I tried duplex loading of the .45/70. I used 5 grains of Unique under a case full of DuPont (now GOEX) FFg with a Lyman 457193 cast bullet on top. The idea was to obtain cleaner burning BP loads. I was unable to see any notable difference between these an all-BP loads, so I quit trying.



I just recently did some experimenting with BP and T7 loads in my Ruger No. 1 .45/70 using the Lyman-Gould 457122HP bullet cast from PURE LEAD with a Wonderwad over the powder, 65 grains of Swiss FFg and 65 grains of T7. NO OTHER LUBE WAS USED! See below:

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eldeguello wrote:

I just loaded 10 rounds of compressed (mildly!!) BP loads in nickel cases for my .45/70. I used 65 grains of Swiss FFg and the Lyman 457122HP cast bullet with a Wonderwad under the bullet. I also loaded 5 rounds using the same charge of T7 FFg, same wad & powder combination. These bullets are cast from pure lead. and weight 349 grains. As I have had no leading problems from pure lead conicals in ML rifles at velocities up to 1875 FPS when using a WonderWad as the ONLY source of lubrication, I was curious to see if such a combination would work in a cartridge rifle as well. Hodgdon data indicates I can expect velocities around 1380 FPS with the T7 load, but I'd be pleased with anything over 1100 FPS or so, if accurate!



Will report results, and post target photos, if there are any decent groups to show! (Oct 4,2004)





Well, I finally got out to the range yesterday with these loads to test them. Not only did they shoot without depositing any leading in the bore, they all shot into about 2" @ 100 yards. Surprisingly, they all struck about 9" ABOVE the zero of my "standard hunting" 400 grain bullet load of 53 grains of IMR 3031.



In addition to the BP and T7 loads, I also loaded five using the pure lead bullet and 44 grains of IMR 4064 and the Wonderwad. This load of 4064 was calculated to give the same MV as the other two loads -and it did. All three shot into the same group, at + 9" as mentioned above, and chronograph results showed all three loads produced between 1315 and 1370 FPS @ 10' from the muzzle. All in all, I'd say any of the three combinations would do for deer hunting up to 100 yards or so, seeing that the bullets are cast from pure lead. They should expand well, even at 1300 FPS. This bullet has a ballistic coefficient of .27, and carries 1000 FP of energy all the way to 275 yards when launched at 1350 FPS MV. The .45/70 is indeed a versatile old cartridge!!

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Nov 12, 2004



Good luck!

Eric,
There are smokeless/bp duplex as well as bp/bp duplex (using different granulations). The former can be hazzardous, though how much so is debatable. Personally, I no longer do it.

Whether you need to duplex or not sorta depends on what you want to do. If you want to make NRA minina for 1000 yr competitions, then you may need to do the smokeless/bp duplexing.

The bottome line is what do you want to accomplish? Knowing that, it's possible to make some headway, but it all depends on your goals.

Brent

RIGHT!! BPCR competition requires real BP. I did not know if/that they will even permit a little smokeless as a priming charge. Maybe they do, since maanu of the old-time Scheutzen and benchrest shooters used duplex loads in their single-shot rifles, both ML and breechloaders, according to Ned Roberts.