Ruger – Page 3 – The ExhaustNotes Blog

.357 Ruger Blackhawk Accuracy Loads

A favorite load that seems to work well in any .357 Magnum revolver, including my stainless steel Ruger Blackhawk, is 15.7 grains of Winchester’s 296 propellant and the Hornady 158-grain jacketed hollow point bullet. I use standard rather than magnum primers. This was a 25-yard target.

The .357 Ruger Blackhawk

Ruger’s Blackhawk is an iconic firearm, one that’s been in production since the 1950s in one form or another. I bought my first one in a department store in Texas for under a hundred bucks back in the mid-1970s, and I’ve bought and sold several since. I wish I had not sold any of the Blackhawks.

I’ve owned a few .357 Magnums over the years…Rugers, a couple of Model 27 Smiths, a Model 28 Smith (remember that one?), a Model 19 Smith, and a Model 65 Smith. I’ve owned a couple of Colt Pythons, too. The Pythons were nice, but not nice enough to command the premium prices they pulled in the 1970s, and certainly not nice enough to pull the exorbitant amounts they sell for today. The Smiths were accurate, but they didn’t hold up under constant use with magnum loads. I had a new Model 27 that I wore out in a couple of seasons in the metallic silhouette game; it suffered from extreme gas cutting under the top strap and a cylinder that sashayed around like an exotic dancer in a room full of big tippers. The Ruger Blackhawks seem to last forever.

Every Ruger firearm manufactured in 1976 carries the 200th year bicentennial stamp, just like the one on my 200th year Blackhawk. On my gun, the liberty scrollmark is on top of the barrel.

I’m down to one .357 Magnum now and it’s a 200th year stainless steel Blackhawk with a 6 1/2-inch barrel. It’s one of my favorite revolvers and it’s not for sale (it never will be; I learned my lesson about letting good guns get away). I have a few favorite .357 Magnum loads I’ve used over the last 50 years. I thought it might be a good idea to document how they did in the Blackhawk, try a few more to see how they do, and share it all with you here on the ExNotes blog. I guess this is the appropriate place for the disclaimer: These are loads that work well in my Blackhawk. You should never just take these loads (or any others from the Internet) and simply run with them. Always consult a reputable reloading manual (I like the Hornady and Lyman manuals best). Always start with lower charges and work your way up, looking for any signs of excess pressure, and go no higher if you see signs of excess pressure. Okay, so that’s out of the way. Let’s get to the good stuff.

Last week’s .357 Magnum testing at the West End Gun Club.

.357 Magnum Accuracy Loads

I’ve played with a lot of different .357 Magnum loads over the years. I have a few favorite .357 Mag loads that have been superbly accurate in any of the .357 sixguns I’ve owned. That’s a bit unusual because frequently a load that is accurate in one gun won’t be accurate in another, but that rule doesn’t seem to apply here. The loads I like have worked well for me in any .357 I’ve ever shot. I verified these loads in my Blackhawk with this latest round of testing, and like I said above, I explored a few more loads.

A few of the loads tested for this blog. From left to right, the first five are .357 Magnum cartridges and the last three are .38 Special cartridges (you can fire .38 Special rounds in a .357 Magnum handgun). The bullets (from left to right) are the 110-grain Hornady jacketed hollow point, the 158-grain Hornady jacketed hollow point, the 158-grain Hornady jacketed flat point, the Xtreme 158-grain plated flatpoint, a cast 158-grain flatpoint, a cast 158-grain flatpoint in a .38 Special case, a powder-coated 158-grain semi-wadcutter in a .38 Special case, and the Missouri 148-grain double-ended wadcutter in a .38 Special case.

So, with the above as background info, let’s get into the loads. I’ll start with one of the standard “go to” .357 Magnum loads. That’s the 158-grain cast semi-wadcutter bullet (the Keith-style) over 7.0 grains of Unique. This is not the hottest .357 load (it’s a mild-recoiling .357 Magnum load), but it’s hot enough, it’s very accurate, and it’s relatively flat shooting. I have a guy who casts 158-grain flatpoint bullets for me and I like those with 7.0 grains of Unique even better than the semi-wadcutter bullets. The load is very consistent, and with the same zero and six o’clock hold I use at 50 feet (seen in the target below), I pretty much hit right on target at 25 yards, 50 yards, and yep, even at 100 yards. I was hitting a steel gonger last week at 100 yards consistently with this load. My shooting buddies were impressed, and after all, that’s what a lot of this is all about. This is a good load.

