Reloading 45-70

To seat and crimp with the seating die during the same operation, first start out by backing out the seating die enough so that crimping does not occur. Now with a round in place, adjust the seating stem to achieve the desired seating depth. With that done, now back off the seating stem enough to prevent further seating and slowly turn down the seating die in increments until final crimping is obtained. With the round still in the crimped position, turn down the seating stem until contact is made with the crimped bullet. Now both proper crimping and seating depth should be coordinated to occur during the same operation. However for a final seating adjustment, the seating stem may need to be lowered slightly for proper seating depth.
 
Condor, you made that simple as could be. Lees instructions aren't much to be desired but they will get you started. Is the roll crimp sufficient for the lever? It appears the factory Remington is taper crimped. Mine shot fine but with only one bullet in it. Was wondering if it would jam the bullets in the tube deeper with just a roll crimp. It all seems tight enough. But be only loaded one at a minimum charge. Even at that with 3031 I had a very full case of powder.
I guess next question is how to tell if there is enough crimp.
 
Yes, apply a fairly heavy roll crimp into the bullet's crimping groove or cannelure, depending on the bullet type you are using. It happens that the 360 gr moly lead bullet that I use for the .45-70 does not have a crimping groove so I apply a heavy taper crimp. To repeat what others have said regarding this near .458 cartridge, try a max load of Trail Boss powder, if you can find it, for pleasant all day shooting. The max load is simply to fill the case to the level where the base of the bullet will be after seating and not be concerned with grain weight. I say max load in order to obtain optimum velocity which probably improves accuracy. I use the same bullet and max TB powder charge for comfortable reduced .458 rounds.
 
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Your advise on crimping and seating worked great. Does this crimp look sufficient. One on the neck was from factory. Mine is in the cannilure. Pushed bullet down on bathroom scale to 60 lbs. it didn't move. If you can see the picture. It's seated .001 deeper than Hornady requests. That was me I'm sure.
 
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I would say that the round looks good but perhaps doesn't require that much crimp but still good. I seat and crimp in the same operation with all rifle rounds that need crimping while sometimes using separate operations with handgun rounds.
 
Thanks for all the help Condor Bravo. I'll lighten the crimp up on the next ones. I was able to seat and crimp this one in one operation from your previous instructions. Isn't going to be as hard as I thought. Even at lowest charge it seems to have a little more recoil and punch to it than the factory ammo. I keep seeing a lot of people saying to use Reloader 7 but I can't find any. I googled Hodgdon and for my 300 grain bullet weight IMR 3031 was only powder I had. For 350 it showed IMR 4064 and IMR 4166 which I have both. I'll get some decent load worked out. This is a 22 inch so I'm looking at a Vortex crossfire II in a 1-4 with lighted dot if needed. 30 mm tube may be overkill but a little more light would be nice. Eye relief is around 4.5 inches according to Vortex. Would like the Leupold but it's 3 times the price. Vortex has done me well so far.
 
For either cast or jacketed 300gr at Trapdoor pressures (i.e., classic load):

Lyman 49th/mod
MIN: AA5744 29.0gr/1,263fps/13,300CUP
MIN: AA5744 32.5gr/1,450fps/17,300CUP
 
Kosh, I found some reloade 7 today. I didn't get it yet but he's holding me 2 lbs until Monday. They are closing up for the holidays. Only info I could find was in a Lee manual and load book they had in the store. I snapped some pictures of the pages to print out but it's only for 300- 350 grain bullets. No load for a 405 grain. The accurate powders you listed and ones in my Hornady manual he said he hadn't got any in over a year.
 
Wendy...
Low pressure (Trap Door) loads for:

Cast 405gr Lyman #457193/OAL 2.55"
RL-7: 37.0gr - 39.0gr / 1,534fps - 1,578fps
Lyman 49th

Jacketed 400gr FlatSP Speer #2479/OAL 2.54"
RL-7: 41.0gr - 45.0gr / 1,493fps - 1,681fps
Speer 13th

No filler req'd



.
 
Thanks Mehavey , I did notice that on the 300 grain even a max load for the 300 cast in my lever gun is almost 8-10 grains less powder than the IMR 3031 I've used. More bang for the buck. 10 grains may not seem like much but adds up after a few hundred rounds when powder prices keep going up.
 
There is DEFINATELY a cost savings in reloading the 45/70. The dies will be paid for in pretty short order, or you can spend the money for a Lee Loader if you're not loading high volume.

I run 48 grains of H4895 (which is a powder is use for other calibers as well) and 405 grain Missouri Bullet Company #1 Buffalo cast bullets. Remington 9 and 1/2 primers. Bullet seated to the cannalure and heavily crimped.

Out of my 18" guide gun, it will shoot 2" groups at 100 yards with iron sights, runs over my chrony at about 1350 fps, leaves a nice lube ring at the end of the barrel with no leading, and it has killed more deer out to 100 yards than any other caliber I have ever owned. Recoil is that of about a 20 gauge slug.

I have also loaded Hornady 300gr XTP to 1800 FPS just for "fun" made it through the 10 or so I loaded that way and opted out of the recoil side of that round.

There are reduced velocity/pressure/recoil loads published using some pistol powders (Titegroup maybe, it escapes me at the moment) that will still push the 405 to velocities that make whitetail deer dead. That's good for folks who have injuries or are recoil sensitive.

I can't say enough about how much I love to reload and shoot this 150ish year old caliber. It's actually pretty versatile, but reloading is a MUST if you want to capitalize on the caliber.
 
I'm just using a single stage press but it's good enough. Reload to relieve stress as much as to make cheaper accurate ammunition.
 
My go to for high volume 45-70 loads. I cast my own 405 grain hollow base with a Lee single cavity mold. Nice mild loads I can shoot as many as I have the brass for. My loads are for fun at the range.
 
Scratch the data in my last post. Just looked after I thought about it for a while............... I load 48 Grains of Benchmark over the MBC 405. H4895 is another powder I sometimes use in 45/70, but not near as much as Benchmark. They both produce decent velocities (1200-1400 ish) with mild (for caliber/weight) recoil.
 
You may want to run your own numbers, but when I run them I get break-even at quite a bit less than 100 rds. I have not seen any .45-70 factory ammo that's much less than $2 a round, and I think you should be able to load it, using factory jacketed bullets for a 1/3 of that easily.

At the moment, I'm as miserably inaccurate with factory as I am with handloads, but I can miss my target far more economically. :D
 
You may want to run your own numbers, but when I run them I get break-even at quite a bit less than 100 rds. I have not seen any .45-70 factory ammo that's much less than $2 a round, and I think you should be able to load it, using factory jacketed bullets for a 1/3 of that easily.

At the moment, I'm as miserably inaccurate with factory as I am with handloads, but I can miss my target far more economically.
Click to expand...

What he said...............and since it's low pressure, case life is great. I'm well beyond 15 loadings on my original brass with no signs of problems.
 
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