What are soem extremely light but still safe loads for the 45-70, say for squirrels and smaller game? I saw online where I guy made conicals out of .495 round balls that weighed not quite 200 grains, but I'm not up for that much work.

Thanks for any replies!

Tyler
My understanding is that you are a teenager.
I suspect you have not loaded a long time.
It takes time to develop good safety habits.
Safety habits meaning that 100% of your ammo has to be correct and safe. Everytime all the time, year after year.

The extremely light loads you mention are easy to put together but they use powders that can easily be double and sometimes tripled charged.
Such loads can be found in the Lyman manual.
Last thing you do....always!!!!!!!!!!
Look into the charged cases and make sure none are double charged. If you can't do that 100% of the time don't try those loads.
Being responsible for your own actions and realizing your own limitations is part of being an adult.

Are there any powders that take up alot of space? I've heard of something, Trail Boss or something, I've heard it was almost impossible to double charge with it without overflowing, but never seen it or any load data for it. I've also heard that filling a hollowpoint with crisco or grease turns it explosive, I tried it on coffee cans at 25 yards, NO exit...not sure how thats possible, but the front and sides just dissapeared, it's amazing that none of 300 grains could make it through 6 inches of water.

Some TB data: http://www.imrpowder.com/data/rifle/trailboss-oct2005.php
Way back when CAS started, they allowed rifle calibers to be shot in the general stages. I used to shoot a 1886 in 45-70 w/ a 300grLFP @ 900fps This can be done w/ 9gr of Unique & a 1-2gr Dacron fiber wad tamped on top of the charge. Very accurate, no recoil but a PITA to handload any quantity of ammo using wadding.

quote:

Originally posted by Tyler Kemp:
Are there any powders that take up alot of space? I've heard of something, Trail Boss or something, I've heard it was almost impossible to double charge with it without overflowing, but never seen it or any load data for it. I've also heard that filling a hollowpoint with crisco or grease turns it explosive, I tried it on coffee cans at 25 yards, NO exit...not sure how thats possible, but the front and sides just dissapeared, it's amazing that none of 300 grains could make it through 6 inches of water.

Trail Boss is bulky in comparison to other powders. However it is also relatively fast burning so the charges still take up little space.

SR4759 is very bulky. You can look up IMR data for it.

Burn rate chart
You can see that Trail Boss at #11 is a very fast burning powder.

Western Bullet Company out of Missoula, Mt. Makes a 155g 45-70 collar button for that caliber. I use it on small critters with 12g of bluedot. No recoil and accurate out to @85 yards in my Marlin. If you wanna kill Godzilla they have a 45-70 "Fist of God" bullet that pushes 550 grains.

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

Scroll down to the 45-70 Government data.

FWIW I've used the 405 gr lead bullet with 14.0 grains of Unique as listed on the site Jackfish referenced. It's accurate enough to hit a 6" plate at 100 yds from field shooting stances and probably powerful enough at 1,100fps to kill whitetail at normal hunting ranges.

Muzzle blast is a loud "Crack!" and recoil is a push like a light 20ga shotgun load.

It's enough powder to half fill the case, but you still have to be attentive to not double charging the cases when reloading them.

hth

Thanks for the info guys, 300 grain bullets at 900 fps sounds good, about 8 grains bullseye with the hollowpoint filled with crisco. Sounds good for small game, and I bet without the crisco it would kill a deer if I came upon it during season.

quote:

Originally posted by Tyler Kemp:
Are there any powders that take up alot of space? I've heard of something, Trail Boss or something, I've heard it was almost impossible to double charge with it without overflowing, but never seen it or any load data for it. I've also heard that filling a hollowpoint with crisco or grease turns it explosive, I tried it on coffee cans at 25 yards, NO exit...not sure how thats possible, but the front and sides just dissapeared, it's amazing that none of 300 grains could make it through 6 inches of water.

If i were you,i would get some books on re loading,and read,read,read,and read some more. One just can,t jump into the middle of reloading,get some loads and go for it.One better really know what they are doing.There is a lot of factors involved. I,ve been reloading for 50yrs,and i learn something most everyday. Its is fun,rewarding,and cheaper,but remember the safety issued involved as well. van

Van's right, my usual advice to new reloaders is to go buy and read a good reloading manual.

If you can find it Lyman has published a manual for shooting lead bullets over the years and it's very good. Any of the RCBS manuals are a good place to start for a new reloader too.

IMHO, YMMV and RTFM

If it is "too mich work" to run a .490 or .495 RB into a 458 sizing die one can always just buy .457 RBs and load with them.

I bought a box to play with and have only use 10 or so.

To many project loads and too little time!

Put a lead ball in the mouth of a 45/70 case over 1 gr of Bullseye, and the velocity is so low the ball will bounce off wood.

But the same ball and the same 1 gr of Bullseye with the ball seated down inside the case to compress the powder, will go through an inch of wood. I seat that deep with a pin gauge mounted in a bullet puller die, but you may pound the bullet in with a stick and a hammer.

The interesting thing is that they both make the same pellet gun sound.

Imagine, a gun in your back yard that makes a pellet gun report, and a 45 caliber hole an inch deep in wood. No cats will be safe.

I heard the .457 were too small and left lots of leading in the barrel, how fast could you push them?

Try the .457 round ball, but coat it with some of the Lee liquid alox first (Put them in a baggie and squirt some LLA in the bag, then let dry), and then load them. Should stop the leading. I have heard of others also adding a little lubricant as used in cap and ball revolvers (black powder guns) You can try trailboss. IIRC, its burning rate is about that of Unique. Get some loading manuals, the Lyman has alot of good info. Inspect all of your charges to make sure you haven't double charged a case

I like a 300 gr bullet with 10 gr unique. Use some Dacron filler over the powder to keep it in place. I didn’t have Dacron when I was young but used a half sheet of single ply toilet paper over the powder. They called it my confetti load. Just be verey careful about double charging your case SAFTEY FIRST.
Bill