ORIGINAL: bigcountry
ORIGINAL: eldeguello
My "standard" .45/70 load these days is the old Elmer Keith load of a 400-405 grain bullet with 53 grains of IMR 3031. It gives around 1800 FPS, and is alot easier on the shooter.
Sounds like your 350-grain load is a good one also.
Even that one can be a harsh load. I have been shooting 300gr partitions with 46gr of IMR4198. Its kicking out at 2000fps. But I wanted a good whitetail load. But I am almost out of 4198, and am going to try 3031 next.
I have never found a 300-grain load that shoots well in my rifle. Perhaps they are too short. About the best of the "lighter bullet" loads I've found uses the Lyman 457122HP which weighs 342 grains cast from wheelweights in my particular mould, and IMR 3031. It is a plain base bullet, so I put an inverted gascheck on top of the powder charge to compensate for this. I heat-treat the bullet by heating in an oven for two hours, then quenching the bullet BASES ONLY in cold up to the first grease groove, which hardens the base portion, leaving the noses relatively softer for expansion. I have never shot anything with this load, nor have I tested it in some bullet-expansion medium, so I really don't know how well it would work. Does good punching paper, however!
I will refrain from giving load or performance information on this bullet/load for fear ofadverse reaction from certain person(s).......
Another load I've developed for that same bullet,
cast from pure lead, uses 65 grains of Swiss FFg with a Wonder Wad under the bullet. This load gives 1350 FPS and is pretty accurate. I have found that 46 grains of IMR 4064 with the same bullet/Wonder Wad combination essentially duplicates the BP load, but of course without the dirt......
These loads use the pure lead bullet w/o any lube in the grooves. The Wonder Wad seems to keep the bore from leading, even with an all-lead bullet........
