.5 g of Bullseye. I played around with the charge down from 7g up to 12g and the 8g put all 3 balls through a 1" oak board and half way into another behind the first at 25 yards, Fist sized group. Just a tad too load with the 8g load out of my 18.5" barrel, where as the 7g seemed just fine without much power loss. Thus, 7.5g. Very bad leading without lube, so I'll be picking up some alox if I can find some. Otherwise, I really like this load.:d

Thanks again.

Ti
 
My favourite .45-70 load is 400gr cast bullet over 20.0grs SR4759, which can be very hard to find these days. Very accurate to 100yds, maybe 1000fps, and very pleasant to shoot.
 
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