newbie questions

[hoosierhunter]

For Valentines Day, my wife bought me an 1895 xlr in .45-70, stainless. I love the rifle, and the Leverevolution ammo shoots great. Although it is a bit pricey at 2 bucks a throw. A buddy of mine is an avid reloader and has offered to help me work up some loads. He's bringing out his manuals tomorrow so I can start doing some "homework". ( i am totally clueless when it comes to reloading, other than knowing that there are different levels for trapdoor, lever and ruger #1) I have ordered the Lee Steel 3 die set, Lee factory crimp,Lee case length gage and shellholder, and 50 of the Hornady Interlock .458 diameter in 350grain Flat Nose. Can anyone point me in the right direction as far as what powder, what charge, and what primer? I have read some posts on other sites , and H4198 seems to be a recurring powder. I would like to get performance with these 350's that is close to the 325's in the Leverevolution. Right now i am just plinking at 100 yards here in Indiana. Eventually I would like to head south and use this load for hogs. I also thought I read somewhwere that the case length on the spent Levo brass was problematic for reloading? Should I start with new brass, or can I use what I have?
I know this is a boatload of questions , most of which have probably been discussed before, but any help would be greatly appreciated.
                                                                                    Thanks

[bigjeepman]

That is one hell-of-a Valentine's Day present ... holy cow. I am a reloader but do not own or reload for 45/70's. Sorry, I cannot help but have fun with your new Marlin.

bjm

[Les Staley]

hoosier hunter:  I use a load consisting of  43.7 gr Reloader #7  behind a Hornady 300 gr jacketed hollow point in my 1895SS.. have taken four black bear, and one bison cow with this load, plus a couple of elk..  does the trick..  not too bad in the recoil department..  shoots very good groups..  HTH   Les

[canuck44]

I am new to reloading in the last few months but the following are loads I have tried...

- With the 350 grain hornady flat noses I am using 47 grains of imr4198 for a muzzle velocity of 2032ft/s.  This beats the LR rounds out of the hole by a good 150ft/s.

- For 300 gr hollow points I use 54 grains of imr4198 for about 2300ft/s, this one kicks and bucks and throws flames out the end of the barrel, lots of fun.   

- For 405 cast I slow it down to 1400 using H335 or the imr4198, great for plinking and only about 25 cents apeice.

With these loads I can get 2" groups easy at 100yrds, I am the limiting factor, MUA 5 shot groups or better is rare for me with any rifle or load.

Try the hodgdon website for more info on their powders and their reccomended loads...  they go to 40,000 cup while the lee and lyman manuals only go to 28,000 cup for the lever guns.

As far as the LR casings, yes they are about 0.080" shorter than regular ones, as such they won't give you the correct COL and let you crimp properly.  Also if you do crimp into them with a shorter COL you would be changing the pressures for a given load, not something I would reccomend, maybe someone else can offer some insight.

[Swampman]

If I were going to reload the LR cases, I'd use 405 grain cast lead bullets and just crimp to the correct OAL.  I wouldn't load them on the hot side either.

[hoosierhunter]

Thanks for the replies, they have been most helpful.