A 50-ft target with the .357 Blackhawk using 158-grain cast flatpoints with 7.0 grains of Unique. Like they say, this is close enough for government work.

For hotter .357 Magnum loads, any of the Hornady 158-grain jacketed bullets (hollow points, flat points, and full metal jacket flat points) work superbly well with 15.7 grains of Winchester’s 296 propellant. These loads have a distinctive bark, high velocities, snappy recoil, and they are superbly accurate.

15.7 grains of WW 296 and the 158-grain Hornady jacketed flat point resulted in the best group fired in this test series. Two shots went through the hole in the lower right.

Another long time favorite load is a bit unusual but it’s accurate as hell. That’s the 110-grain Hornady jacketed hollow point and a max Unique load (10.0 grains of Unique, as listed in a Hornady reloading manual from the 1970s). I first tried this one 40 years ago when I had a Colt Python and I was impressed with its accuracy. I tried it again in this test series and the results were similarly impressive. It’s probably the fastest load I tested because of the max load and the light bullets. My old Hornady manual indicates the 110 grain Hornady bullet with 10.0 grains of Unique exits the muzzle at 1450 feet per second. That’s fast.

If light bullets and high velocity float your boat, try this one (but work your way up to it): 10.0 grains of Unique with Hornady’s 110-grain jacketed hollow point.

Plated Bullets: Are They Any Good?

Surprisingly, the 158-grain plated flatpoint bullets I tested didn’t do well with any charge of Unique, and in the past, they have performed very poorly with 296 (the bullets frequently shed their plating in the bore). These plated bullets are offered by Berry and Xtreme. These are not jacketed bullets; the copper plating is chemically applied and the coating is very thin. I did get one decent showing with a lower-end charge of IMR 4227 propellant, but given the choice, I’d go for a plain cast bullet rather than plated bullets. You may feel differently. Please leave a comment here on the blog if your experience is different than mine.

Powder Coating and Paint Fumes

I tried powder-coated bullets last week, too, to see how they would perform. Powder coating is a concept that’s been around for a few years as an alternative to lubing cast bullets. I found that accuracy was more or less on par with lubed bullets, but not really any better. The powder-coated bullets look cool (the cartridges kind of look like lipstick). When I fired several powder-coated bullets fairly quickly, I could smell the paint. Some folks swear by these bullets and love them for IDPA and similar competitive pistol events. For me, performance was the same as conventional cast bullets. Your mileage may vary. Leave us a comment if you feel differently.

Powder-coated 158-grain semi-wadcutter bullets. I found their accuracy to be comparable to conventional cast and lubed bullets.

A Metallic Silhouette Load

When I shot metallic silhouette competition I used a 200-grain cast roundnose bullet in my .357 Magnum Model 27 Smith and Wesson. That bullet worked extremely well, and because of its heavy-for-caliber nature and high length/diameter ratio, it carried a lot of energy downrange. It was superbly accurate with 12.4 grains of 296. But finding those bullets is next-to-impossible today. It used to be a standard .38 Special bullet for police duty, but very few (if any) departments carry .38s today, and nobody seems to stock the 200-grain bullets. Maybe I need to get back into casting. I sure loved that 200-grain bullet in the .357 Magnum. They actually made the .357 Magnum work better on the 200-meter rams than a 240-grain .44 Magnum. The .44 Magnum wouldn’t consistently take down the rams; the 200-grain .357 Magnum did so every time.

.38 Special Loads

One of the great things about a .357 Magnum handgun is you can also shoot .38 Special loads in it. I guess that’s a good thing, as the .38 Special cartridges have lighter recoil. I tried three .38 Special loads with three different bullets. The accuracy load in .38 Special is a 148-grain wadcutter bullet seated flush with the cartridge mouth over 2.7 grains of Bullseye propellant. That load is super accurate in my Model 52 Smith and Wesson target pistol, and it did okay in the Ruger, too. I’ve always believed that a .38 Special cartridge would never be quite as accurate in a .357 Magnum handgun because the bullet has to make a longer jump to reach the rifling, and my testing last week did nothing to change my mind on that count. The .38 Special does okay in a .357 Magnum handgun, but I believe the best accuracy resides in a .357 case.

.357 and .38 Accuracy Testing Results

Here’s a chart summarizing my accuracy results:

Ruger Blackhawk accuracy testing results. All testing was with a two-hand hold at 50 feet. All groups are five shots. All loads (except the plated bullet loads) were crimped. All cast bullets were sized to 0.358. Note 1: Two shots went off paper. Notes 2 and 3: One shot went off paper.

