Just finished up shooting some round ball loads in my .45-70 with pretty good results. Load was 4 gr. (used 039 Lee scoop)Red Dot,CCI 300 primer, and thumb seated ball with very little lube smeared on.
I was getting groups of 1.75" at 50 yards using X-Sticks. . No chrono data, but I could see the ball in flight! Noise was just a pop.
Being such a low pressure load, it was very dirty burning leaving the cases all smokey and the barrel littered with unburned powder.
Any suggestions for a cleaner burning load? Bullseye comes to mind, but I'm kinda chicken using that speed of powder in such a large case.-JDL

JDL, The current "Fouling Shot" (#165) has a reprint of an article by cast bullet guru Frank Marshall, Jr. on this very thing. He recommended 3 grs. B'eye for a plinker load and 6 grs. as a maximum or 9 grs. Unique as maximum. Hope this helps, ...Maven

JDL..I've never tried that yet in my 45-70. I was wondering how far into the casing you could actually push that round ball. If it will go quite a ways I would try that as it would be closer to the powder and raise the pressure just a bit. You may find you might have to adjust your charge. In reality it would be like a 45 long colt loaded with a ball depending how far down the ball will go inside the casing without forcing it as to swage it because the inside of the case is tapered. Give is a try and report back.

Joe

JDL....I played with RBs in the 45/70 this summer some.

Here's my data for the 2 and 3 ball load.

457 RB X 2 141.2 gr Unique 12.0 1279 FPS
457 RB X 3 141.2 gr 2400 13.5 1116 FPS

Loading was done with .457" RBs bumped to .458 the dipped in Lee alox lube cut with lighter fluid. It's better to bump them to about .460" and you get better accuracy. As is, I got about a 6" pattern at 50 yards.

I loaded the powder, then started a card wad, then started a ball. The last ball was seated a little more than halfway in the case and a crimp applied. These will feed through a Marlin M1895 45/70.

Power falls off at 50 yards but at 25 yards, they're pretty reliable loads for small game./beagle

a 45-70 RB in pure lead goes what 170 grains? if so, 1200 to 1300 fps would aproximate a 38-40 factory load.

If you want quite RB loads, then try the following. All the fast burning powders need a smaller combustion space to burn efficiently. I use 4 gr of WW 231 with a large rifle primer in all the following cases. Ist type is a .457" ball down near the powder in an unsized case. The case wall taper limits the depth to about halfway into the case. The 2nd and 3rd types use a foam egg carton wad seated to 1/4" above the powder charge. It is VERY important that you DO NOT seat the wad on the powder charge! 1/4" above! A .465" RB or the collar button bullet is seated and crimped slightly at the mouth of the case. These loadings shoot to the sights in 22" barrels and shoot slightly higher as the barrel length increases. The second and third types have accounted for alot of squirrles and are good to about 40 yds. The foam wad method was thoroughly tested by Charlie Dell in his book about the modern scheutzen rifle. The wad allows the powder to burn completely and has given zero problems in the last 8 years i have been shooting it.