Hi y'all!

Recently I bought myself a used Contender with 4 bbls, one of which was one in .45-70. The dealer gave me a cardboard box with a lot of goodies in it, including dies, and about 30 cartridges. "Good luck with this...since I don't know nothing about loading for a Contender", the guy said.
Now I am running low on ammo, so I need to get started reloading. But I don't have any data, except those mentioned in the reload manuals. However, these manuals all state that any loads in them are meant for modern rifles.
Now, I can handle a bit of recoil, but I don't like breaking my hand, so the question is: can anyone recommend me a load for a 14" bbl? (Current ammo has 40 grains of an unknown nitro powder behind a 340gr cast bullet, but I'd also like to load the 300gr Hornady jacketed hollow point since I already have a box of those.) Thanx in advance!

Hornady (about $45.00 or $50.00) and Lyman manuals both show loads for Contenders for some calibers, but T/C makes a reloading manual (I paid $18.00 for mine about 2 years ago)) strictly for Contenders and has loads for all of the calibers they have chambered. It shows a variety of loads (more than you will find in any other manual) for Contenders from several bullet and powder manufacturers. You can order one from Ed's Contenders.

Hi Max:

Welcome to AR! I have been loading the 45-70 in a Contender since I found an old SSK barrel at a gun show sixteen years ago. If you like jacketed bullets the Remington 300gr JHPs are about the same price for 100 as the others are for 50, $13.99 at Cabela's. The flat point 405s are a dollar more. Another company may have even a better price. My favorite load for that bullet (300 gr.) is 46 gr. IMR4198 with a CCI 200 primer. No excessive pressure signs and very accurate.
I've had women probably as light as 120 lbs. really enjoy it. All say that it is much more tolerable to shoot offhand than from a bench, and I agree.

I have a 12" hunter barrel with the muzzle brake in .45-70 for my Contender. I had the same problem finding load info at first. The Lyman 47 manual has Contender loads, and I think that the Sierra manual does as well. Any load info that says it's safe in trapdoor rifles should be safe in the Contender. I've only been reloading for 3 years, so I'm a pretty conservative/inexperienced reloader still and I'm not looking to hot-rod my handloads. So far, the trapdoor loads have been good enough for me.

I've had excellent results with Re 7 in my .45-70. I don't have a chronograph, so I don't have exact velocities. I typically find a start load and just work up until I get good groups, which hasn't been very hard. I figured that even my starting loads with a 350gr or 405gr bullet will out perform a .44mag.

At the moment, I'm using 38gr of Re 7 with a Cast Performance 405gr WLNGC. Groups are good, recoil (with the muzzle brake) is nothing to worry about, penetration is pretty impressive, and terminal performance on the porcupine I hit with this load was impressive at 30yds. This load comes from the Lyman manual. I think this load should be close to 1350fps from my short barrel. The Lyman manual list velocities for both the 10" and 14" Contender barrels.

I'm not sure how you feel about factory ammunition, but try the Federal 300gr .45-70 load. They use a 300gr Speer Hot-Cor. This is still the most accurate load in my gun. It will consistantly do 1", 3 shot groups at 100yds from the bench. Good luck, and enjoy. This is a fun round in a Contender.
Andrew

I load the 300 gr. bullet over 54 gr. of H322. This is a low end load but in my 24" barrel duplicates the factory 1800 fps 300 gr. load. It is pretty accurate. I think it takes some experience to handle this cartridge in a really light weight gun (my Contender carbine weighs 6 lbs even, with scope).

44 grains of Re7 and a Hornady 300 grain H/P chrono's at 1670 - 1700 out of my 15" Encore. Some of the loads in the T/C manual run up to the mid-range Marlin loads.

One of the best powder for the 45/70 is

N-133 63.2gr you will get 1997fps out of a 12"bbl and 2025fps out of a 14"bbl. This is the load I use in my gun