Recommendations Requested

[JEBar]

since I first started reloading back in the early 60's, for jacketed hunting bullets, I've used Nosler's exclusively .... when I say exclusively, I mean that I haven't used any other brand .... haven't ever given any serious consideration to another brand and, until now, haven't any desire to do so .... unfortunately, that appears to not be an option for heavy hunting bullets for our 45-70 .... Nosler's heaviest 45-70 bullet weighs in at 300 grains .... I do have a couple of hundred on hand but would like to have heavier 400+ or even 500+ grain'ers as an option .... I guess lead bullets in that weight range would be OK but for serious hunting (I do have 100+ HSM Bear Loads on hand) but I've always used jacketed hollow and/or solid points .... frankly, the chance that I will ever have a real need for a couple of hundred 300 grain'ers is pretty small .... the chance of actually ever needing a 500 grain bullet is even smaller ..... in this case reality takes second place, I simply want to have some on hand .... one never knows ..

[Rugerfanboy]

I have no experience but thought I'd try to help with a search.

MidwayUSA Search
http://www.midwayusa.com/s?targetLocati ... 26Ntpr%3D1

Next set of links, the reason I selected them was:
1) grain of the bullet
2) round nose flat point - great for lever action rifles
3) they had good to great reviews.

Not sure if this will work in your 45/70, but it has a 458 diameter and it's for a 45 caliber rifle. Might try dropping Nosler an email and see what they say.
Nosler Solid Bullets 458 Caliber (458 Diameter) 500 Grain Flat Nose Lead-Free Box of 25
http://www.midwayusa.com/product/988746 ... -box-of-25

Oregon Trail Trueshot Cast Bullets 45 Caliber (459 Diameter) 430 Grain Lead Flat Nose Gas Check Box of 50
http://www.midwayusa.com/product/977389 ... -box-of-50

Oregon Trail Laser-Cast Bullets 45-70 Government (459 Diameter) 405 Grain Lead Flat Nose Box of 250
http://www.midwayusa.com/product/796585 ... box-of-250

This bullet has extremely high positive reviews. Can buy in 50 count or 100 count.
Cast Performance Bullets 45 Caliber (459 Diameter) 405 Grain Lead Flat Nose Gas Check
http://www.midwayusa.com/product/198835 ... -gas-check

[Squatch]

I've had good luck with these so far. But I have only pushed them to just under 1.200 fps. They should be good for much more. They are pretty hard. I've had no fouling of any sort.
http://missouribullet.com/details.php?p ... &keywords=

I also tried the 330 grain Berry's plated. They are very accurate just like the 44 mag versions I've been shooting. Again no fouling. They are supposed to be good for 1.700 fps. Just looked on the site and they are not listed so I'm thinking they are out of stock.
https://www.berrysmfg.com/

[JEBar]

Not sure if this will work in your 45/70, but it has a 458 diameter and it's for a 45 caliber rifle. Might try dropping Nosler an email and see what they say.
Nosler Solid Bullets 458 Caliber (458 Diameter) 500 Grain Flat Nose Lead-Free Box of 25
http://www.midwayusa.com/product/988746 ... -box-of-25

your effort is sincerely appreciated .... I wasn't aware Nosler made a 500 grain that might work .... from what I've seen the designed it for the 458 Lott .... I have sent them an email requesting info ..... thanks again

[JEBar]

I've had good luck with these so far. But I have only pushed them to just under 1.200 fps. They should be good for much more. They are pretty hard. I've had no fouling of any sort.
http://missouribullet.com/details.php?p ... &keywords=

I have no experience with coated bullets .... thanks for the link, I do find it interesting .... guess I'm too old school, for a "really dangerous" game load I have, what could easily be a wrong, strong predilection toward heavy, jacketed bullets

[Rugerfanboy]

I also tried the 330 grain Berry's plated. They are very accurate just like the 44 mag versions I've been shooting. Again no fouling. They are supposed to be good for 1.700 fps. Just looked on the site and they are not listed so I'm thinking they are out of stock.
https://www.berrysmfg.com/

Do you have a part number...???

[Squatch]

RFB no I don't. When I ordered them I just went to plated rifle bullets on their site and clicked on the 45/70 bullet. They are not listed today. I'm guessing they are currently out of stock. When in doubt call them.

JEbar I'll post a range report shortly. I don't think jacketed bullets are needed until you bump the speed up. I have some jacketed 45/70's as well but haven't built any yet. I'd rather load stuff that allows me to shot more than a few rounds at a time. No need for 2,500 fps to punch holes in paper.


RR
http://henryrifleforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=931

[JEBar]

what I'm looking for is a small stock of bullets to load if/when I should ever have the chance to go after dangerous game .... I'd love to think I will be able to do so down the line but realistically, that most probably won't happen .... right now our reloading equipment is in the process of being moved from St Louis back home to NC .... once we get it setup, we will load light practice loads similar to HSM's Cowboy Shooting rounds ....

[Squatch]

Just remember in a lever action longer bullets like 500gr may pose feeding problem. A 500 gr 45/70 bullet is dang near as big as a 357 cartridge!
You won't know till you try them.

I think the 405's I'm loading have the potential to be loaded a good bit hotter. Even at the Trapdoor safe speeds I'm pushing them I think penetration would be impressive on something like black bear. On whitetail make sure of what is on the other side before pulling the trigger. I shot a couple at some steel a while back and dang near knocked the target to the next county. Get a copy of the latest Lyman cast bullet book. You will find a load in there that will get the job done.

My loads in the RR are good cowboy style loads. I'm also going to try similar speeds with Tite-Group and Trail boss. The trail boss may be safer because it fills the case much better. But the bullets I'm using and the small loads of Unique are cheap to build. At these levels there are several hundred rounds in a # of powder!

[JEBar]

Unique is the powder we use for several different rifle and pistol paper punching loads .... I suspect that will continue .... the reality is Nosler's 300 grain jacketed bullets pushed by a max load of powder out of a 45-70 should be able to dispatch even the largest North American bears .... the same is true for hot loaded 400+ grain lead bullets .... as I have noted several times in other threads, until we purchased our Henry rifles, the use of heavy lead bullets pushed at relatively relatively slow speeds wasn't our way of building ammo .... further, I was totally in harmony with the practice with what you hunt with school of thinking .... going to Cowboy Action loads for practice wasn't even considered .... the fact that I haven't hunted in several years is making the transition to focusing on paper punching ammo much easier

[Squatch]

I haven't loaded any of it yet. However the Lyman cast book recommends 5744 for the 45/70 for several loads. A lot of folks on the web use it for straight wall stuff. Both 44 mag and 45/70. It's good behind both lead and jacketed. The accurate website show loads of up to 1,600 fps with a lead 405 gr FP. This is a lever action load not trapdoor(mid level). I would think that would put a hurtin' on most any dangerous game you would encounter.
http://www.accuratepowder.com/load-data/

As for the slow paper punching stuff give this site a read especially the link at the end of the 1st paragraph. I'm one of those that likes to know the why as well as the how. It's a good read. The data I've been loading from all year for both 44 and 45/70 is on that page.
http://www.gmdr.com/lever/lowveldata.htm

[JEBar]

I haven't loaded any of it yet. However the Lyman cast book recommends 5744 for the 45/70 for several loads. A lot of folks on the web use it for straight wall stuff. Both 44 mag and 45/70. It's good behind both lead and jacketed. The accurate website show loads of up to 1,600 fps with a lead 405 gr FP. This is a lever action load not trapdoor(mid level). I would think that would put a hurtin' on most any dangerous game you would encounter.
http://www.accuratepowder.com/load-data/

As for the slow paper punching stuff give this site a read especially the link at the end of the 1st paragraph. I'm one of those that likes to know the why as well as the how. It's a good read. The data I've been loading from all year for both 44 and 45/70 is on that page.
http://www.gmdr.com/lever/lowveldata.htm

WOW .... I'm sure that is great info but it quickly put me on info overload .... historically what I've done is to go to a Nosler manual, select the bullet I wanted to use, put together 10 of so of what they list as their Max recommended load and 10 or so of what they list as their most accurate load .... we then go to a range and do the best we can to test both for grouping at whatever range we anticipate using them for hunting .... if there isn't much difference between the performance of the most powerful and most accurate, we go with the most powerful .... that has served us well for decades; however, we haven't hunted in several years and spend all of our time on a range punching paper .... if our impact point on a deer was off by an inch or two at 100 yards, we've never found that it mattered .... we have discussed approaching reloading for our shooting today and we have discussed going at it from the opposite direction .... specifically, going to whatever manual we select, looking up the minimum load and, if given, the most accurate load recommendations .... example: by minimum I mean like starting with the minimum 44 special load for a 44 Magnum and working up to a load that groups best at the range we want to punch paper .... at this point we are still in the talking about it stage .... all of our reloading equipment is still in boxes after having been moved back to our home area in NC from where our oldest son had been using it in St Louis for the last 5 years .... along with changing targets, we are also changing projectiles .... jacketed to lead .... one thing I do know is we will not experiment outside of posted parameters .... no exceeding he maximum or going below the minimum charges .... I'm just not that adventuresome