All,
Reloading for a 45-70 in a Marlin 1895 Guide Gun. Lots of conflicting pressure levels and such. What is the pressure level I should use when I go to load. Some show 28,000 and some 35,000 and such. Any advice welcome.

Lastly, if you have a favorite load I'd love to see it.

Thanks and Cheers, Jason

Jason-

I have a Guide Gun too. I've been loading for it for a while. I don't have my data with me right now, but take a look at Hodgdons data. Its been the best that I have found. They list three different loading levels for the 45-70. Trapdoor, Marlin, and Ruger #1. I've had really good luck with H4198. Just make sure that you load for the Marlin's pressure limit and not the Ruger's by accident! The heavy loads will make you smile and hurt at the same time!

Good luck - Gib

The SAAMI specs are 27,000 max. With a new stronger gun you can go safely higher. But one of the limitations is the case , avery thin wall. Ordinary factory loads are about 18,000 BTW. It depends on what you are going to do with it . For deer the factory loads work fine .For elk or moose a 350 Hornady or 400 Speer at about 1850 work well with reasonable pressures .Garrett loads theirs to 35,000 which I would never exceed ( though some do !!) and those rounds will take almost anything , though I think they use thicker cases. It depends on whether you want to keep your gun for a long time ,keep your shoulder for a long time and what you want to shoot.

The new .450 shares the same action, so the case would be your limit. Do believe the folks at marlin, wanted to get more people to shoot there big 1895s just a lot of people looked at the paper ballistics, of the 45-70 and the sammi limits because of a bunch of antiques out there, and decided to lawyer proof the 45-70 by putting a belt on it so you can't put it in a 73 trapdoor. The round is not that new just do a search on 458X2. Very similar and a 45-70 could be rechambered for it. Had a friend that done this with a H&R 158 45-70 20yrs ago. He did however shoot light loads in it, to my knowledge it never blew up. Now the non handloaders have a big bore lever gun as an option with quite good paper ballistics.

Buy the hodgdons #27 and Nosler #5 load books.They list the Marlin 1895 loads.

I push 400 gr Speers @ 1850 fps from my Guide Gun with H335. My load came from the Speer #13 manual 1895 section. Sean

The 45/70 pressure catagories are..Trapdoor,Rolling blocks,antiques etc-28000 CUP. Lever Actions,Marlin 1895-40000 CUP. Modern Actions,Ruger #1s and 3s,bolt actions,etc- 50000 CUP. I use H4198 for jacketed bullets and IMR 3031 for cast. The H4198 burns clean and is the most accurate I'v found but at the cost of added recoil. 3031 is real light recoiling and is accurate but way dirty! If you haven't found it yet,theres plenty of Marlinmaniacs (and tons of good info)at Marlin Talk..
http://www.marlinfirearms.com/
Jeff

[ 11-20-2003, 11:59: Message edited by: jsr ]

A very good load for the .45/70 is the one Elmer Keith used in his 1886 Winchesters. It is 53 grains of IMR 3031 and any 400/405 grain flatnose bullet. This produces between 1750 to 1850 FPS MV, depending on the gun/barrel length. It is a good load in the Marlin. It SHOULD NOT be used in any of the weak-action .45/70'd like the Trapdoor Springfield.

The marlin can take 40000 levels, in my 45-70 GG with 350 or 400 grain bullets this means 2000 FPS Vel. which is max in the 18.5" barrel. My favorite load is 51.8 of RL7 with 350 grain bullets. I do not shoot this load often after zero, its my hunting load only. It is safe but a hard on the gun after repeading firings. To save my gun I only use this load to hunt with.

Hard on the shooter, too. In my earlier 1895 with the hard, curved buttplate with the sharp toe, I've gone back to blackpowder-level loads with light to medium bullets to avoid having all the pretty colors on my shoulder for the next few weeks.