I have a fairly new Ruger #1 in 45/70 .

My only problem is that I have to seat bullets deaper than recommended in loading data in order to keep them off the lands .
The Hornady 350 RN has to be seated to 3.500" or it digs into the rifling .

Has anybody tried to remedy this by chamfering the lands or deepening the throat?
Or should I just accept it and keep compressing my loads ?

If this topic was dealt with before please direct me to the link .

Thanks
Ben

Yspen,

I had the very same problem with my winchester 1886. My gunsmith was able to order a throat reamer to increase the throat distance, I can now shoot 500gr bullets without seating deeper into the case. I think (?) it was a Clymer (brand?) reamer? Don't know who he ordered it from, maybe check Brownell's.

I had the same problem with my #1 45-70, and it would not even chamber a cartridge with a 400g bullet loaded to factory o.a.l. specs. I had my gunsmith throat it where it would seat the 350 Speer to the rear cannelure and it is now a less than MOA shooter.

Big Bore & Sumbubba

Thanks for the reply - seems I'm about to visit the gunsmith . I'm just delighted something can be done .

Ben

Interestingly, the early .45/70 No. 1's were alleged to have a "ball seat" ("were throated for") the 500-grain cast bullet of the origninal gov't. black-popwder load shape. But mine didn't!! It is also pretty short, but I was able to use the 405-grain Rem. bullets seated to the cannelure. There must be a real variation in No.1 .45/70's!!!

I have a stainless #1, and I ran into the same problem when I was loading 400 grain speer bullets. If you look in their manual, it gives somewhat of an explanation. When they developed the load data for earlier manual, they were able to seat the 400 grain bullets to the rear cannelure. In manual #12, they say that the current #1's will only chamber a round if it is seated deeper to the front cannelure. However, when I loaded for mine, that would not even work, and I had to seat the bullets past the front cannelure and barely crimp the neck tight to the bullet surface (no cannelure to crimp into).
So, bottom line is, Ruger keeps making the 45-70 chambers shorter and shorter. Is there a logical reason they are doing this? I have no idea.

Wearing out tooling? - Dan