45/70 reloads

[jack19512]

I have been using the 300 gr. bullets in my reloads for my Buffalo Classic 45/70 and have had no problems.  The rounds would chamber fine.  I tried some of my reloads using some 400gr. Speer bullets but they didn't want to chamber right.  Seems like they were too tight going into the chamber.  I use Lee dies, any ideas as to what I am doing wrong?

[Nobade]

They may need to be seated deeper. Try dropping a bare bullet in the chamber, measure from the back end of the barrel to the base of the bullet, add that number to the length of the bullet and you now know the max overall length for your loaded round. See if that number is smaller than what your ammo is presently loaded to.

[quickdtoo]

H&R .45-70 throats are notoriously short, Nobade has your answer.

Tim

[jack19512]

I loaded the 400 gr. bullets the same length as the 300 gr. bullets.  I had to push the 400 gr. bullets I think around 1/2 inch before they seated in the chamber where the 300 gr. bullets dropped right into the chamber with no problems.  The 300 gr. bullets and the 400 gr. bullets are the same type bullet, FNHP's.

[quickdtoo]

But if the ogive has a slightly different contour/diameter, they'll not fit as far into bore and engage the rifling at the same COL as the 300gr, you'll have to seat them deeper to a shorter COL to allow the action to close, they're too long.

Tim

[quickdtoo]

The other option is to rent a throating reamer and deepen the throat for larger bullets, lots of H&R owners have done that, particularly for 500gr+ bullets.

Tim

[jack19512]

Well crap!!!  I Want to get the BC 45/70 ready so I can deer hunt with it this year.  I loaded up 15 more rounds to try and guess what!!  out of the 15 rounds only 5 of them would fire.  It seems I can't win for losing.

I tried to fire each one of them twice just to make sure.  I have no idea what went wrong.  The primers look like they all had a good strike.  I tried 5 of the primers out of the pack I reloaded the others with and everyone of them went off so I don't know.

Someones first thought might be I might have somehow forgot to add the powder but I didn't.  Since I started reloading this is the first time this has happened to me.  How could 10 rounds out of 15 not fire?  any ideas? 

[PaulS]

If you handle the primers with your hands you could have contaminated primers - that has happened to so of the people I shoot with. I never touch a primer, they go from the box to the priming tool without being touched. From the priming tool into the cases. After I showed my buddies the process the started using it and stopped having misfires.

[jack19512]

I have thought about this a lot.  The only thing I can think of is when I lubed the cases I used plenty of lube and possibly that could have been the problem.  I use the Lee lube and supposedly you can thin the lube with 4 parts water for greater economy.

I didn't think I used enough lube to cause this problem but primers must be more susceptible to moisture than I realized.  Like I said in my previous post, I tried 5 primers out of the pack I used to load this ammo with and they all fired with no problem.  I still don't see how I got any of the lube into the primer pockets though.  I ordered me a collet for my bullet puller, It should be here in a couple days.