45-70 Help

[Ninety Caliber]

Howdy all! My first post on this forum. Just got a set of dies in 45/70 and looking for everyone's favorite smokeless powder for light target loads. Asked this question on another forum and am curious to see if the consensus is the same.

[joec]

Mine is simply Trailboss between 12.8 and 13 gr. with a 405 gr soft cast bullet. I find it very accurate and easy to shoot. Oh and I use Lee sizing die, powder through die with RCBS Cowboy seating and expander dies. I don't bother much with the FCD and cast bullets.

[Rooster59]

Joec has a good setup. I like TB but gravitate more toward Unique for my simulated BP loads. If you use Unique you must have rigid procedures to check powder levels. One could easily double or even triple load Unique in a big 45-70 case if you don't double check each one before seating a bullet.

Trail Boss is one of the softest shooting powders for plinking loads with even heavy 45-70 bullets. And it is virtually impossible to over charge with Trail Boss. I'd highly recommend it.

[larryp]

For smokeless I like about 40 grains of 3031 behind a 350-405 gr slug. Easy on the shoulder but still powerful enough for hunting.

[pricedo]

Haven't pushed the handle of a press for a while but I always like IMR-3031 in the 45-70.

[oscarflytyer]

Glad to read the above. Just loaded some test loads for the 45-70 with Lee 405 HB cast yesterday. All in the ~1300-1500 fps range. Two are with Unique (14.5 gr and .5 grain dacron overwad) and 3031 (38.5 - from Waters' Pet Loads). Hope one or the other will turn out satisfactory in the Marlin 1895.

Oh yeah, also put one together with 40 gr of 3031.

[Westwindmike]

I use 5744 in my 45-70.

[Fyodor]

TrailBoss would be a good option. It's actually a good choise for all vintage cartridges that have been invented before smokeless powder was too comon.

But you know, why that bullet is called 45-70? The best load would be... 70 grains of black powder. Behind a 405 grains lead bullet, at least that was the original load.