acceptable muzzle velocity for 45-70

[Tasmanian Rebel]

I've been working up a load in a new 45-70 Shiloh. I have a friend from New England who is not a competitive shooter that I used to see once yearly at the Q but nevertheless is a heck of a shooter, Chuck Tyree. He got one of Harlon Sage's Money bullet moulds he was selling 5-6 years ago as I did. Chuck sent me a load that was really working for him consisting of 65gr of 3F Swiss. Chuck's load was slip fit but I'm in process of fireforming 500 Remington brass pieces so mine have a bit of neck tension and I'm firing initially as is without trimming as they shorten a bit after initial firing. I'm getting an honest 2 moa at 100 yds but I can tell my shooting is rusty as have not shot a BP gun in 4 yrs. Chuck is getting a good bit better than that. I was concerned that this light load may run out of steam at the ram line so shot some over the chrony this afternoon. I was a bit surprised as the load avg was 1230fps with sd in low single digits and es was mid single digits even counting the first shot out of an oiled barrel. Do you guys think a 1230 fps velocity with a 540 gr Money bullet will hold up on rams and turkeys? When I get all of these buggers fireformed going to try PP too as just got several PP moulds from Baco this past week also.
Keith Lay

[Don McDowell]

As long as the accuracy is there, the rams won't laugh at you if you smack one of them with it. There's only one way to find out if the accuracy will be there...

[jackrabbit]

That was basically my load when I shot a 45-70. I won several big matches with it.

[desert deuce]

Welcome back Doc, great to see you posting. One way to test the hypothesis and you know what that is and how to do it.

Right off the bat sounds like big medicine for rams.

[Woody]

Dan T. and I used to go round and round on what velocity was optimum for these rifles. When BPTR was at it's height in Raton, I used to have the slowest MV through the chronograph. I recall one match that I placed first after day one. Dan and I were talking in the parking lot at the City Market and he stated something to the affect of' "I told that you would shoot better if you brought your velocity up." I responded be telling Dan that my velocity was probably the slowest of the day. That I had chrono'ed at 1190 FPS. Dan's jaw dropped and that was the end of conversation.

In the long run, Dan is correct. To a point, the faster we can push these projectiles the better our long range stability, the better chance we have of putting it through the x ring.

I still like the 1200ish velocity for silhouette though. My 45-70 loads with 540 grain postell average around 1220-30 fps and with my current lot of 2 FG Swiss will hold vertical at the ram line.

Since long range target rifle has pretty much gone away here East of the Mississippi, (WI excepted), I have not gotten any long range trigger time in a few years.

Look forward to seeing you on the line again Doc. Come up to Friendship in August for our regional, you will know a number of those present.

Woody