Your pet 45-70 loads

Papaclaude

Papaclaude

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Rating - 100%
36   0   0
Location
Ottawa
HI all,

I'd like to know your pet 45-70 loads, for use in a Guide Gun. I'm looking at using 325 gr. FTX, 350 gr. RN and 405 gr. HP cast (WW). I've tried H322, IMR 4166, H4198, Varget and Trail Boss, but haven't found anything that anywhere comes close to the accuracy I can get with factory Hornady LeverEvolution. With those, my little rifle is stupid accurate.
 
I have been working on a load for my sons Marlin guide gun. I have the 22 inch barreled Marlin, the second one I have had, and I wanted a comfortable load we could both shoot.
Factory loads are held to be safe in the old Springfield Trapdoor rifles, which is about 1450 fps with 405 grain bullets. This combination will easily kill any north American game animal.
My current supply of cast bullets for the 45-70 are 420 grain, both plain and gas check. For practical purposes they can be considered as 405 grain, so I just took the flat base variety and worked with these in my rifle. There are many mid burning range rifle powders which work fine, but I just noticed I had some 3031 which I wasn't using in anything else.
I chronographed these bullets with 40 grains of 3031. I don't have the figures in front of me, but I think they were under 1300. So I went to 42 grains of 3031 and got about 1400 fps, with a very comfortable load to shoot, so I went to 42.5 grains and loaded a batch for shooting. They should be good.
Bruce
 
I loaded the 350 grain hornady RN and FP with 52 grains of H4198 and the 405 grain bullet barn gas checked ones at 49 grains along with 420 grain crater lites at 49 grains of h4198. All three had some stink on them and I sure felt the recoil.
 
I use IMR4198 with 415 gr cast and get as good accuracy or better than i have with factory stuff, and i'm driving the bullets a lot faster.

My rifle didn't shoot the light bullets as well as it seems to shoot heavier bullets. Can't say why, just can't argue with the results.
 
Papaclaude said:
HI all,

I'd like to know your pet 45-70 loads, for use in a Guide Gun. I'm looking at using 325 gr. FTX, 350 gr. RN and 405 gr. HP cast (WW). I've tried H322, IMR 4166, H4198, Varget and Trail Boss, but haven't found anything that anywhere comes close to the accuracy I can get with factory Hornady LeverEvolution. With those, my little rifle is stupid accurate.
Click to expand...

:agree:

The Hornady LeveRevolution 325 grain factory FTX ammo is deadly accurate in both my stainless and blue Guide Guns.
We're talking 3 shot key holes @ 100 yards.
I got 20 boxes (@ 20 rounds) of them on sale at $26 per box a while back.
I don't prefer handloads over factory.
I go with what works the best.
 
Gunoholic said:
:agree:

The Hornady LeveRevolution 325 grain factory FTX ammo is deadly accurate in both my stainless and blue Guide Guns.
We're talking 3 shot key holes @ 100 yards.
I got 20 boxes (@ 20 rounds) of them on sale at $26 per box a while back.
I don't prefer handloads over factory.
I go with what works the best.
Click to expand...

That's the size groups I get with the factory stuff, too, but I can't find any of the LeverEvolution around here. I haven't seen a lot of scoped rifles do not much better than that. I want to get a few boxes to keep for hunting, but I'd like to develop a load that is accurate and pretty much at the same point of impact as my factory stuff, just to play with. I was pretty disappointed with Trail Boss and 405's, but I'll have to play around some more.
 
H4831 said:
I have been working on a load for my sons Marlin guide gun. I have the 22 inch barreled Marlin, the second one I have had, and I wanted a comfortable load we could both shoot.
Factory loads are held to be safe in the old Springfield Trapdoor rifles, which is about 1450 fps with 405 grain bullets. This combination will easily kill any north American game animal.
My current supply of cast bullets for the 45-70 are 420 grain, both plain and gas check. For practical purposes they can be considered as 405 grain, so I just took the flat base variety and worked with these in my rifle. There are many mid burning range rifle powders which work fine, but I just noticed I had some 3031 which I wasn't using in anything else.
I chronographed these bullets with 40 grains of 3031. I don't have the figures in front of me, but I think they were under 1300. So I went to 42 grains of 3031 and got about 1400 fps, with a very comfortable load to shoot, so I went to 42.5 grains and loaded a batch for shooting. They should be good.
Bruce
Click to expand...

Are you using pure lead o ralloy? Have you tried them on critters? I loaded up a bunch of 405's (WW), but I shot them when the ground was frozen, and didn't think to dig any out to see if they expanded. I'm a huge fan of pure lead, but I'm concerned about leading, so I just shoot WW stuff. Also, I haven't found any pure lead around for a while, although to be honest, I haven't looked that much. I guess I could work up a load with WW, then when I'm satisfied, cast up a few dozen pure lead boolits, re-check the POI and use the pure lead for hunting. A few rounds of pure lead shouldn't cause any major issues. You've given me food for thought.

I know I had shot a 2-year old black bear with 500 gr. pure lead out of a 45-110 and Pyrodex. Worked great as a tranquilizer gun.
 
I shoot the factory LeveRevolution 325 grain FTX ammo in my Browning BLR '81 takedown in 450 Marlin.
Same superb accuracy but the factory 450 Marlin round pushes the bullets 200 fps faster than the factory 45-70 round does for an impressive ME of over 3500 ft-lbs.
My cousin borrowed my BLR and 3 boxes of factory FTX ammo when he went out to Alberta last fall and dropped a mulie just a tad over 300 yards away.
A 300+ yard kill from a 45 caliber rifle from a new shooter who doesn't purport to be "Quigley" is noteworthy in my estimation.
I'm going to stick with the factory stuff because it outshoots this shooter (me).
The Leupold 2-7x28m "Light Weight" scope is my standard for the Guide Guns and my BLR.
 
buckbrush said:
How come people with Guide guns usually have more than one, are they that addictive? I have had a Cowboy and a few 1895SS 45-70's, maybe I need a Guide gun to?
Click to expand...

I think the 336s and the 1895s guide guns have the smoothest cycling actions of all the leverguns and I own winchester 92s, 94s, 71s and 1886s.
My guide guns will literally digest any configuration of 45-70 ammo.
My winnies are considerably fussier when it comes to ammo feeding.
The marlin rifles are also very accurate, quick pointing and handy to carry in the thick brush.
The 336s and 1895s are also very easy to maintain as a 6 year old kid could disassemble one and put it together.
Not so easy with the more complex winchester actions.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom