"The alloy of the bullet is important, but can be varied slightly if you feel that you gain better acuracy. 460 even when they were new.Go to a softer mix 1:30 or 40.Blackpowder cartridge rifles take an abnormal amount of experimentation to get them to shoot.:)įrom Pat Wolf's 45-70 Springfield Rifle and Carbine 'bible', Section 1, page 11, paragraph 5 (thanks to Krag-30-40 for referring me to buy the book.): Two things,slug your bore these can run as large as. 45-70 at Two Miles: The Sandy Hook Tests of 1879 With the proper ammunition this rifle can really perform. (I have everything I need to do that now but time.)
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You cannot buy this ammunition, you have to make it yourself. This is what was orginally used in this gun. The moral of this photo is to show that you must use a 1:20 tin-lead alloy hollow base bullet. Top 3 keyholes are the first 3 shots at 100 yardsīottom 2 keykoles are the 4th & 5th shots at 50 yardsįinally, the bore is suficiently fouled to give the bullet some spin and place it on target paper at 8 O'clock & 9:30 O'clock 6th & 7th shots at 50 yards These are the results of my 1873 45-70 Trapdoor Springfield shooting commercial GOEX 45-70 405 Gr RNFP Black Powder ammunition Your arm is not long enough to use the front swivel as a hand stop with the sling as an aid to marksmanship. Get a sling to dress the rifle, it was used as a carry strap only. If you want a reproduction sling, Turner makes a good one. My rifle shoots about 32 inches high at 100 yds, stack some targets on the backer to see how yours shoots. Remove the cleaning rod when firing, no reason in having that big tunning fork attached to the barrel - accuracy will improve. Pierced primer in the trapdoor would not be a fun experience. Check the firing pin for a nice smooth and round surface. Make sure your gunsmith checks the action. It has an all lead bullet and is loaded with a smokeless powder that is designed to shoot like black powder without all the muzzle loader type of required clean up.
![1873 springfield trapdoor ammo 1873 springfield trapdoor ammo](https://thebiggamehuntingblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/picture-of-45-70-government.jpg)
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Stick with the lead bulleted loads as jacketed bullets are not kind to the barrel steel used on this and other vintage rifles.īlackhills makes a good shooting cowboy action.