There you have it. If you have a load that works well, please leave a comment. We’d love to hear from you.

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Developing a Henry .45 70 Load: Part 1

The new Henry Single Shot. Mine has exceptionally fancy walnut. I am a soft touch when fancy walnut is involved.

I’m about a week away from having sufficiently cooled (at least in the Peoples Republik of Kalifornia’s eyes), which is another way of saying I have 7 days left until my 10-day waiting period is over, and then I’ll be able to pick up my new Henry .45 70 Single Shot. (“Single Shot” is capitalized because it’s a proper noun; it’s Henry’s official name for this rifle.)

Another view showing the entire Henry Single Shot rifle. I’ll get better photos when I get to the range; I shot these photos at the dealer.

I am loading a series of cartridges to test for accuracy in the new Henry and I’m going to tell you about the loads, but before I get into that I want to tell you about the three levels of reloads you find in the .45 70 reloading manuals. I’ll post about the different loads (and reloading those rounds) in the next blog.

A Sense of Scale: A .22 Long Rifle cartridge, a 405-grain Missouri cast .45 70 bullet (just the bullet is bigger in both length and diameter than an entire .22 cartridge), and a reloaded .45 70 cartridge.

.45 70 History

I’ve been a student of the .45 70 for close to 50 years, and the cartridge is nearly 150 years old. One of the best sources of information on the early .45 70 rifles is Jack Behn’s touchstone reference shown below.

One of the best references on early .45 70 rifles is Jack Behn’s excellent 1956 book. It was published by the Gun Room Press, an imprint owned by the now defunct Rutgers Gun Store. When I picked up my 1973 Colin D. MacManus 1911 .45 auto, it was from the Rutgers Gun Store in Highland Park, New Jersey.

At the end of the Civil War, the Army knew it needed a breechloading rifle (one that loaded from the rear with metallic cartridges). This resulted in development of the 1873 Springfield rifle and the .45 70 500 cartridge, so designated because it fired a 500-grain, .458-inch diameter lead cartridge propelled by 70 grains of black powder. That was later changed to a 405-grain lead cartridge because soldiers complained that recoil with the 500-grain projectile was excessive.

That .45 70 Trapdoor Springfield remained in service from 1873 through the Spanish American War and our wars against the Plains Indians. It was also the rifle most frequently used by buffalo hunters to nearly exterminate the American bison, which was really little more than an extension of the war against the Indians (it’s not widely known, but the dominant reason the U.S. Government encouraged eradication of the American bison was because it was the principal source of food, shelter, and clothing for the Indians).

The Trapdoor action. New in its day, it is antiquated today. It is a weaker action than are those used in modern single shot and lever action rifles, and it therefore is loaded to lower chamber pressures.

Trapdoor Springfield .45 70 Loads

The “Trapdoor” designation for the 1873 Springfield refers to the action design. The Springfield’s action had a hinged element that rotated forward to allow loading a cartridge, which was then closed and locked in place prior to firing a round. It was state of the art in 1873, but it was inherently weak and limited the pressures to which ammunition could be loaded. But it was enough. The Springfield action could withstand pressures up to around 17,000 psi, sufficient to launch a 405-grain projectile at velocities a little north of 1400 feet per second. It was more than enough to kill a man, and in fact, it was enough to kill a buffalo.

Winchester and Marlin .45 70 Loads

The .45 70 cartridge had a lot going for it, and in 1886, Winchester introduced a .45 70 lever action repeater (their Model 1886). Marlin had previously introduced a .45 70 lever action repeater in 1881. The Winchester and Marlin rifles had two advantages: They could fire repeatedly by operating the lever action and squeezing the trigger, and the lever gun actions were stronger (so they could be loaded to higher pressures with resulting higher velocities). I don’t know that any of the ammo companies loaded the cartridge to the higher pressures the Winchester and Marlin rifles could handle back in those days (probably out of a fear that the ammo might be used in the weaker Springfield action), but folks who reload today and who have either a Marlin or a Winchester can load their ammunition to the higher levels allowed by the lever gun receivers.

The reloading manuals show that the Model 1895 Marlin and Model 1886 Winchester lever actions can handle chamber pressures in the 27,000 psi range. That’s enough to drive a 405-grain bullet out at about 1700 feet per second. That’s a smoking hot load.

This is a Chiappa reproduction of the 1886 Winchester rifle, chambered in .45 70. This is a lever action rifle.

