Long range cartridge loading of the late 19th century.
- Thread starter rfd
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ntsqd
Well-Known Member
I knew what paper patched bullets are, and I've seen some on occasion, but I had no idea of any of the nuances about them.
Thank you for this!
Thank you for this!
Y'all are most welcome. It's not rocket science to paper patch for either black or smokeless powders. Really good results can be attained with absolute minimal of tools and components, too. Happy to help anyone learn more, or perhaps get started in this truly American manner of long range hunting.
Smokeless powder PPBs will have a diameter greater than the bore diameter, just like jacketed or greaser bullets. Therefore, cartridge ogive is quite important, as well as caring for copper wash or leading of the bore. I've cast pure lead .459 diameter 250 grain grease groove bullets and then sized them down to .452 diameter, patched them with 7# tracing paper, loaded them in sized, primed, and expanded .45-70 brass, then charge with powders such as Trail Boss, Green Dot, Unique, W241 and others, seated in the PPB for good shooting to 100yds in a CVA Scout .45-70 rifle. 19th century meets the 21st century ...
Black powder PPBs are bore riders that are very slightly under bore diameter (bore rider) so that during detonation (unlike smokeless powder that is essentially an expanding gas, black powder is a form of explosive) the PPB will obturate (expand) larger than bore diameter and will be influenced by the rifling. Because BP PPBs are bore riders, cartridge OAL or ogive measurements are not required or needed. Since there is no copper or lead touching the rifling lands, there is no hard fouling to be cleaned. As long as the BP bbl residue is kept reasonably soft, cleanup is way faster than with copper or grease groove bullets, like 3 to 4 passed with wetted and dry patches, then a final oil wet patch to protect the bore.
I dabbled in black powder cartridge rifle competition a little and we shot typically out to 600 yds and when the competitors learned typically from each other on how to make them shoot well it was very impressive how well they could do at 600 yds, it was fun to be in the pits pulling for the shooters and to watch how well they could do and there was no crack like highpower cartridges above the speed of sound with the bullets making supersonic cracks, the black powder bullets were silent going through the paper. they used to shoot at ft lewis at their 1000 yd range but the bullets were coming down too vertically and causing some nerve racking splashing in the pits as the pits were constructed with a concrete slab maybe 50 feet wide and they would splash on the slab so it was decided not to allow them to be shot at 1000yds on the range
ntsqd
Well-Known Member
For a while at the store we had a reproduction of the trajectory graph for both the .45-70-500 and the .45-70-510 (I *think* that I got those right) shot at one mile from their expected firearms (rifle for the 500 and carbine for the 510). Angle of impact would be roughly the same as shooting a modern firearm from a helicopter...
It was poster sized and I wanted it, but it disappeared.
It was poster sized and I wanted it, but it disappeared.
Bob Wright
Well-Known Member
Thanks for sharing! Working on a 77 Sharp's action, just getting closer to stock work on this project.
