Henry Rifle Forums

With no load data on this I had to do my homework on it as far as bullet seating depth and powder load.

Now this 500 gr. bullet has about .035 less bullet in the .45-70 case than the lighter 405 gr. bullets I load.
With Alliant Black MZ you want the bullet to be seated touching powder with maybe a slight bit of compression.

So I machined up a light weight aluminum plug gauge that just slides inside the case and will rest on top of powder.
I added a 5/16ths hole in top about .500 deep to lighten it up so as to get minimum compression....just want it so sit on top of powder.

I then get a measure of how much of gauge is sticking above case and subtract from plug's length and that gives me a seating depth with the powder charge I want to use being 50 grs.
Alliant list 49 gr. for a 405 gr. bullet like what I use so 50 gr. should work well with where this bullet needs to be seated.

Made up 20 with rest of those bullets I had and will try them out in the .45-70 High Wall.

When I loaded with black I would use a wad. .030 vegie fiber wad. I then would use the tail on the caliper to gauge the right dept. Im wondering if you should be using a wad to prevent powder burn from distorting the base of the bullets Forty.

Well Alliant recommends no wad or lube but the smokeless lube is OK. MZ generates it's own lube as it burns.
Worked really well in the 230gr. Colt 45 loads I used in the Remmie. Bore cleaned out with a water/Ballistol patch...shiny!

I have used it in the High Wall before with the 405 gr. cast lead bullets with 49 gr.

Torpedoes....

Do any of you who load black powder use a drop tube?

I always used a drop tube when loading blackpowder.