The 1886 Chiappa reproduction. The curved metal buttplate is a faithful reproduction of the original Winchester design, and it is punishing when the hammer drops. Nice wood, huh?

A modern Marlin 1895. When I saw this one on the rack, I knew I had to have it. I’ve owned the rifle about 25 years now. It’s very accurate, and it regularly shoots into an inch with open sights at 50 yards.

Ruger No. 1 and No. 3 .45 70 Loads

The next step in the .45 70 evolutionary chain? That would be the single shot rifles offered by Ruger starting in the 1970s. Ruger had two: Their No. 1 rifle and the No. 3. Both use the same action, and it’s strong. In the Ruger rifles, you can load .45 70 ammunition to nearly the same velocities and the same pressures as a .458 Winchester Magnum, which is to say, crazy levels (at least in terms of recoil). Ruger rifles chambered in .45 70 can handle pressures approaching 40,000 psi, with 405-grain bullet velocities north of 2,000 feet per second. I’ve done this. It’s no fun.

A Ruger No. 1 falling block rifle. This is the rare 26-inch barreled version with figured Circassian walnut. Ruger only made a limited number of these variants and most of them have very plain wood. It’s pretty, but the Marlin shown above is more accurate.

.45 70 Loads: The Bottom Line

The upshot of all this? There are three levels to which you can reload .45 70 ammunition: The Trapdoor Springfield level, the 1886 Winchester/Marlin level, and the Ruger level. When you see this in a reloading manual, you’ll see three sets of reloading data, designated separately as explained in this blog.

What does all this mean in the real world? Your mileage may vary, but for me, I never venture into the Marlin/Winchester and Ruger .45 70 reloading levels. There’s just too much recoil, and you don’t need to go there for accuracy. I would argue further that you don’t need to go there for lethality (the .45 70 in 1873 Trapdoor Springfields killed a lot of buffalo). I stick to the Springfield levels for all of my rifles (even though I could go higher), and that’s how I’m going to load for the new Henry rifle, too.

More Tales of the Gun here, including detailed info on each of the rifles shown above!

Loaded for bear…

Good buddy Jason, a Ruger No. 1 in .338 Win Mag, and a 400-lb, 7-ft Alaskan black bear.

As the title of this blog implies and in this case, my good buddy Jason was literally loaded for bear. For several years I had owned a Ruger No. 1 single-shot rifle in .338 Win Mag. That’s a monster of a magnum. I had never fired the rifle and I sold it to Jason. He told me he was going on a bear hunt in Alaska (something I’ve always wanted to do), and I was happy to the see the rifle go to a good home. Most recently, Jason sent the photo you see above and a recap of his hunt to me to share here on the ExNotes blog. Here you go, folks!

It all started in 2016 when I purchased my first Ruger No. 1 in 338 Win Mag from Joe. I’ve always wanted a Ruger No. 1, but I already had a Winchester Model 70 in 338 Win Mag. I planned to go on a bear hunt in 2018, so what I did was sell my Winchester Model 70 to my best friend, who went on the bear hunt, too. I would be using my Ruger No. 1. So this is a story about me and my new rifle and our quest for a big Southeast Alaskan black bear. It was a guided hunt through Alaskan Coastal Outfitters.

Our base camp was on a boat and in the evening we would take a skiff and cruise around all the little islands and bays looking for the right bear. We saw lots of bears (a lot of sows with cubs). We also saw a lot of boars. On Day 4 of our hunt we saw a really nice bear. We got as close as we could without spooking him. My guide told me to get out of the boat and he held the boat still for me. Then, as I was pulling my leg over the side of the boat I got hooked on to the edge of the boat and I fell face down in 8 inches of water.

The bear ran off and my beautiful Ruger No.1 was laying in 8 inches of salt water, so we raced back to the boat, took the rifle apart, and cleaned it up so it was like new.

The next day we went out again and this time I was extra cautious not to fall in when we came across the bear you see in the picture. He was about 300 yards from the skiff when we spotted him. We got as close as we could without spooking him, which was about 140 yards, and my guide kept on asking me if I could make the shot. I always answered “yes, no problem.” I lay down and rested my rifle on my pack. Wouldn’t you know it, I had to lay down in a little creek so I got wet again. We lay there for what seemed to be an eternity. My guide made sure it was a boar and not a sow. Finally, he gave me the OK.

Just then, the bear turned so he had his back to me (so I couldn’t shoot). It gave me an opportunity to situate my follow-up shot. I decided the quickest way to get a follow-up shot (if I needed one) was to shoot with the next round in my hand.

