45/70 powder issue....

[Blucollar]

Tried out my 45/70 today and had something happen I'd never seen before,  after every shot there was what appeared to be unburned powder in the barrel and casing.
The rounds shot well, no high pressure signs, fairly accurate.
I was using Varget which I have used on other calibers before with no problems.

  Any Ideas?

[john keyes]

that is very common, It happened to me and I heard about it from others on marlintalk later marlinowners.
I began using H895 and still observe some from time to time.

[BBF]

Nothing new, you should see what Remington 405's factory rounds leave in the barrel.
Depending on Cast or jacketed bullets.

Trail Boss, Blue Dot, 2400, IMR/H 4198 will burn clean.  RL-7burns reasonably clean if loaded more then minimum.

[Lone Star]

The 'problem' is not so much the powder you are using as the pressures you are loading to - well below where most centerfire cartridges operate.  At Trapdoor velocities/pressures most all smokeless powders will leave some ash residue, pistol powders like BlueDot and Unique excepted.  It is nothing to worry about unless it builds up enough to effect the firearm's functioning.




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[Blucollar]

Thanks for the input, I might try other powders in the future, but had Varget on hand and liked it in other calibers.
This is the first effort at reloading the 45/70 and wanted to make sure I wasn't messing up.

Thanks again, Blu.

[Westbound]

This issue almost turned me off Varget, but it shoots so dang well in my gun with the 405 grain bullet.

If you want to see super-nasty, pick up a box of the Ultra-max ammo.  I would have to swab my barrel after each shot.

[Blackhawker]

I've seen the same with lower pressure loads using IMR 4198 and 3031.  In fact, in a few isolated instances, the powder didn't ignite very well and I hardly got the bullet to make it out to the target, believe it or not.  No recoil and no big "boom" either.  When I looked in the chamber, the barrel was full of half burned powder.  My guess was that temperature and the packing of the powder had something to do with this.  I was getting a lot of hang fires all day which suggested the this was the case. 

I went home and loaded some rounds and added a small amount of polyester fiber fill to the rounds in order to ensure that the powder would remain near the primer when tipped in the shooting position.  Doing this typically should give a better ignition and burn.  The results showed no hang fires, no unburned powder and and not a whole lot of "crumbs" in the barrel.

Please keep in mind, however, that anything additive to the overall case volume will increase pressure so don't cram the case full of polyester wad.

[BBF]

I've used cotton balls to do the same with 777( including 30-06 with cast) but not with smokeless.