I would like to load my 45-70 bullets out farther but the relatively short chamber on my Ruger #1 is cramping my style. How difficult is it to make the throat deeper? Is this a job that can be done with a hand reamer?

Andy

Had mine done by JES reboreing, even got a little extra. Now I need to find a seater for pointed bullets

Just looked at 3 Ruger 45-70 barrels; they have no throat at all.
Anyway, yes you can do it with a piloted throated by hand. Can buy one, or rent one. Child's play.
I have a reamer with a 1.5 degree leade and a .050 throat which helps a lot with seating bullets out; depends on how long you want to go.
Seater for pointed bullets; anyone with a lathe can make you one, or you can use epoxy clay and make one yourself from another shaped seater; that is easy to do as well; push the bullet into the die, in the press, with the compound in the seater plug. Put some wax on the bullet so it won't stick.

45-120 NE

quote:

Just looked at 3 Ruger 45-70 barrels; they have no throat at all.

No crap I was surprised how deep I had to seat the bullets for my no.3.

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
Just looked at 3 Ruger 45-70 barrels; they have no throat at all.
Anyway, yes you can do it with a piloted throated by hand. Can buy one, or rent one. Child's play.
I have a reamer with a 1.5 degree leade and a .050 throat which helps a lot with seating bullets out; depends on how long you want to go.
Seater for pointed bullets; anyone with a lathe can make you one, or you can use epoxy clay and make one yourself from another shaped seater; that is easy to do as well; push the bullet into the die, in the press, with the compound in the seater plug. Put some wax on the bullet so it won't stick.

Thanks!

Realize that in the 19th century, the original throat for most cartridges was zero; the rifling starts immediately after the case neck. If and when they wanted more powder capacity for a given case length, the bullets would be made bore size and were only seated into the case a very small amount. Most Sharps' cartridges were made like that. The black powder impulse expanded the bullets up to groove diameter. Not suitable for military use, so the 45-70 bullets are groove size, but the front part of the bullet is less than bore size. And powder charges were routinely compressed too.
It is only us modern shooters that want a groove size bullet to be seated longer. So we invented the longer and tapered throats and leades. None of that is original.