The bear finally turned broadside and I dropped the hammer. I hit him just behind the shoulder and he dropped. My guide backed me up with a 375 H&H rifle, but he didn’t need to fire it. The bear went down, and when we reached him, we saw he was the monster he appeared to be from a distance. The bear measured 7 feet and weighed about 400 lbs.

Jason, that’s an awesome story and a magnificent photograph. I was sorry to see that rifle go, but it obviously went to a good home and you sure put it to good use. You know, it takes a real sportsman to do what you did…going after bear with a single-shot rifle. Congratulations on a successful hunt, and thanks much for sharing your adventure with us here on the ExhaustNotes blog!

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Pigs and Poison Oak

A stunning, Turnbull color case hardened Ruger Super Blackhawk in .44 Magnum.

Another beautiful .44 Magnum…this one is a 1970s Marlin Model 1894 with a Williams aperture rear sight.

Friday was a good day, as is any day spent on the range, and for me, Friday last week meant a visit to the West End Gun Club. Hey, I’m retired. Ride the motorcycle, or head to the range? Life is good either way. This past Friday, the range got the nod.

I took two guns with me. One was a new Ruger Turnbull Super Blackhawk I recently picked up from a Gunbroker auction at a decent price. The other was Marlin 1894 lever action rifle that I’ve owned too long and shot too little. Both are chambered in .44 Magnum. The idea here is that you have two guns both chambered for the same cartridge, and it makes for a good combination to carry afield. Mind you, I’m not too sure where “afield” is actually located, but I kind of get the idea…it’s a place that frequently appears in gun ads and Western novels, a place where manly men hang out. The thought is that you only have to carry one cartridge, so you can save your manliness for other endeavors.

My take on the concept? I think it’s a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist. I had opportunities to carry both a rifle and a handgun at the same time when I was in the Army, but I thought doing so was just dumb. I didn’t want the added weight, so I always went for either an M-16 or a 1911 (but never both) depending on what I was doing that day. On a hunting trip, I think it’s an absolute bust. When I was a lot younger, one time chasing hogs I carried a 9mm handgun and a .300 H&H Mag custom Weatherby rifle (I know, .300 H&H was massive overkill for hogs). The first day of that adventure was enough to convince me that carrying both a handgun and a rifle was silly, and I left the handgun home after that (I spent that entire first day walking through the woods trying to not scratch the rifle on the handgun). And in case you were wondering, the only thing I came home with on that trip was the worst case of poison oak I ever had.

That said, the idea of a lever gun and a sixgun both chambered for the same cartridge maybe made sense when the .44-40 was winning the West. In those days, you could get a Colt six-shooter and a Winchester lever gun that both used the .44-40 cartridge. Or maybe I’ve just been reading too many Zane Grey novels. But the idea has had a following stimulated by rifle and handgun marketing types for years. Like I said, unless you are transported back in time and you get around on a horse, I think carrying a rifle and a handgun is wacky. But I own a rifle and a handgun that shoot the same cartridge (the two firearms you see in the above photos), and just for grins I wanted to see if I could find a load that is superbly accurate in both.

To cut to the chase, the answer so far is no. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

I’ve been shooting .44 Mag since shortly after Dirty Harry adorned the silver screen, and I’ve been reloading the round for about that long, too. I haven’t shot .44 Mag in a handgun much in the last few years (the recoil can only be described as brutal and Lord knows I’m no spring chicken), and I had not shot the .44 Mag Marlin rifle hardly at all. It was time to address both character deficiencies, I thought, and last Friday was as good a day as any to do so.

I’m a sucker for lever actions with pretty wood, and the Marlin checked all the boxes for me.

See what I mean? It’s not bad. Not exceptional, but above average, and the price was right.

The Williams aftermarket aperture sight on the 1894 Marlin. The theory is that an aperture sight is more accurate than a simple notch rear sight. I prefer the plain notch sight.

I bought the Marlin when Reagan was in the White House. I’m not sure why. It was one of those guns you buy and then just never shoot much. I felt guilty about that. And the Turnbull was one I wanted to use. Yeah, it’s almost too pretty to shoot. Almost. Like I said, I hit the Gunbroker “bid again” button a sufficient number of times to take it home. It’s beautiful, and like you’ve read on these pages before, I am a big fan of Turnbull-finished firearms.

Turnbull color case hardening. Gresh talked about what constitutes art in his most recent blog. To me, this is it.

The starboard side of the Turnbull Ruger. Pretty, huh?

