With the above said I was watching a TV show the other night with my adult son. It was a hunting show dedicated to lever guns.

They highlighted what I think was a 460 Marlin .guide gun, I want to say it shot 460 marlin 4570 45 win mag and 454 cassull. My son was drooling over that by the end of the show Google Ing the specs and availability . He says he is getting one of those and putting one of those Leupold VXR Firedots on it. I have to admit it does sound like a very practiclle rig.

First off I have four lever guns and don't load BP cartridges in them. However, I have two Springfield original Trapdoors in .45-70 and an 1871 H&R in .38-55. I load nothing but bp in them. For the Trapdoor rifle, I load about 68 grs. in them with a cookie between the bullet and powder. I don't use a drop tube.

A friend of mine told me once that i should use my case cleaner (vibrator type). Load my powder in each case just short of the top and then place the case on the cleaner when it is one. It shakes the powder down and compacts nicely. I then seat the bullet over the cookie wafer. I know it is about 68 grs. because I checked it once. You could still put the 70 grs. in if you want, but you would have to compress the load.

Now with the Springfield Trapdoor carbine I have to put the original powder load in it, 55 grs. To do this I use Cream of Wheat for filler. I did find out later that a company sells the original style wad spacer that the army use way back when.

With the H&R a871 I load it like the trapdoor rifle. Don't know about the lever guns, but the trapdoors and the H&R are a hoot to shoot. I was told I could zero my H&R in by loading more powder and making a compressed load. Haven't tried that yet.

1871 H&R:



With the trapdoors, they were originals and I didn't want to shoot smokeless anymore and thought I should go back to BP

Carbine:



Rifle:

Hey BPS, I picked this one up about 16 yrs ago:



I used it as my first CAS rifle, but turned out the action was a little too stiff for competition shooting. I take her into the woods for deer. I'm shooting a 305 gr. hard cast FNGC bullet with H110 powder. It shoots very nicely. And I haven't gotten any complaints for my deer.

The wood ain't as nice as Semi's, but this gun was one of the last ones to be made before the factory quit making them i guess. Now they go for ridiculous prices!!! But there are quite a few out there for sale if your lucky.

Yet another sweet little rifle offered for our viewing pleasure by rafsob! Yea that's the gal I want. Another one I considered was one of the original style Henry's in .45 LC but I don't see that happenin' either! :sad:

BPS

This fella has listed some interesting info on his site over the years on loading BP for the 45/70, 30-30, and 45 LC I believe.

http://www.castbullet.com/

BPS