A friend got a 45-70 Handi Rifle and was having marginal luck with accuracy.So I ordered a Lee Loader,some Hornady 300gr HP bullets,and some other little things like trimming system,primer pocket cleaner,inside -outside deburr tool,powder funnel.

After some study on powders elected to use Reloader7.The kit came with a 3.1 powder dipper that I swapped out for a 3.4 dipper.With a level dipper of powder and a lot of practice I could dump 46.5 gr of Reloder7 pretty accurately
every time with the 3.4 dipper.

The day came cold and clear.I trimmed,polished,and reloaded the 10 empties he had using a kinetic bullet puller as a mallet.To which one onlooker was in complete astonishment that I was beating on ammo with a mallet.I was having a ball.The rounds came out beautifully and were very uniform.

We went outside to the bench and I bore sighted his new scope to the rifle @ 50 yds lasered.He said I should shoot first to which I was delighted to do.First two shots were 6" right so we went Left 8 clicks.Fired two more shots...4" right.Moved the scope 4clicks and fired...3"right.16 clicks later I fired and put one in the ten ring.Everyone was excited including myself,then fired 4 more into one ragged hole.I could hardly contain myself as I promised him earlier we would be able to shoot a starling at that distance.He had two factory 500gr loads that I told him we should get rid of.So I shot them at one of the sticky 1" Shoot n See dots....accuracy was terrible.So we went in and reloaded the full dozen empty cases.

When we went back out the owner of the rifle fired two at a 3" Shoot n See just a hair high but touching @50yds.I placed a pumpkin(my favorite targets)at 100 yds lasered.He fired and and made a fine shot.We then placed pumpkins on the bank 187yds lasered and shot the heck out of them with my Garand and a Mosin-Nagant 91/30 in 7.62x54R. We walked down to look at the damage and one pumpkin was unharmed.I suggested that the 45-70 should be used.To everyones delight it made an orange mist upon hitting 3 times in a row.

I had told a co-worker I was gonna give a modern 45-70 an honest test and I`m shocked at what an excellent caliber it is.My hat is off to the Handi-Rifle also.....nice rifle.

With that said,the Lee Loader is one of the coolest reloading tools I`ve used and produced perfect quality ammo.A very fun filled day.

Am gonna try posting pics I took.

46.5gr Reloder7
CCI LR Primer
Hornady 300gr HP
2.545 OAL

I have a handirifle in 45/70.. George gave me a set of dies for it!1

I call it my crackhead bigbore, as I shoot some pretty stiff 405 remington loads from it.

sent it to marlin/nef for the drop-at-heel stock and a trigger job...


haven't put a scope on it, but her last outting (shesh, was it really may?) i was gonging a hanging (and then spinning) railroad plate at 85 yards, every shot...

what a hoot... but, in my hands, it looks like a chipmonk 22...


and will kick the SNOT out of you

jeffe

Yup, they're a hoot to shoot! I started reloading with just the Lee Loader for my 45-70, it was so much fun, I bought 3 more 45-70s, one of em is a Buffalo Classic which is scoped, also have a Buff Classic in 45-120 and 2 of the Handirifles...My hot load is 56.2gr of H4198 and the 300gr Nosler partition @ 2400+fps, it shoots clover leafs at 100yds.









I also have a .38-55 Target that I had rechambered/rebored to .405 Winchester..I handload for em all, all cuz of the Lee Loader!!

quote:

Originally posted by mickberger:
...A friend got a 45-70 Handi Rifle.... I ordered a Lee Loader,some Hornady 300gr HP bullets,...I promised him earlier we would be able to shoot a starling at that distance. ...

Hey Mick, What size Starlings do you all have that need a 300gr bullet?

Congratulations on the fine results.
---

I get a twitchy billfold when I open threads like this - pitiful. Every rifle you all have shown looks great to me, and I don't particularly like Blue & Wood anymore.

You all neeed to take them out, Blast some Bambis and post a good story on Big Game for all of us to enjoy.

Best of luck to all of you.

Hey Hot Core.....wellll,they are pretty large with most males having antlers.Haha.
Mick

Ya oughta' try lightin' off a hot charge of IMR 3031 under a 500 grain round nose bore rider in that Handi Rifle. THAT'S recoil!

Puncher

This sounds REAL familiar! My first handloading experience was with the lee clasic die set loading 8mm mauser shells for my then "new" german war rifle. My brother also had one, it was his components and loader using his kitchen table for a bench. Memory's a bit foggy, but it was around 1963! Not sure what powder,(other than it was IMR), but the bullets were Hornady 170 rn.

After graduating from high school, and a stint in the USAF, I bought a reloading outfit from a co-worker that was going through a divorce. It netted me a slightly used rockchucker, some surplus 4831, primers, bullets and dies for 30-06. I didn't have an 06 but dad did, his was a sporterized springfield.

The first set of dies I bought were for my mauser, I loaded the same 170 rn for it and shot my first ever whitetail buck with it! Also my biggest!

I now have enough equipment in a small bedroom to outfit at least 3 newbies with a loading outfit.

I just bought a lee hand tool, looks like a nutcracker! I sat while watching tv and loaded 45 auto shells, using the dipper supplied with a new 3 die set also from lee. I had some 540,(hs6), powder that would work with the dipper. So he said,(mr. lee). Well the loads were VERY soft, barely operating a stock sprung Springfield Armory 1911-A-1. It might have worked better with jacketed 200 grainers, rather than the lead bullets I was using.

My plans for this loading tool it to be able to develope a range-loading-kit that I can develope loads right at the range. I haven't tried FL sizeing rifle brass yet, that's a project for this winter while tolerating a Wisconsin winter!

I made a bunch of powder drops with the dipper supplied in the kit(I already knew it was a 3.1)but it averaged less than the starting load per dip.So I got the dipper out of my .270 dies.It yielded 46.5gr of RL7 which was where I thought it should be.