.45\70 Sharps loads

by Slow Hand ⌂ @, Indiana, Tuesday, August 22, 2023, 04:26 (395 days ago)

Well, I finally was able to get a long term dream gun of mine, an 1874 Sharps. It’s a Pedersoli made For Cabela’s. 30” barrel, double set triggers, with Pedersoli’s tall tang sight and a globe front ( only have one insert for now). Wood is fairly plain but looks good. Has a matte finish on the barrel that I’m not super excited about but it still looks good.

I picked it up on the far side of my rifle range, so of course I had to swing by and shoot it some on the way home. I was short on time and didn’t have anyone to spot misses for me, and it had rained recently so not a lot of dust kicked up to help either. Still had fun! I’m guessing it was sighted in for 100 yards, because I was able to connect on steel with both my 300 and 425gr loads I had on hand. I also had some black powder loaded ammo with the 425. That was a lot of fun!

Now, with my range being limited to 300 yards and my intended purpose of this rifle is nothing but paper and steel out ot that max of 300, is thee any benefit to either the lighter or heavier bullet weight? I cast both so have an unlimited supply. Will the 300 shoot appreciably flatter at 300? I know the 45-70 has a rainbow trajectory so ‘flatter’ is a relative term. I cast up some of each bullet and should be able to get back down there in a couple of weeks, so o have time to load up some ammo for a more serious range session.

Any load suggestions would be appreciated. I know we have several Sharps shooters here and plenty of fans of the 45/70 too…


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Good looking rifle Doug.

by Hoot @, Diversityville, Liberal-sota, Tuesday, August 22, 2023, 10:00 (395 days ago) @ Slow Hand

One that's been on my radar for years but I've never scratched that itch.

Although not a Sharps, my son doesn't care for anything above 300-350gr in his 1895 Marlin...uhh, short barrel....'Guide Gun'? I've shot a lot of the lighter weights along with traditional 405's and a few 500's. Take notes as I expect the tang sight settings will be different. I expect once you have a sight setting, there will be little difference in accuracy with regard to 300yd gongs.

Dad really liked Varget for the .45-70 (and a lot of other things) I don't recall the charge at the moment. I've used 4198, 3031, Trail Boss (great fun!) and lately 5744. The FB page devoted to the cartridge seems to have a lot of Re7 fans but I haven't tried that. And, of course FFg.

Thanks!

by Slow Hand ⌂ @, Indiana, Wednesday, August 23, 2023, 10:11 (394 days ago) @ Hoot

I have some Varget but tend to keep it hoarded for my accuracy loads in .308. I have a good bit of powders for bulk loading of .223, which I don’t do much of. I found some test loads with 2230 that I don’t recall loading! They were for my Marlin but look to be plenty safe for the sharps. I also have a good bit of H322. I picked up a pound of 3031 recently to load up
Some cast loads for the .30/30, but it looks to be kind of popular in the .45/70. I don’t have any 5644, which I read is a popular BO substitution powder.

I do have a decent amount t of FFg and do plan to load some more of that up both for my trapdoor and the sharps.

I found this chart this morning and it looks like at 300 yards there is enough difference in drop to make it worth going with the lighter bullet.

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In the end, I’m sure I’ll just load up a few different powders under both bullets and see if I notice any obvious signs on which way to go!

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.45\70 Sharps loads

by Dave B @, Alamogordo New Mexico, Thursday, August 24, 2023, 18:23 (392 days ago) @ Slow Hand

Doug, if you don't plan on anything beyond 300 for now, I would stick with nothing over 400ish. No sense beating your shoulder up with the 500+ gr bullets used for long range. As mater of fact, one of my hits on the White Buffalo was with the RCBS 405, with a blasphemous powder coating over 67 grains of FFFg Goex. The remaining hits were all with a 520gr bullet from my Steve Brooks mold Bill Bagwell gifted to me back in 2018. The biggest thing with a Sharps, is getting the grin off of your face after shooting!

Dave

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