My 45-120 should be done soon, and I'm thinking about trying black powder in it first. Is there anything special to loading with blackpowder? I've been told "fill the case almost all the way with powder and put your bullet in". Do I need any patches over the powder? And do any .458 cast bullets work?

I'm totally ignorant about black powder stuff, so thanks for helping,
Tyler

quote:

Do I need any patches over the powder? And do any .458 cast bullets work?

Tyler, First, you'll generally need a cardstock or vegetable fiber wad over the BP charge. Second, you'll need to slug the bore of your rifle to determine which nominally .458" dia. cast bullet fits your bore best (can be. .457" -.462"). Cast bullet design is next since you'll find a vast array of types for hunting, lng range target shooting ala "Quigley Down Under," etc. However, rather than flounder around, look for books on loading BP rifles by Paul Matthews or Mike Venturino/Steve Garbe. Lyman's "Cast Bullet Handbook, 3rd. Ed.," while dated, will give you some of the info. you need, e.g., slugging the bore, BP & smokeless powder loads, etc. (Matthews & Venturino/Garbe are more to the point though.) Search the internet for used book dealers and save some $$ by purchasing them used. Lastly, there are many websites devoted to loading BP cartridge rifles, why not seek them out?

www.shilohrifle.com

this is the Shiloh Sharps comnpany's website. Go to the forums, ask a polite question, and wait for the deluge of answers by people who actually load and shoot a 120.

Rich
DRSS
Knowledge not shared is knowledge lost...

I thought I'd show these two really cool orig Sharps lube moulds.
You'd pour your hot, melted cartridge lube into these and make what guys these days call 'grease cookies' or such.





Neat stuff, dontchya think?


-Tinker

AT,

really cool, and a good way to do it if you are okay with a fixed thickness. I bought an extrusion pump from a local guy here in Idaho. It squeezes a ribbon 5/8" wide and I just press them over the case mouth and seat them with the bullet. Wad under to keep lube migration away from the powder. The other thing is, to keep the loaded rounds bullet up to prevent that. They seem to store well, I had several rounds of 38-90 left over from the Quigley 2007, that I used to sight in this year. They were loaded in April of 2007, and shot fine.

Rich
DRSS
Knowledge not shared is knowledge lost...

Sharpshooter-

I saw these and thought they were cool, neat to see what the 'old timey kit' looks like.
The top one is thicker than the bottom one, top one has a sharps patent number on it too - picked those images off someone's website where they had antique loading tools.

On life of the grease, as long as it's not able to 'go rancid' I'm sure it'll last as long as you'd need.


--Tinker

Here's a post I wrote some time ago for someone shooting 45-110 -

The recipe is as follows:

After sizing your brass, use an expander that expands the neck at .457 - .458 and puts a very slight bell of .461 - .462 on the mouth (can be obtained from www.buffaloarms.com). (I don't know the make of your 45-120 - but find out the diameter of the bore and adjust these measurements)

Prime with a standard winchester rifle primer - Not magnum.

Drop tube 105g Goex Fg. Fg IS the powder for the 45-110. Burns extremely clean. - (You will probably need more for your 45-120)

Use compression die (www.buffaloarms.com) to compress the powder to the level that your bullet and .060 wad will set on top of the powder column. If you compress with your bullet, you will deform it.

Use a creedmore style bullet such as the Lyman 457132 Postell of about 530 - 540 grains cast at 20-1 and lubed with an appropriate Black Powder Cartridge lube such as SPG or DGL. You will have better success if you learn to cast these yourself rather than commercially made.
If your rifle is a Shiloh, bullet size should be .458

Seat the bullet to cover all the grease grooves and deep enough to chamber.

Do Not Crimp. At most, you can remove the bell, but I don't even do this as it is so slight, if you you the expander above, you can't even notice a bell.

The 45-70 is very forgiving in learning how to load for these things. The 45-110 is a true high performance cartridge in the BPCR world (although compared to smokeless, seems slow) and this cartridge does not forgive creative loading practices with good accuracy. However, when loaded correctly for your rifle (varying powder charges, bullet seating etc) this cartridge will be accurate out to 1000 yds.

Use a blow tube for 4-5 breaths between each shot to keep the fouling moist and you will not have to clean between shots. Cleaning between shots will enlarge your groups.

You can shoot smokeless (be very carefull because of the large case) and jacketed bullets but you will find that these rifles were built for Black Powder and will shoot much better with real black powder and soft lead bullets.

The lubes that I mentioned above are not anything like the lubes you've seen on cast pistol bullets. It is soft and designed to keep the powder fouling moist when coupled with your breath from the the blow tube.

Caution - these things are addictive.

RC

+1 with rcasto on the method and YES! they are very addictive

BAW,

That's one nice collection. Congratulations!

RC

Wow, what is that humongous thing?! Next to a Savage 22 Highpower? Total guess...

Tyler: I think it's a .577 Snider round. Correct, Bad Ass?