[Bob96]

I have a T/C Contender in 45/70 with a 10" brl. It is Not fun to shoot with factory loads. How mild can I load for just fun and plinking with wither 300gr or 405gr. Lead bullets? Do people still use a filler like Dacron in large cases using small powder charges to take up the extra space and keep the powder near the primer? What powder would be best for light loads in a short barrel? I don't care about velocity out of the short brl. 800 pr 900fps would be fine for me. I am looking for loads even milder than the avaiable Cowboy loads for the 45/70.

 

[stimpylu32]

Bob96

I use the 405 cast bullet over 12 grains of Unique , no filler needed either , shoots very well in my 22" Handi rifle , recoil is on par with the 410 . Great fun / plunking load and will work on deer sized game out to 100 yards .

stimpy

 

[castaway]

stimpylu32 is on track. Make sure you use a cast bullet at that low of a velocity. Jacketed bullets run the risk of leaving the jacket in the barrel.

 

[lloyd smale]

stimplys got it 8-10 grains of unique. No filler needed. any 300-405 bullets. Another fun load is a 300 cast with 4 grains of bullseye. About like shooting a 38 special rifle.

 

[castaway]

Lloyd, what's the report like with the load you mentioned? I've been interested in loading some "cast sneeze" rounds for a while now.

 

[EsoxLucius]

http://www.gmdr.com/lever/lowveldata.htm

 

[Bob96]

I appreciate the input. I am surprised that you can use 8-12 grains of Unique is such a large case without any sort of a filler?

 

[stimpylu32]

Bob96

I have walked for over a mile with the muzzle down , pulled up and shot , it showed no signs of being pos. sensitive . Also have used this load at the range were the rounds were in the box bullet down , just load and shoot .

I just love this load . ;D

stimpy

 

[lloyd smale]

its really quiet. Virtually no recoil. Weve shot them down to 3 grains and the bullets still allways made it out the barrel. Kind of comical if you cast them out of pure and shoot them at steal you get big flat hunks of lead.

Lloyd, what's the report like with the load you mentioned? I've been interested in loading some "cast sneeze" rounds for a while now.

 

[Bob96]

I have some .459 cast lead bullets with gas checks. Would these be ok for use in the light 45/70 loads? How heavy a crimp to use with say 10gr. of Unique?

 

[lloyd smale]

as long as there crimped enough to not allow the bullets to move when running through the action they should be fine. Played some with the light bullseye load with just dumping in powder with a dipper and seating a bullet by hand without even sizing and they worked fine out of single shots.

 

[GregP42]

I wonder if these loads would be enough to bump up a paper patched bullet in the 45/70? Right now I am using 42gr of IMR4895 behind a 500gr paper patched 30-1 slug, it does good and shoots ok, but it is a little heavy on the recoil end. Need to find something that shoots easy, too bad we can't use rifles to hunt here......

Greg

 

[Bob96]

Do you use Pistol primers in these light loads or standard Rifle Primers? Any problem in using case check bullets for these loads/ Not needed but have these on hand.

 

[stimpylu32]

Bob

Standard large rifle primers work just fine in the light loads and as for the GC bullets i see no reason for them to not shoot well .

stimpy

 

[jengel]

I use 12gr of Unique with a 300gr Oregon Trail cast bullet. Velocity is about 1200fps at my location of 3200' on a 65deg day out of my Marlin Guide Gun. They are really nice loads. My 11 year is going to use it this season for deer.

 

[SneakyPete]

Try some Trail Boss. You can down load and not need a filler. Works good in my Shiloh .45-70 with 405gr. http://www.imrpowder.com/data/rifle/trailboss-oct2005.php has data.

 

[Blowtorch53]

Hi Bob,

The factory loads for a .45-70 are mild! That is unless you buy the hot stuff from Buffalo Bore or some of those guys. A 10" Contender is never going to be much fun to shoot in .45-70 unless you like muzzle blast and recoil. It is an old, old rifle cartridge and it has the capability to be loaded to have power to kill anything that creeps, crawls, or makes a racket. I love shooting pistols and Contenders, but I have to think you could find a better caliber for a 10" Contender than a .45-70. Just my 2 cents!(from a gripy old man)

BT

 

[scout34]

Would any of these loads be safe to use in a trapdoor?

 

[stimpylu32]

scout34

Any of the Unique or Trail Boss loads will be just fine in the trapdoor , also the Remington factory 300 grain ammo as it is rated for trapdoor rifles .

 

[scout34]

Thanks. I'm gearing up to start loading for 45-70 and need some fun plinking loads.