some I loaded this week for a friend. I have found them to be extremely accurate out of a model 29-2 three inch barrel.
some I loaded this week for a friend. I have found them to be extremely accurate out of a model 29-2 three inch barrel.
Unique is one of my favorite powders for my cast lead bullets. It seems to be accurate for a lot of different calibers I've tried. Examples are 357 mag, 44 mag and even 308 winchester. When it comes to 308 win between 13 and 15 grains using 130 to 150 grain cast lead bullets gives me very good accuracy using my TC Compass bolt gun.
For 357 mag and 44 mag in a lever action you get decent velocity which usually increases the efficiency in terms of kinetic energy per grain of gun powder used. Many bottle neck calibers like 223 or 308 loaded with jacketed bullets pushing at or near their typical factory loadings for velocity only give you around 50 ft lbs muzzle energy per grain of gun powder used, but a 357 mag or 44 mag 16" carbine using unique powder can give you around 100 ft lbs muzzle energy per grain of gun powder. That's twice the kinetic efficiency.
The only brass I have been finding is steel cases.
The loading room...? I've been playing with 45-70 all summer. With the price of Varget at $59.99 the last time I visited the lgs, I've been working on more economical loads. I found data for pistol powders that shoot great. I have 3#s of Bullseye and I have 2 loads that shoot same POE. 12 grs. behind a 405gr. cast and 11.5 behind a 340 gr. cast. I have a lifetime supply of lead, I cast my own and I shoot my Henry a lot. I'm having a blast.
Yeah, I've pretty much been doing the same thing. Except I use the software program called quickload o my desktop computer to calculate the data for load data that can't be found published anywhere. If you give me the specifics for the bullets you use and the powders you have I can run the data in the program to see what it says. I need to know bullet weight, bullet length, case length, COAL, case capacity in terms of grains of water and barrel length.
Results will look something like this 45-70 Govt - Bullseye - 405.jpg
Last edited by SafetyJoe; 10-20-2023 at 08:19 AM.
Much appreciated.
Bullet weight- 425gr. RCBS 45-405-FN coww
Bullet length-1.0725
case length-2.0920
COAL- 2.51
Case capacity- 77.5 gr. water
Barrel length- 18.43"
Bullet weight-347gr. Lee 457-340-F
Bullet length- 0.8735
Case length- 2.0920
COAL2.5270
Case capacity- 77.5gr. water
Barrel length-18.43"
Thanks a lot, I sure do appreciate this. Have a great evening. G.
Besides Bullseye powder what other powders do you want to try?
With the RCBS bullet 11.5 grains is the beginning of the yellow zone for pressure at 21,273psi. 12.4 grains is the beginning of the purple pressure zone. 13.6 grains is the max charge at 27,903 psi.
Here's what the 12.4 grains looks like
45-70 Govt - Bullseye - 425.jpg
With the Lee bullet 13.6 grains is the beginning of the yellow zone for pressure at 21,129psi. 14.7 grains puts you at the beginning of the purple pressure zone. 16.1 grains is the max charge at 27,812psi.
Here's what the 14.7 grains looks like.
45-70 Govt - Bullseye - 347.jpg
Not sure why the 14.6 grain chart is still showing up below in this post after I deleted it so just ignore that one.
Last edited by SafetyJoe; 10-24-2023 at 03:19 PM.
BE 86, a great 10mm powder.
Much appreciated Safety Joe. Excuse my ignorance but can you please explain "Yellow Zone" and "Purple Zone" I'm thinking start and mid range loads? Bullseye is working real well. I have lots of pistol powders but the only other one I have been curious about is BE-86, which really doesn't have much data outside of Alliant's published data. Even that doesn't have much variance. I like it for 45 Colt but my go to 45 colt powder is 2400. I have a couple of pounds BE-86 in the cupboard and haven't touched it in awhile.
Yeah, starting loads are in the beginning of the yellow zone, purple is mid range and red is the no go above max pressure zone. BE-86 isn't one of the powders listed in quickload. There's a few other powders they don't list like 700x and 800x because the variations from one lot of powder to the next is too much for them to consider it consistent so they don't list those powders. Maybe that's the case with BE-86 or maybe it's not listed because my version of quickload is an older version that came out before BE-86 was introduced.
I started the day by shooting my muzzle loader and then cleaning it. Then I had my youngest Son and 2 of the Grandsons over to load them some 308's for the up-coming Deer Season.
Its good to see you guys posting!
A buddy and I made the rounds of most of the local shooting places last week and picked up some brass. But not as much as I expected. I guess the cost of ammo has peoples shooting slowed down.
Most of this brass had been wet and had lots of grass and stuff stuck to it. So I started out washing it, then drying it, then depriming it.
I'll tumble it after the 1st of the year and make some additions to my trade list!
Starting out today just finding this forum and looking through it. Glad to find it. Next, I'll get in gear and size/lube about 150 405gr HB for .45-70....then vacuum....or vacuum first and then....oh well...
Welcome Aboard, Dave! Feel free to join right in!
Welcome to the forum. I'd sure like to see activity here get to where it used to be.
Last edited by seeker; 01-29-2024 at 03:36 PM.
I started yesterday morning tumbling last years range brass. Did 4 loads, 2 hours each, yesterday and I'm on the 3rd load for today. Hoping to finish tomorrow or Monday.
Maybe by next week I will have some additions to my trade page!
I just finished prepping and priming 1,000 pcs of WMA 5.56 brass.
I'm only going to the Range now to pick up brass about every 2 weeks but I'm still usually finding what I consider a "Fair" amount there when I go. I use those plastic buckets that Deckmate packages their 25#'s of Deck screws. They're square and have extremely stiff sides so that when I'm kneeling on the ground picking up brass, I can use the bucket to stand up (with my bad knees, back, and shoulders it's getting tougher and tougher to pick up brass, especially since getting off of my Pain Meds, LOL). This last time, I ended up with 2 of those plastic buckets full, so about 50# of mixed brass. LOTS of .223/5.56 and 9mm but sadly, no Weatherby Calibers. Someone(s) at Our Range has taken up shooting .300 PRC, 7mm PRC, and 6.5 mm PRC and they are leaving their brass, so I'm figuring that they must not reload.
I'm in the middle of swapping out the 4' Fluorescent light fixtures in my reloading room to 8' LED's. I've been needing to get better lighting in there and had been trying to figure out how to add lights, then my Son told me about some 8' LED's he'd found on Amazon. Since my Fluorescent Fixtures are already paid for and I have plenty of 4' tubes, I started to not go with the LED's and just add a couple of more 4' fixtures.....That's until I found out what 4' fixtures are going for these days! Not to mention that the LED's use less power and put out way more light.
I used to get the square buckets that Grain Bin Bolts came it. Heavy plastic like you have. But I don't wire Grain Bins anymore!
I'm sure many of us have tried Servicios y Aventuras Small Pistol Primers? I've noticed a problem with striker fired pistols. I'm getting light primer strikes (FTF). When I take the same round and put it in a 1911 (hammer fired) it goes off every time. So the next time I went to the range I took some retail rounds and some reloads with CCI primers to try in the pistol in question. There were no FTF with the pistol that was experiencing problems with the SA prrimers. Anyone have any issues with these primers and a striker fired pistol? I've been considering replacing the striker to see this addresses the issue. I've already replaced the springs, but this did not help. Thoughts?
BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
GC | Gas Check |