Shiloh Rifle Forums

Being one drawn to the odd, unusual and overlooked - I've recently been working with an 1865-66 vintage Remington split breech carbine. As I'm sure most of you know, this is the predecessor to the #1 rolling block. When Springfield Armory developed the .56-50 rimfire in 1864, their testng showed it gave 900fps in a carbine and 1000fps in a rifle.

I've been working with quite a few loads to try to duplicate that carbine load. Yesterday I tried a couple more. The closest was with 33.5gr of Old E. 2F under a 362gr bullet that gave an average of 946fps. Next time I'll back that off a little. It sure is great fun bringing the old boys back to life.

Thanks for sharing, I find the development and use of this carbine fascinating as well as the 56-50 cartridge and wonder what the advantage of this round was over the earlier Spencer cartridges.

I think the .56-50 had three advabtages over the .56-56.

Higher velocity
Flatter trajectory
Inside lubricated bullet, rather than outside lubricated

I use about 40 grains of FFg with the Lyman 515139 bullet (about 350 grains) in both the Spencer and a Peabody carbine, both of which are center fire. I think the original 56-50 load was around 45 grains. I'm guessing that yhe "primers" being used to get the RF going must be pretty hot compared to large rifle primers. I should get my Oehler 35P out and see what sort of velocities I am getting with straight black powder.

George

I've been using low power brown Ramsets for primers, both with and without the smokeless charge. Here ia a summary from my last two range trips.

I shot the same two loads over the chrono, except the second time I dumped the smokeless charge from the .22 cal brown Ramsets.

Load #1 was 30.0gr Goex 2F and 362gr Smith bullet. This is a reduced load. Average velocity:
With fully loaded brown Ramset - 867fps
With empty Ramset - 621fps.

I had one case made for the .27 cal Ramset.
With fully loaded brown Ramset - 887fps
With empty Ramset - 747fps.

Load #2 was 33.5gr Old Eynsford 2F and 362gr smith bullet. This is a full load, slightly compressed.
With fully loaded brown Ramset - 1092fps
With empty Ramset - 946fps.

Not surprisingly, the Ramset's smokeless charge has a notable affect on velocity. Now I have some idea just how much.

My m1871 Springfield Spencer rifle with CF block uses a longer than normal cartridge. Essentially a .50-45. It holds a full 45gr of Goex 2F and shoots extremely well.

That roughly 100 fps difference between the loaded and unloaded RanSets is close to the difference I was getting when chronographing straight black powder vs duplex loading in the 45-70. The duplex loading was invariably around 100 fps faster. So, I am guessing that with the loaded ramsets you actually have a suplex load. Does it burn a lot cleaner than the unloaded ones?

George

Yes, it is cleaner. Kind of a prepackaged duolex load

I shoot all winter long with duplex loads when using one of the 45-70's . I much prefer it to even smokeless loads when full power is wanted. I do have to say though with the 10 grain loads of Unique and either 415 grain bullets in the .43 Spanish or with 480 grain bullets in the 45-70 from the trapdoor , they are accurate and an absolute delight to shoot offhand.
Just finishing up another #5 roller for a friend I shoot Clang and Bang with in 30-40 Krag. I had a good bull, match barrel off a Mauser in .308 that I cut back, fitted to his action and re-chambered. He really likes 30-40's for some reason which is a good fit for a 1902 Roller. I did have to bush/rebuild the extractor that is modified to spring over the rimless head of the original chambering which was 7x57.

Just a quick update. I tried 34.5gr of Schuetzen 2F, Rapine 350 bullet and emptied Ramsets as primers. These averaged 704fps.

Here is a short video with updates.

https://youtu.be/WmIgXCcZSPU