I just got this rifle and already know I am going to enjoy shooting it. I'm fairly new to reloading and would like to know what powders would really take advantage of the 32" barrel to give maximum velocity on 350 gr jacketed bullets and 460 gr cast bullets.
Also has anyone added shot to the 7/8" hole in the back of the butstock or any other recoil reducers? I get enough recoil from my marlin guild gun and would like to make this one a bit heavier maybe 9 lbs or so to soften the kick.

I bought one of these for my Dad as a playtoy. the gun does not kick bad at all and I amazed by it's accuracy. I am not sure about his reloads. Most of them a gaschecked cast bullets around 400-550 grains though.

I have 2 of em, a .45-70 and 45-120, I have a lead filled pipe that just fits in the stock bolt hole, I also have a C&H MRR that works even better and only weighs 1 lb compared to the 2 lb lead pipe, so it makes for easier carry if you want to leave it in all the time.

Of course shooting trapdoor loads aren't going to have much recoil, but get up into the mid levergun or ruger levels and you're gonna want to reduce felt recoil. I have a Galco slip-on pad that works great, I also wear a Past Magnum shoulder pad and sit as upright as possible at the bench. I've shot a bunch of 525gr and 555gr gas checked cast bullets at 1800 fps in the .45-120 from the bench, recoil is stout, but tolerable.

Max loads of IMR4198 will get close to 2700fps with the 300gr Speer and 2250fps for the 400gr Speer out of the 32" barrel in the .45-70.

You'll find that the throats are short on the BC limiting case capacity for the heavier bullets, I hand throated all 3 of my H&R .45-70s so I could load full length to take full advantage of case capacity.

I also have 2 NEF Handi-Rifles in .45-70, one of em has a BC stock set on it that I cut the butt off and added a Limbsaver pad, it shoots the 405gr Rem SP at 2000fps with a modest load of H4895, felt recoil with the Limbsaver and MRR is nil even from the bench.

Tim

think I could get the 460gr cast performance up to 2000 fps out of this gun safely?

quote:

Originally posted by gohip2000:
think I could get the 460gr cast performance up to 2000 fps out of this gun safely?

No!!!

I appreciate the responses. I keep learning more and more from this forum and the marlin forum. Thanks for the blunt response ireload2. I am fairly new to reloading and ask a lot of questions, but I dont practice all the responses I get from others. I'm a common sense guy that understands science a lot and have never had any accidents because I trusted someone's word over my common sence. I've done a lot of things that could get me killed if I've made a miscalculations, but took the safer judgment and have seen others make mistakes. I wanted to see if anyone had practiced taking the 460 gr cast to 2000 fps and the only real response I got was NO!. I'ld be happy with the 460 gr at 1500 fps, but just ask for the highest level as a more accurate judgment point to round down to. I've been following these forums for about 2-3 years to learn as much as possible, and don't plan on injuring myself now. I tryed one load of 49.3 grains of benchmark in the never fired starline nickel cases with the 460 gr cast and it fired ok but the lever on my marlin was loose after the shot. I tryed one more and the same thing. I tryed a third and the case showed obvious pressure signs and I said no more. Some have said of getting a 300 gr thin jacketed bullet up to 2650+ fps with the buffalo classic and I'm not willing to take it to that level, but I would like to use the 32" barrel to get more velocity than normal. Realistically I would like to get 300gr jacketed bullets up to 2450-2500 fps, 350 gr jacketed bullets up to 2200 fps and heavy cast loads up to 1800-1900 fps. So far H4198 seems to be the powder for this rifle, but feel free to interject, Especially if something I'm saying sounds unsafe to a well knowledged reloader. My spelling isn't great, but don't let that fool you. I'm very precise when it comes to science and common sense.
One last thing, the reason I like the 460 Cast Performance so much is because it seems to shoot accurately at almost any load and it is supposed to take any NA animal with a well placed shot.
Again thanks for the responses(AKA your time).

I had a buffalo calssic in 45-70 a few years back. I like it-but somebody wanted it more than I did-and I sold it.

I filled the buttstock hole with a plastic baggy of #9 lead shot to add weight. It helped, but not enough.

I bought a new medium brown monte carlo laminated stock set from NEF. THAT made a difference. Put my eye in perfect alignment with the scope, and the butt's parallel cheekpiece to the bore took the bite out of the recoil. I also came with a factory installed thick rubber recoil pad-much more comfortable than the curved steel buttplate of the original buffalo classic's stock. Ouch.

I shot 350 and 400 grain jacketed with stiff loads of 4198 and 3031. I also shot some 330 grain cast (Lyman hp Gould bullet). All were very accurate, to the tune of sub 1.5 moa, and sometimes shaded 1 moa. Impressive.

I know in the past that the barrels for both the NEF handi-rifles and the Wesson & Harrington 38-55 and 45-70's were made by Green Mountain Barrels in New Hampshire. Green Mountain makes excellent barrels. I have several of their muzzle loading barrels on my flintlock rifles for competitive flintlock shooting up here in New England.

The barrels are rifled at GM, but NEF chambers and fits them (at least that what USED to happen before Marlin bought them). That's why those NEF rifles shoot so well. I called both NEF and Green Mountain to confirm this (if Green Mountain was making the barrels) back ~ 8 years ago.

I've read that some barrels are now "microgroove", so perhaps Marlin is making their own barrels for these rifles.

If you are interested in that laminated stock set, let me know. I kept it. It is as new, never hunted/in the field, and has only been to the range 2 times. $80 shipped to lower 48.

pontoon@adelphia.net

quote:

Originally posted by gohip2000:
think I could get the 460gr cast performance up to 2000 fps out of this gun safely?

I don't think you can get enough powder in the case to do that without throating the rifle, and then you'd be purely on your own with no data to work from. FWIW, working with my .405 Winchester H&R, I started getting failures to eject well before I reached any excess pressure signs, it's kind of a built in warning sign of the H&R action, I believe the same would happen with the .45-70 at near max load levels.

If you want to learn what safe levels you can load the .460gr CP to, give Cast Performance a call and ask em, they have provided pressure tested 405gr CP load data for the 1895 that isn't published, they should have data for the 460gr also.

Tim

http://www.castperformance.com/?uid=170&page=1653

Gohip,
I have loaded for several of these rifles.
In my own I use the barnes 350 X with 51.1 gr of IMR 4198. I generally get 2350 fps with no pressure signs. The recoil is not light but you are shooting a 45 cal. You could get a little more but I am happy with the performance at this point. And the downrange performance of the X makes a big difference to the RN Hornady I shoot in my lever guns.

Have Fun