Pushing hard cast in a .45-70 question

The type of bullets i will be buying i have used in .38-55 and i was able to get to 1750fps with no leading in the .38-55 what so ever. Maybe they are using good lube all ready.
 
Load it up till your thumb makes good contact with your nose when you fire them off Mark! ha haha
Is it hard to gas check these slugs? I take it you are talking about the bullet barns supply again. If that could be done I think you can throw them as fast as the cartridge will allow.
 
..............i hear ya Noel!!! Yup i am going to try the bullet barns projectiles again. They were awesome in my .38-55. I have never torched off a .45-70. Should be fun!! Can't wait!!:D
 
I've shot plain base home cadt to 2000 fps without leading, but there are a lot of variables to the leading thing.
An undersized bullet may lead regardless of how hard it is for example, and a good lube is essential.
Under some circumstances, a softer bullet will actually lead less, as it gets bumped up to bore size, and doesn't get cut by hot gas.
Are you shooting through Ballard rifling? or Micro Groove?
You may have to play around a bit to get the leading out of your load.
Using fillers really helps, I use cotton quilt batting, in loads of R7 as advised in Lyman's "Cast Bullet Handbook" That's what I did for the 2000 fps load.
I don't use the load anymore, it's more power than I need, and shoots too high for my sights.
 
I think its more about accuracy than speed. a 400gr bullet at most any speed is going to kill any animal in the world. Some of the most accuate loads run right around 1000fps. Not very different than the original 405gr @1300fps that killed off the buffalo. To answer your question around 1500fps, 1600fps being max. Above that you need to get gas checks. otherwise you lead your barrel and get horible shooting like key holeing. Also the Marlin barrel are a little sloppy and prefer larger bullets sized .459 or .460. Slug your barrel to find out its diamerter and go from there but like I said it will like .459 or .460 bullet.

Cheers

Seabass
 
I agree with John Y C. that a softer lead bullet will lead less a lot of time for the reasons he stated. When I began shooting my Pedersoli Sharps 45-70 I was water quenching my 500grs to make them harder , thinking that it was best ...wrong!! I had leading like you won't beleive and couldn't figure out why:confused: ..was told to go to a 16:1 or 20:1 ratio, that solved the leading problem ,also shot better too:D
Bob
 
John Y Cannuck said:
Try http://castboolits.gunloads.com/
This is the main cast bullet group on the net near as I can figure.
Click to expand...


This list ( http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/CB-L/ )has been around much longer (there is some cross membership) and was the unofficial site for CBA members ( http://www.castbulletassoc.org/ ) before our own forum was put in place (http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/cbaforum/ ), so there is a much large archive to pull loads from.

Generally there seems to be no need for speed in the 45-70 as general experience is that any 45 projectile will completely penetrate any animal it hits

I'm happy with the load I pulled out of the book by Paul Matthews, Fourty Years with the .45-70, namely RCBS 45-300-FN over 32 grains of 2400 that I use in my Marlin 1895G which in this short barrel gun chronys at 1800fps plus or minus. I have a bump die that just happened to be bang on for this piece. I have other moulds which I haven't got around to try simply because I had a previously cast supply of the 300FNs for my 45-90.

In avoiding leading, bullet fit is more important than hardness. A soft bullet which will not allow gas cutting around the base of a bullet will work much better than a hard bullet which is gas cut thus leading the bore.

Commercial cast bullets are often made from linotype because using this material they can supply a consistant product in terms of weight and appearance but if the finished product is not the proper fit for your particular barrel you will join the legions who claim cast bullets are no good. You should cast your own and fit them to your gun.

While I have a good supply of linotype I feel it is wasted in the big bores which were designed to operate at 1300fps (1600fps express). These old slow velocity cartridges have taken more game than any of the modern speedsters so I feel comfortable in the original design range especially in the old guns.

Yes the new guns such as the Marlins will take more pressure but then you're looking at cartridges designed for black powder which have excess capacity for smokeless powder unless you go for a case full of surplus airplane cannon powder and the headaches that can develop such as duplex loads to avoid unburnt powder interfering with chambering or consistant accuracy.
 
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