Have reproduction,H&R, TD rifle and trying to develop good moderate loads for the rifle. Preferred bullet is Rem. 405's, but have available Hornady 350's as well plus various cast lead/GC bullets. Realize limitations of the TD design and don't plan on pushing it's limitations and looking for velocity in the range of 1400-1600fps. Any suggestions or guidelines much appreciated.

My friend has an original TD that the gunsmith loaded him rounds for. They were the 405 gr boolit with 4198. Darn thing would smack me in the cheek and the boolits shot very high at 50 yd's.
I loaded him a bunch of 500 gr Gov't boolits with 3031. (.460" from a Rapine mold.) I used 20 to 1 lead, tin. I don't remember the charge, maybe 38 gr, he moved out of state so I can't check.
I kept looking at them sideways after the 405's knocked my bridgework loose. But recoil was mild and they did not hurt my cheek. They shot right to the point of aim at 50 yd's and were very accurate. He shot a pile of deer with those boolits.
I tried my 45-70, 317 gr revolver boolits and poked a single hole with 5 shots at 50 yd's but they hit very low so they were no good for hunting. Fixed sights can be a pain.
I fell in love with that rifle and wish he would sold it to me. Deer blaster delux!

Lyman's 48th Reloading Handbook's 45-70 M1873 section will give you lots of data for your TDs for both the jacketed and cast bullets.

If you want to replicated the original M1873 black powder ammo then I'd suggest getting Wolf's book on loading for the m1873 trapdoors (Google for the address to order it).

I load for 2 H&Rs (OM & LBH) and enjoy shooting them often. I mostly use cast bullets but the nice thing about the H&Rs is the .458/.459 bores that are made of modern steels for jacketed bullets also. Remington factory 405 gr ammo runs 1460 fps out of my OM. I use 4895 with R-P or Speer 405 gr bullets to duplicate that. Suggest you start at 40 gr and work up in 1 gr increments until 1400-1460 fps is reached out of your H&R TD. Do not exceed 48 gr of 4895.

I also use 4895 with 400-415 gr cast bullets. With comparable cast bullets start at 34 gr and work up in 1 gr increments until a velocity of 1350 fps is reached. I use a 1 gr filler of dacron over the powder for these cast bullet loads only. This velocity duplicates the old M1873 velocity to which the sights are regulated (M1873 sights).

BTW; I have an Oehler M43 PBL and have pressure tested these 4895 loads. They are well within acceptable pressures for the M1873 TD.

Larry Gibson

I don't know what the H&R has for sights but you will have to work loads so the boolit shoots to the sights if the sights are fixed.
Once you find that, the gun is a ball to shoot.

Hello,
Thanks for the informative replys, good sound info. My H&R is the OM and the rear is a basic tang mtd. type sight w/ friction adjustment, up or down, of the disc. Should I take note of which 4895, IMR or Hogdon?? Again, thanks.

martin

quote:

Darn thing would smack me in the cheek and the boolits shot very high at 50 yd's.

The rifle as most military rifles have a zero of 100 to 200yds. That is my best guess. I just wish I could come accrost a repro TD with out braking the bank.

quote:

Originally posted by MFD:
Hello,
Thanks for the informative replys, good sound info. My H&R is the OM and the rear is a basic tang mtd. type sight w/ friction adjustment, up or down, of the disc. Should I take note of which 4895, IMR or Hogdon?? Again, thanks.

martin

Doesn't really matter which 4895 as you should be working up the load with the flavor you have.

I put an Original M1879 Type III rear sight and a Beech front sight on my H&R OM. I also took the pistol grip off the LBH and put it on the OM. This makes the OM about as close to an original for shooting as possible. I also used a checkering file to make lines on the left side of the tang sight for consistant elevation reference. I can go from a 100 yard zero to a 1000 yard zero and the other yardages inbetween with repeatable accuracy. It really makes for a fine shooter. Considering the cost of an original OM not to many who own them shoot them as often as I shoot mine.

Larry Gibson

Hello Larry,
Yes, with your additional sights and the LBH pistol grip you would definitely have as close to an original as possible. Have not had the time to shoot mine yet, but going to do so this weekend weather permitting. Prior to buying my HR/OM did some research on them and found that fewer than 500 OM's were produced by Springfield Armory/Mass. and not long ago one sold at an auction for something above $50,000.00 As you mentioned, doubt few are shot on a regular basis.
Take care,

martin

45-70 Gov't Trapdoor loads.
350 GR. VARGET 54.0
350 GR. H4895 53.0
405 GR. VARGET 50.0
405 GR. IMR 4064 49.5
405 GR. IMR 4895 48.5
405 GR. H4895 48.0
405 GR. IMR 3031 48.5
405 GR. Benchmark 50.0
405 GR. IMR 4198 32.0
405 GR. H4198 31.0
Source: Hodgdon