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Originally Posted by Reiver
What diameter .40 are you using in that weight? I shoot a 45 70 and most shoot .458 lead round but I get better accuracy with a .459...and if I push the FPS I use a harder alloy lead combination.
This will sound strange but use cream of wheat as a filler above your separator in the casing.
It does a great job of cleaning the bore of lead....believe me, it works.
I make two lower power rounds with cream of wheat for my last two shots....leading is very slight afterword's.
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Don't worry, it's not as strange as it sounds. I'm familiar with the Cream of Wheat trick. I used to use it as a matter of course when shooting cast bullets in modern smokeless powder rounds. I also used Puff-Lon, if you are familiar with that.
I stopped using any kind of fillers many years ago when there began to be reports within the CBA - Cast Bullet Association - of ringed chambers, and worse, that guys were thinking were the results of using fillers. I now use 5744 powder almost exclusively, which bulks up enough to not require a filler. It's a cast bullet shooter's dream.
So, anyway, these black powder cartridge rifles are a completely different animal from modern smokeless powder rifles. Much of what works in modern smokeless rifles simply does not work in these.
To answer your question, groove diameter is .408", so I'm using .410" diameter bullets. Alloy is 20:1 lead/tin. I always try to use cast bullets at least .001" over groove diameter, or .002" if they will chamber. Bigger is better.
Lube is SPG, which are its developer's, Stephen P. Garbe's, initials. He came up with this black powder specific lube back in the late '80's to early '90's when we were all still struggling with the rediscovery of black powder cartridge rifles. We didn't know any better and were using hard lubes like the NRA beeswax/alox mix and others that were not suitable for black powder use. In this application, the lube has an additional job that it does not have when using smokeless - it plays a vital role in keeping the black powder fouling soft. Anything that is too hard won't do that, and anything with any sort of petroleum product in it combines with black powder fouling to make a pretty darn good asphalt mix. Pretty good for resealing your driveway, but it plays hell with accuracy. SPG and other black powder lubes are a mix of Ivory soap, beeswax, and neatsfoot oil. Pretty soft stuff, kind of like margarine in consistency.
There is no room for any kind of a filler. Black powder fills the case, with a fair amount of compression to boot. Any airspace is dangerous, and can lead to catastrophic detonation. Original Frankford Arsenal loads for the .45-70 Trapdoor had the powder compressed darn near half an inch from its nominal height in the case. This is one of the key components in black powder accuracy that we play with in an effort to find an accurate load for a particular combination of components. The Swiss 1.5 Fg powder I am using likes minimal compression, somewhere around .10" to .15". American made Goex FFg that I use in other applications requires almost .30" compression before it starts to provide any accuracy. This is even after having filled the case through a 30" long drop tube to settle the powder, before we further compress it in a purpose made compression die.
Hard cast bullets just don't work in black powder cartridges either. I have a pretty hot load that I shoot in my modern Marlin 1895 and Winchester 1886 .45-70's, utilizing H322, that absolutely requires hard bullets. In those loads I use the RCBS .45-400 GC cast from Lyman #2 alloy and quenched, then they even get a gas check. I'm driving those just over 1,900 fps from either rifle, with no leading whatsoever. Interestingly, I still use that "black powder" lube - SPG - with great results. I size these to .459", but only because .460" will not chamber.
I own several "black powder only" .45-70's as well, plus a .45-90 and a .45-100. Everything but the .45-90 uses .460" diameter bullets. The .45-90 will only chamber up to .457" diameter, so that's what it shoots.
The only guns I have ever had a problem with leading are a couple of .44 mag revolvers. With these, I use a variation of your trick, and just put a cylinder full of those evil jacketed bullets through them at the end of a shooting session. It rubs me wrong in the very worst way to defile my revolvers in such a manner, but hey - at least I've found a use for jacketed bullets. Otherwise, outside of modern bottlenecked rifle cases, I just don't see the point.