Favourite recipe for a modern 45-70 Marlin!

[Sinawalli]

Looking at getting my 45-70 reloaded, and would like some info on what will provide about 1900fps, in a 400 gr. round. Thanks!

[Cariboo]

There are several recipes here

[The 'Hummer']

Jacketed? Something that works well in my Marlin 1895GS is the 400gr Speer Flat-SP with 53grs of IMR 3031. A couple of my shooting buddies are getting good results using IMR 4198. Cast bullets, a whole other ball game. What gun are you shooting?

[Sinawalli]

A 1895 Marlin, with a 22" barrel!

[leonard]

good groups with 43g H4198 and 405grain hardcast bullet. 1800fps crono'd

poor results with Reloader 7, IMR 4064 , and IMR 4198 but these are all with hardcasted bullets and have been praised over and over with jacketed 45-70.

remember FPS is not a concern with this gun.

I shoot BlackPowder "Pyrodex(SP)" in my 45-70 aswell ,and its probly moving around 1200ish feet per second if im lucky . with a hard cast bullet i tested penetration on plank's the bullet penetrated about 2 feet of wood before stoping the bullet had little to no mushrooming though and 100% retention so the penetration could probly be thanked to the hardness of the cast.
btw ive had good acuracy with the pyrodex sligltly compressed.

But my point is if the bullet is acurate its going to stomp a big hole in any animal it hits reguardless of big speed or not.
get a acurate load tested in your gun.

[Sinawalli]

What's the difference between jacketed and hard cast? What are some brand names? Thanks!!

[leonard]

jacketed are copper jacket bullets with soft lead in the center for big expansion. with less leading.

cast can be soft to hard bullet barn are a example of hard bullets. they do not expand they do however drive a 0.458 diam bullet which imo doesnt need the expansion anyways . basicly pick a bullet and do loads for it test light to max loads and see what shoots well.

[Sinawalli]

Leonard: Thanks for the info! From what I gather, it's like asking what goes further after impact? A Honda Civic going 100 mph, or a semi trailer going 60 mph! Faster speed doesn't mean better penetration! That right? Can you give me a couple of brands of hard cast bullets? Thanks again for the info!!

[leonard]

Sinawalli your right and with a 400ish gn bullet you can expect loss of accuracy over 1800 with most of the bullets if seen.

that said there are things to consider.
if you go jacketed you can typicaly push them fairly fast.
with cast ive found with a gas check they can be pushed harder more accurately than without. and are cleaner

1400-1600 with non gas checks is about your key speed zone.
with gas check you can start just as low from what ive seen and push it about 200fps faster acurately my limited testing of jacketed shows about the same results as a Gas checked hard cast bullet and posibly slightly more acurate .

seeing as i do not wish to have the expansion of the jacked bullet i went with the 405 gn Gas checked bullets from the bullet barn and they have been verry good for me.

main thing is with what ever bullet you decide on find the most accurate load and use it because its going to kill. my main reason for going with a Gas check was because i have more room to play with a extra 200fps of acurate shooting. aswell the gas checks are good at slower speeds aswell makeing them my choice of bullet.

and like i said below 43gn of H4198 seem to be great

[josquin]

Originally Posted by Sinawalli

... That right? Can you give me a couple of brands of hard cast bullets?...

Check out "thebulletbarn.com". Really nice folks and make an excellent product, including several bullets for the 45-70. If you want to drive them fast, you'd be wanting the 405 gr. gas-checked ones. (But bear in mind that Brian Pearce of Rifle Magazine took a Cape buffalo with a 405 gr. hard-cast 45-70 bullet @ around 1800 fps., so more than that probably isn't needed!)

Stuart

[The 'Hummer']

For a jacketed bullet I favour the Speer 400gr FN but I have recently picked up some Hornady 350gr FP interlock that I plan to try/use primarily in my 1895 Marlin GS, .45-70. I may try them in my .458wm as well.
I haven't tried them yet but looking forward to getting some of the 405gr Remington bullets to try. They're supposed to be pretty good.
For cast bullets, I get mine locally from a guy in Duncan. He has quite a selection, quality is good and so is the price. If you're looking for a source of supply for cast bullets, give him a call, Doug Green, (250)748-2604. I no longer do any casting but get all my cast 'stuff' from him.