45-70 Reloading

[Petar]

So I have decided to dive into the world of reloading. I have some Oregon Trail laser-cast 45-70 government (459 Diameter) 405 Grain lead flat nose bullets and need to know at what pressure would one use a gas check to reduce barrel leading. Any help is much appreciated.

 

[iH8DemLibz]

What rifle are you shooting these in?

Based on reloading manuals. Trapdoor, Marlin lever action, or Ruger/Modern?

Hard cast bullets are good to around 1,600 fps before leading is a problem.

 

[Petar]

What rifle are you shooting these in?

Based on reloading manuals. Trapdoor, Marlin lever action, or Ruger/Modern?

Hard cast bullets are good to around 1,600 fps before leading is a problem.

Marlin 1895 sbl

 

[mac1_131]

Assuming trap door here, I shoot mine at 1200 fps 28gr H4198.

Edit - gas check sounds modern to me

 

[iH8DemLibz]

H4895 powder would put you around 1,615 fps.

Also. If that Marlin has a micro-groove barrel, you'll be better off with copper jacketed bullets.

If you have Ballard cut rifling, the lead bullets will work fine. The Ballard cut allows the bullet to bite in better.

 

[Petar]

H4895 powder would put you around 1,615 fps.

Also. If that Marlin has a micro-groove barrel, you'll be better off with copper jacketed bullets.

If you have Ballard cut rifling, the lead bullets will work fine. The Ballard cut allows the bullet to bite in better.

It has a ballard-type cut rifling

 

[byf43]

I've settled on 405 gr Cast Performance LWNGC boolits and Reloader 7 (aka/ RL-7) powder.

40.0 grains is really accurate and yields about 1660 fps out of my 1895G.
(It's also very comfortable to shoot on longer range sessions.)

42.5 grains is also very accurate, but, after about 5 rounds of this, I've had enough.

I picked the RL-7 because it gives good velocities with lower pressures than some of the other powders that I've read about.

Here's a really good article on loading the .45-70 Gov't.

http://www.realguns.com/archives/117.htm

And another:

http://www.realguns.com/loads/4570cast.htm



ETA: I've pushed some of these Cast Performance boolits pretty hard, and have not had any leading. I was VERY surprised to find no leading pushing these "thangs" to near maximum velocities.
The bore cleaned up with a few swabs and Hoppe's #9.

I'm reluctant to try any other brands of boolits.

 

[Petar]

Great info! Thank you fellas