Hey all,

Been playing around with my 45/70 loadings and my mass of cast boolits laying around in various coffee cans.....
Has anyone out there played around with the .45 colt type slugs paper patched for the 45/70 rifle?

Just curious... I noted a can full of the Lee 300grn 45 cal slugs I have on hand. I was thinking of paper patching these guys up to snuff to fire out of the rifle. Would appreciate anyone out there that has tried the paper patch routine - results?

I know buying the proper mold is the easiest answer...So please don't go down that road. I already paper patch for other molds. I am more interested in others' experience if there is anyone out there that has tried it for the 45/70.
Be interesting in lighter for caliber results - accuracy, etc.

Thanks for the thoughts and experience -ahead of time....
Eric

Hey all,
Should have mentioned above - these are BP loads in the 45/70. If anyone has experience with smokeless or BP, doesn't matter - Still want to hear about it.....
Thanks

Eric

Russ,

What is your original diameter you start with? 0.452?
I just grabbed the last 4 or 5 slugs of swaged nature out of an ancient Speer box last night - 250grn SWC .452 diameter - and paper patched them up with post-it note paper. Did it more as a test and I was bored.
I'll fiddle with them some more tonight and figure out what diameter I ended up with. Do you patch to your groove diameter exactly.....or just to 0.459" +/-?
I'm going to try these bullets out of a NEF Handi Rifle, hopefully with the shallow rifling everything will work out ok. I only single wrapped them at this point, but if I don't have enough thickness I'll pull the papers off and try some of my special paper and double wrap as you suggested. I found a box of 250 sheets of "OLD" typewriter linen paper. This stuff appears to have a rag content - hopefully it will wrap good.

The Lee slugs I have are 0.456 - 0.457" in diameter "AS CAST". I was thinking of uniforming them up to 0.454" thru my sizer then wrapping them. I just think for a fair test you might as well start with a uniform diameter.

Curiosity - how do you lube your patched bullets? Do you wipe on lube or soak in heated liquid lube?
Thanks for the reply
Eric

Try rolling them with masking tape! Quick and easy.

Eric.....You have some very good questions.

Trust me, you'll never shoot "paper patch" correctly unless you do ask a lot of questions, and "fiddle" around quite a bit your self.
One of my rifles is also have a NEF Handi in 45-70, and you can shoot (quite nicely) a paper patch of .460...as a matter of fact, I would suggest .460 as your goal when you are patching.

I would also suggest you read Paul Matthews book, THE PAPER JACKET,also, Brent has a wonderful web page on the how to's of paperpatching..http://www.iastate.edu/~codi/PPB/PPB.html

I started paper patching about twenty five years ago. I made a mess out of everything I tried. It must have taken two or three years "just to make paper" at 100 yds., much less think about a group.
The only information available was second, and third hand from local experts who probably knew less than I did about the subject. Agghh! The frustrations were terrible! There were darn few paper patch shooters back in the 1970's and 80's, but everone seemed to have an idea on how it should be done.

Anyway, In today's information age you can successfuly shoot paper patch bullets in just a few months with only limited range time. Read, Read, Read!
I guess the best help I ever got was from a feller named "Buckshot" on the old shooters.com in the "cast bullet" forum. Back in 1998 or 99, he did a few posts on paper patching, answered a few of my questions, and things just started clicking.


I will gladly try to answer a few of your questions as we go along, but you need to do some research on your own.

As cast is normally best. However, that means they must be a nominal size to be wrapped "TWICE" with the patch. (Brent will show you how to cut a paper patch so it will wrap twice and fill the bore.) as cast would mean a .451 or .452 bullet. ALWAYS USE TWO WRAPS! The best wrapping paper has always been considered to be "Onion Skin"...a very thing paper that was used in the day of the typewriters. It is somewhat hard to find, and quite often not worth the effort, as any good vellium, rag paper, with a thickness of no more than .0025 works just fine.

Note; If you don't have a good micrometer now would be a good time to buy one. They are much more accurate than a caliper, and you will be doing a lot of measurements in thousandths, and ten thousandths of an inch.

Also, you can patch a greese groove bullet (GG) just as well as a slick slide, or plain side bullet. In the "good old daze" mostly slick side bullets were shot...not necessarily because it was better, but it was considered to be more "in vogue" with other shooters. Trenzy sells! Even back then.

I would avoid tape of any kind including TELFON. Any tape with an adhesive is a no-no, as you want the rifling to cut the paper patch, and the patch fall off (in small pieces) just in front of the bench.
I have tried telfon tape but it falls way short of a good regular paper patch.
I lube my patch, after it has been applied and dryed, with Rooster or SPG lube...I simply put some on my finger and roll the patched bullet in it...you dont want too much lube.

Do some reading, do some research on your own, and then get back to me with your questions. I will do my best to help.
Sorry I got long winded but this is a long wind subject. Besides that my old arthritic hands don't care much for this typing anymore.

Russ

Many short cartridge bullets can be patched up to work well in slow twist m/l barrels. .32 pointed wadcutters (lee), patched, shoot nicely in the .32 caplocks I have. If you can't get enough bp in the case to suite you, duplex with smokeless, or a finer grade of bp. Seat the bullets into the rifling, at least as an experiment. Good luck. ned

RussB is right on the money. Get a copy of "The paper Jacket" by Matheus. Basically, as he said, use a 451-ish bullet(45 ACP bullet?), two wraps of damp onion skin paper cut as a trapazoid and wrapped so the rifleing will tighten it, dry it, trim it, lube it, load it, shoot it. I have found 50/50 bee's wax and vaseline to be a good lube, as suggested in the book. Alox has been reported to give mixed results.