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Need help with .45-70 load, maybe

2643 Views 5 Replies 3 Participants Last post by  john1958
Hi all,


I bought a TD carbine made from a rifle with original carbine barrel and loaded up some 405 gr. cartridges a la Wolf. I used 55 grains of compressed FFg, drilled out the primer hole and used Winchester standard rifle primers, and Lee 405 gr. 20:1 HB bullets. After firing them I noticed a bulged ring around the case at the location where the base of the bullet starts in the loaded case, and the primers are backed out. The cartridges almost resemble a bottleneck cartridge because the neck for the length of the bullet seems to have not swelled like the rest of the cartridge. After re-sizing them there is a scribe type line in the brass where the bulge was. I'm afraid these cartridges will seperate if fired again. The chamber has a narrow ring inside corresponding to the location of the bulge in the cartridge.

Is there anything that can be done short of a replacement barrel? Is 55 grains compressed too much? Should I go to Magnum primers like I use in my 500 gr. .45-70's I use in my M1884 Springfield rifle?

Any help would be appreciated as I can't afford a new barrel right now and don't want to hang it on the wall.

Thanks in advance! John
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1 - 1 of 6 Posts
Sounds like an explosive pressure problem. I thought that when you actually built an explosive device (firecracker, M80, etc.) it was best to only fill the case 2/3rds or 3/4s the capacity to allow that expansion chamber to build higher pressures and give you a bigger bang. Sounds like the same theory being applied here.
1 - 1 of 6 Posts
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