My new hunting rifle .50-70 1/36 twist and gorgeous!

ridgerun · Post by **ridgerun** » Mon May 04, 2009 12:30 pm

scott, I have a saddle rifle on order with a 1/36 twist/26 inch barrel. I would be interested in how yours handles various bullets, thanks

Scott Tschirhart · Post by **Scott Tschirhart** » Mon May 04, 2009 4:43 pm

I'm shooting that Lyman #515141 bullet really well. It likes the 450 gr Keith too, but I am not having as good a luck with a 450 gr LFN for some reason.

I really bought it to shoot the Lyman bullet and no other so I am pretty happy with it right now.

ridgerun · Post by **ridgerun** » Mon May 04, 2009 10:13 pm

I probably won't have the saddle rifle until about Christmas, but I am also casting and loading the #515141 in anticipation of it arriving. Thanks

mdeland · Post by **mdeland** » Mon May 04, 2009 10:45 pm

How much does that 141 bullet weigh in the alloy your using? MD

Scott Tschirhart · Post by **Scott Tschirhart** » Tue May 05, 2009 10:27 pm

414 grains without any lube

ridgerun · Post by **ridgerun** » Wed May 06, 2009 9:04 pm

My 515141 goes 440 grains lubed with spg in 20/1.

Scott Tschirhart · Post by **Scott Tschirhart** » Sat May 09, 2009 9:54 am

I shot this little buggar a lot yesterday. 30 gr of AA 5744 under that Lyman bullet. (I don't have a good method of lubing these bullets with Black Magic or I would be using some black powder...waiting on a cake cutter).

No problem in the power department. I may like this as a hunting round even better than the .45-70 and although the sights originally looked unusable, I did not find this to be the case, especially in the evening as the sun was going down and I was shooting pear apples off of prickly pears.

I like it a lot!

bobw · Post by **bobw** » Sun May 10, 2009 8:41 am

Scott, get a fired 50 BMG case, chamfer the end of the neck and wired brush the residue out of the inside of the neck. Use a bench or hand held grinder to open a hole in the side of the case to let out the bullet. Works good for me and its the right dia. . bobw

Scott Tschirhart · Post by **Scott Tschirhart** » Sun May 10, 2009 12:52 pm

Scott Tschirhart · Post by **Scott Tschirhart** » Sun May 10, 2009 12:53 pm

bobw wrote:Scott, get a fired 50 BMG case, chamfer the end of the neck and wired brush the residue out of the inside of the neck. Use a bench or hand held grinder to open a hole in the side of the case to let out the bullet. Works good for me and its the right dia. . bobw

Not a bad idea. I wonder where I can find a .50 BMG case?

13Echo · Post by **13Echo** » Sun May 10, 2009 3:26 pm

Scott,

You don't need a cake cutter to pan lube. In fact I find a cake cutter a PITA compared to just pushing the bullets out of a cooled lube cake. Just use a shallow, flat bottom, aluminum or plastic pan. Place the bullets in the pan about 3/8" apart base down. Melt the lube in a double boiler and pour around the bullets till it covers the lube grooves. After the lube has cooled and pulled away from the side of the pan turn it over a folded towel and dump the lube cake out of the pan. Turn it back over and with the cake resting on the towel push on the tips of each bullet to break it loose in the cake. Pick the cake up and push the bullets out onto the towel. I do this for my 45 and 50 cal black powder bullets and find it relatively painless and I've come to prefer it to lubrisizers and cake cutters.

Caveats: Let the lube pull away from the sides of the pan. Don't let the lube cake get really cold as it will tend to fracture. Don't use a stainless steel pan (at least my lube tends to stick to a stainless pan). If the bullets are really cold (less than usual room temp) warm them with a hair dryer before adding the lube. Melt the lube with a double boiler - overheating will ruin the lube.

My $2 (2 cents adjusted for inflation)

Jerry Liles

Scott Tschirhart · Post by **Scott Tschirhart** » Mon May 18, 2009 9:16 am

Yellowhouse wrote:Besides a spare firing pin, that patchbox is a handy place for a string drop cleanin brush or mop...maybe even a bore pig. Whatever fits your fancy.

There is not a lot of room in there. Think about things that might fit in a small matchbox. But I have seen a near disaster when someone broke a firing pin on a hunt. A spare is something you will likely never use, but if you don't have it, Murphy has a way of catching up with you.

Darryl · Post by **Darryl** » Sun May 24, 2009 3:48 pm

Scott:

That's a good group!

I haven't popped the cherry on my .50 yet on any live targets, but I know it's going to hit like the hammer of Thor when I do.

I'm pushing 532 grain flatnose bullets out of a Brooks mould that I designed at 1158 fps. It shoot dots at 100 yards.

I built mine specifically for a still hunting / stalking rifle. I don't plan to shoot over 200 yards with it.

I love my Shiloh 45/70. It will be my first choice when sitting in a box stand overlooking long senderos.

But, the .50 with a 28" barrel is going to be my pick for rattling, stalking, still hunting, or just plain hunting from the ground (which is how I prefer to hunt).

I'll email you the drawings for the bullet I designed and had Steve Brooks cut a mould for me. In 30/1 it drops at 532 grains and has a .350" meplat. It has really wide and deep grease grooves and shoots great for me out to 200 yards. It's a sledgehammer of a bullet. In my gun, either 67.0 grains of Swiss 1.5 (1158 FPS) or 70 grains of Goex Express (1150 fps) out of my 28" barrel shoots great.

I don't know if it's my gun or the bullet, but my first shot from a clean dry patched bore always prints right into the average group. I think I got lucky.

Scott Tschirhart · Post by **Scott Tschirhart** » Tue May 26, 2009 6:44 am

I'm going to load some black this week. I need to get ready for the Shootists Holiday in Raton next week. I cannot wait to get out there.

I picked up a few .50 MMG cases and I am going to make a cake cutter so I can put some Black Magic lube on these bullets. Life is good.

Up In Smoke · Post by **Up In Smoke** » Sun Jun 14, 2009 6:59 pm

Darryl wrote:That's a good idea.
I have a patchbox on my Hartford 45/70. I never thought about that - putting a spare pin in there.

It's amazing how well they fit the parts on those guns. If you run your finger over the patchbox and wood, you can't even feel a ridge. They literally sink it perfectly flush with the wood.

And, it does look really nice on the guns. I just would'nt do it with anything other than plain wood because it would eat up a lot of nice figure on an extra fancy or presentation stock.

I believe the patchbox is an option thats only available with standard or semi-fancy wood. And yeah, thats a great idea putting a spare pin in the patch box. I will keep that in mind when my baby arrives.