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Many years ago, Ken Waters and I were talking about loading the .45-70. He had finished his great series of articles in The Handloader/The Rifle. In those articles, he was the first to recognize the inherent strength og the Marlin 336 series. No one has been able to add much, except as new powders came aboard. The class of rifles I will address here are the one's most overlooked by so-called gun writers, the weaker actions. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of fine shootable rifles out there, like 1873/1884 Trapdoor Springfields, Remington Rolling Blocks, Sharps( including conversions), Ballads, etc. Trying to load smokless, with low powder charges, causes many shooters to put these fine rifles back in the rack. For those who do not want to go through the hassle of blackpowder in these rifles, there is an answer....Pyrodex. There are Traditionl Shooters who will still want to use blackpowder, however many don't.
Lets look at methods...Pyrodex Rs, Pyrodex Select, and Pyrodex CTG all load by equal volume as blackpowder. Thats no problem, however modern case for .45-70 have less case capacity than the orignal cases and most bullts of today have crimp grooves deeper that the orignals. I have before me an original 500 gr infantry round ( dated 8-1899)that is 2.8" long, with 0.70" of bullet out of the case. It is loaded with 70 grains of FFg. With modern cases we can't duplicate, but we can come close with 60 grains of any of the three grades, Pyrodex Select, RS, or CTG and one Ox-Yoke .45 cal Wonder Wad with a 500 gr Hard Cast Bullet. For the carbines, I suggest 50 grs of Pyrodex and one Wonder Wad with a 300 gr Hard Cast Bullet. I do not subscribe to using soft lead bullets in these rifles. Rather, slug the barrel and use one of Marshall's bullets @ .002" over geoove size.
For cleaning..forget the old hot water trick and use Thompson/Center Number 13 Bore Cleaner! A good idea, on these older rifles, is to use Flitz on a tight patch to smooth bores up. Give these old "Blasters" a chance and they will"Make Meat" like they did 100 years, or so, ago!
Best Regards from The Hammock....James
(Edited by James Gates at 6:01 am on Jan. 13, 2001)
(Edited by James Gates at 10:24 am on Jan. 13, 2001)
Lets look at methods...Pyrodex Rs, Pyrodex Select, and Pyrodex CTG all load by equal volume as blackpowder. Thats no problem, however modern case for .45-70 have less case capacity than the orignal cases and most bullts of today have crimp grooves deeper that the orignals. I have before me an original 500 gr infantry round ( dated 8-1899)that is 2.8" long, with 0.70" of bullet out of the case. It is loaded with 70 grains of FFg. With modern cases we can't duplicate, but we can come close with 60 grains of any of the three grades, Pyrodex Select, RS, or CTG and one Ox-Yoke .45 cal Wonder Wad with a 500 gr Hard Cast Bullet. For the carbines, I suggest 50 grs of Pyrodex and one Wonder Wad with a 300 gr Hard Cast Bullet. I do not subscribe to using soft lead bullets in these rifles. Rather, slug the barrel and use one of Marshall's bullets @ .002" over geoove size.
For cleaning..forget the old hot water trick and use Thompson/Center Number 13 Bore Cleaner! A good idea, on these older rifles, is to use Flitz on a tight patch to smooth bores up. Give these old "Blasters" a chance and they will"Make Meat" like they did 100 years, or so, ago!
Best Regards from The Hammock....James
(Edited by James Gates at 6:01 am on Jan. 13, 2001)
(Edited by James Gates at 10:24 am on Jan. 13, 2001)