Not a bad boolit guys, but the 45-70 is showing the same symptoms I have had with cast and my 357 and 44....Shoots great, phenonemal, at low velocity. Try to jack up the juice, and the group goes right out the window at about 1400 fps.
The 31.1 grains of Unique shoots as nice with this boolit as it did the Lee 340. Nice small group, 8 shots into 1 3/16" x 1 1/8", 2 shots went high and low making the vertical measurement 3 1/8" 6 shots can be covered with a quarter. Not bad, velocity is a nice pleasent 1065 fps, can shoot it off a bench all day. From there it only gets "ok" to "what is that".......
30 grains of 5744 makes for 1376 fps but makes a verically strung group that is 2.5" long
34 grains of 3031 makes a nice 2.5" long group, but pitched 3 that could be touched by a quarter.
25 grains of 2400 put 5 shots into a 2.5' square with no discerable group or pattern for that matter.
I got good results using slower powders for the case like Reloder 15 in the 357 Max, and Reloder 7 in the 44 Mag even though the velocities were only moderate. But that is of course the point of a 45-70, big heavy bullets at moderate velocities. According to John Linebaugh, a 400 grain bullet at 1400 fps will kill anything on earth, and his customers have taken his revolvers and done so. I can only think that a deadly accurate load pushing a 400 grain bullet between 1200 and 1400 fps will kill any whitetail I can hit with it. If it is good for elephant, surely it will be good for whitetails. So I am going to get some slow powder, on the order of 4350 perhaps slower still and see how this rifle shoots. I am also going to get some 300 grain jacketed bullets and give it a spin. If it is like my other Handis, it will be deadly accurate with fullpower jacketed bullets. But the search is on now for a really good cast hunting boolit for this beast too. That is afterall why I wanted it, to give a good thump to those whitetails. Who knows, maybe someday the Gods will smile on me and I will get a chance to whack a hog too :grin: :grin: :grin:
