Long Range vs Silhouette

[BFD]

Dave uses both 90s and 100s

[SFogler]

Aviator does very well at long range with a 45-70 with gg bullets but it has a 16 twist. I go to the Watkins silhouette matches every month and the Byers long range matches. If you show up at the silhouette match next week at Watkins, you can shoot my 45-100 with 87 grains of Swiss. I used it at the BPTRA Creedmoor LR match at Byers in Sep. After shooting both BPCR and BPTR, if I had to have only one rifle it would be a 45-90. You can do anything with it and it is a historic cartridge for anything: targets or hunting. The ODGs went to it for a reason. Whatever you decide, go to the matches around here!!!! Where else in the USA can you go to so many ranges and matches that are such a short distance away?

[Aviator]

Aviator does very well at long range with a 45-70 with gg bullets but it has a 16 twist. .....

Thank for the kind words! But I haven't finished at the top.
I have spent a lot of effort to make the 45-70 work for 1000 yards, but it appears that I am certainly in the minority! Perhaps if I wasn't so stubborn I would move on to 45-90....
Perhaps my next rifle....

[BFD]

Mark (McCallum?) from Michigan used to shoot and win at Lodi with a .45-70 shooting greasers. He had a heck of a lot of compression. Haven't seen him in many years but always enjoyed seeing him at Lodi.

But I would generally agree with the sentiment to shoot a .45-90 at long range if one insists on using fat bullets. But it is so much easier to use paper patched bullets. A .45-70 paper patched is pretty tough to beat at any distance.

[Del]

Dan Smrdel shoots a 45-70 with I think 70 grs of ol' eynsford and won the national creedmoor championships at Raton in scope a couple years ago so don't think a 70 can't do it. I have a DZ Arms Hepburn in 45-70 that has a 1-16 twist Kreiger on it and I struggled on and off with it shooting silhouette at turkeys and Rams and I discovered that I had to go to a 565 gr bullet to get it to work. With no wind it shot well but it would get erratic when the wind picked up. Going to the heavier bullet helped considerably.

One gun makes you have to accept some compromises but you are more familiar with it than shooting two more dedicated rifles and dealing with different loads and issues.

[desert deuce]

Oh my, guess nobody remembers Ahmer and Schuenke placing first and second at the Phoenix 1,000 with their puny little 45-70's with GG bullets?

How soon we forget.

[gunlaker]

Oh my, guess nobody remembers Ahmer and Schuenke placing first and second at the Phoenix 1,000 with their puny little 45-70's with GG bullets?

How soon we forget.

Oh, I remember it well ! Eron seemed to have figured out how to make the .45-70 really work at LR. When I ordered my purpose built LR rifle from Shiloh I did go with a .45-90 just to hedge my bets a little .

Chris.

[charlie young]

There seems to be a consensus among PP shooters that they are easier to load than a grease groove bullet. I do shoot both. I just for the life of me can't figure out how it is easier. I have a PP load for my 90's, a roller with a Orville chamber and a standard chambered Shiloh, that is probably the most accurate load I have. Have shot them out of my 45-70 and will shortly out of my 45-110. But to this day I can't under stand how they are easier. Never to old to learn.

[Coltsmoke]

Charlie, that can depend on how detailed you are in loading GG bullets. If you are just loading a slip fit GG load, no sizing or annealing the brass, I would say that slip fit load is easier than PP. If you are doing a neck tension gg load that might be a little harder depending on how detailed you get. Anneal the brass, neck size the brass down, then expand it back out to give you the correct tension. Lube the bullets, seat primers, dump powder, insert wad and compress powder, seat the bullet with bullet seater die, run it up in a taper crimp die to remove the slightly flared case mouth. Now use what ever piece of equipment you use to measure the runout, now correct the runout, place the round in the shooting box, good to go. I done all that because I could not get a Slip Fit load to do what I wanted. All that work produced a load that shot great, I tried PP and it shot great also. I went to PP because it was easier than what I was doing.

[charlie young]

I partially size the brass, but once I get it where I want it never touch that die again. All my brass for each rifle has basically the same neck tension, get it right never need to adjust. Always anneal after each firing. Never remove the flare, ever. If you are flaring so much you need to narrow it down you are doing it wrong, especially with BACO's 457-461 expansion plug. No need to crimp ever. Prime, dump powder, seat wad, compress, I do that with PP. I can do all that in the time it takes to cut the paper. Don't get me wrong, I think PP is great, but when some of these guys that aren't familiar read some of these posts they may get the impression, that dang this seems easy. And it took me longer to figure out a PP load that worked, than any load i'd ever tried. But the results were pretty amazing.

[semtav]

Main reason I was hooked, is because I spend zero time trying to get lead out of my barrel. That is what makes it easier for me. Others may not have that issue with GG bullets.

[BFD]

No lube does it for me.

[charlie young]

Brian, we never shoot together in the same relay so I don't know. So you are shooting paper patch at Forsyth, like during the Coker match?

[semtav]

Yes. I havent shot GG for at least 4 years.
Only GG loading i do now is for Nicole.

[Coltsmoke]

Charlie, I'm just picky and don't mind doing an extra step. It was just flared barley enough to start the bullet. It would chamber without taking it out. I just touched it with the taper crimp die, didn't add any crimp at all. I didn't want the last .020 of my case mouth not touching the bullet with a .001 gap around it, would it hurt anything? No. I just didn't want it there.