Seating depth in pedersoli sharps 45-70

Garyg

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I am making up some loads for my pedersoli sharps. I haven't shot this gun yet as I just got it in january. I bought some 340 and 405 lee molds. I measured some remington factory ammo at an OAL of 2.530. The lee bullets had the crimp grove at about the same. When I checked the OAL when it was just touching the rifling it was an OAL of 2.710. That is quite a difference. The bullet sticks out quite far ,exposing the top lube band. Does it matter that much? I would like to seat them to the crimp grove.
 
I shoot the 45-70 cartridge in a Buffalo Classic. I load a 535 gr paper patched boolit over 60 grs of fg black powder, the boolit seated to kiss the lands at 2.88" OAL. Lyman's establishes the OAL at 2.550" I also load a 535 gr grease groove boolit over the same BP charge. This load kisses the lands at 2.77" In a single shot rifle, I prefer to seat the boolit out to eliminate the "jump" to engage the rifling. It doesn't matter to me if the top lube groove is exposed. You can adjust your lubrisizer so that no lube is deposited in the top groove. If you're pan lubing, a little less lube in the pan.
I'm sure others will chime in with their own succesfull scenarios.

Mike

45-70_zpsceccdf64.jpg
 
Factory .45-70 ammunition is loaded so it will function in lever action rifles. For single shots you'll need to find the length that provides the most accuracy. That can be anywhere from "jumping" a short distance to engaging the rifling. I shoot mostly black powder and most of my rifles are shot with the bullet well into the lands, or sometimes just touching.

For smokeless, which I don't do a lot of, I've got some loads that shoot well when the bullet touches the rifling but those are light cast bullet loads (loaded to original .45-70 velocity or thereabouts).

Chris.
 
You can see my lube groove. 500 grain bullet over black powder.



In this, just off the lands. Its a Pedersoli Sharps Competition.
 
I will try the 405gr seated out close to the lands. The 340gr I may have to seat shorter as the bullet is a bit short. I am going to use smokless for now as I cannot get black power although I have some pyrodex RS that I may try. I was going to try trailboss or IMR 3031 loaded to trapdoor levels as a start. I gather there is no problem shooting the shorter rounds?
 
My Lee 340gr was loaded for a lever action Marlin Cowboy. Seated right to the crimp groove. Its what I would call a stout load.
The 405gr, 500-F and 500-3R are loaded for a H&R Buffalo Classic and the Pedersoli Sharps Competition. A fair amount of the last lube groove showing.
Waiting for 250 new starline brass to arrive. Never tried starline before. I will be trying IMR 3031 in the future in my H&R Classic. If I can find some local. Trailboss prices up here is nuts!!
Have fun Gary
 
Starline is not bad brass. Definitely harder than WW or R-P though. I did get a batch a couple of years ago that had really thin rims ( 0.055" ). I caught them as I sort brass by rim thickness on some of my rifles.

Chris.
 
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