Even though I had not shot much .44 Magnum in recent years, I had a half-dozen different loads in .44 Mag squirreled away in my ammo locker: One box of factory ammo that’s been there for a decade or more (I can’t remember where I picked it up, one I reloaded with Hornady jacketed bullets, and the rest I had reloaded with various cast or swaged lead bullets. My intent was to find the magic load that shot well in both the Marlin 1894 rifle and the Ruger revolver. There was nothing scientific in any of this; I just had a bunch of different loads and I thought I would try them all.

So, back to the range. It was a beautiful day, but it was windy as hell out at the West End Gun Club last Friday and I’m sure that affected my results. But, sometimes it’s windy. What are you going to do? I shoot when I can. And I just wanted to get an idea what my six different loads would do in the rifle and the handgun.

So, here’s the bottom line…

Revolver and rifle load testing results with the Ruger Super Blackhawk and the Marlin 1894. These are my loads only; you should start lower and develop your own to make sure any load is safe in your gun.

None of my cast or swaged loads had acceptable accuracy in the rifle. That’s probably because of the Marlin microgroove bore and the diameter to which my cast bullets had been sized. I don’t think Marlin uses microgroove rifling any more in their .44 Magnum lever guns. Microgroove rifling is a very shallow rifling technique; current Marlins use more conventional (and deeper) Ballard-type rifling. I’d read online that to get a .44 Magnum cast bullet to shoot in the Marlin microgroove barrel, you had to size the bullets to 0.433 inch. All of my cast stuff is sized smaller than that around the standard 0.429 or 0.430 inch (yep, that’s right, a .44 Mag is actually not 0.44 inch in diameter; it’s only 0.429 inch…not that it would matter to anything struck by one of these monstrous high velocity slugs). Oh, and that factory ammo? My box of old HSM factory .44 Magnum was terrible in the Marlin.

It wasn’t all bad news with the Marlin, though. The load with Hornady jacketed flatpoint bullets and Winchester’s 296 propellant shot well in the rifle, as you can see in the chart above. That’s good to know. Interestingly, those bullets are 0.429 inch in diameter. But they shot well. Go figure.

With the Turnbull revolver results varied, but they were generally way better than with the Marlin rifle. All of my cast loads shot reasonably well, although the recoil was horrendous with all of them (except for the one light Bullseye load). The Hornady jacketed bullet load with 296 powder shot well. I’ve always had good luck with 296 powder in both the .357 and .44 Magnum. The HSM factory load? It shot the same in the Ruger as it did in the Marlin, which is to say it was terrible.

Chasing a load that shoots well in both a rifle and a handgun may be a fool’s errand (like I said ealier, I may be reading too much Zane Grey), but it was something I wanted to play around with. The Marlin liked those Hornady jacketed bullets with 296 and they did well in the Ruger, too, so I think the next round of testing will involve using just those bullets with different levels of 296. It may be I need a different loads for the Marlin and the Ruger, but that’s okay. The next time I go “afield” I’ll only be carrying one gun, and you can bet I’ll be keeping a sharp eye out for pigs and poison oak.

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Buffalo Guns!

The 45 70 is a cartridge that’s been around since 1873, and it’s a whopper. Its designation was originally the 45 70 500 (a .45 caliber, 500 grain bullet, packed with 70 grains of powder). It was an Army cartridge used in the 1873 Springfield rifle, and the recoil was fierce enough that Uncle Sam soon cut the bullet weight to 405 grains. The cartridge was also used in Sharps and other rifles, and the early Gatling guns.

Reloaded 45 70 cartridges, with the 300-grain Hornady bullet. This is a big cartridge. It’s what buffalo hunters and Gatling guns used.

After the Army went to the 30 06 cartridge (in, of course, 1906), the 45 70 just about went belly up. But then Ruger re-introduced the 45 70 in their No. 1 single shot rifle in the early 1970s, and Marlin reintroduced their 1895 rifle shortly after that. The fun started all over again. That’s when I got in the game (back in the 1970s), and I’ve been happily sending those big .45 slugs downrange ever since.

I’m a big fan of the 45 70 and I’ve been told I’m a bad influence, as I’ve had several friends buy 45 70 rifles after hanging around me. It’s been fun, especially reloading the 45 70 and comparing recipes (more on that in a second).

As mentioned above, the Ruger No. 1 was the first of the modern rifles chambered in 45 70, and it’s a beautiful firearm. The Ruger No. 3 was an economy version of the No. 1 that Ruger only made for a few years. The No. 3 rifles were substantially less than a No. 1 when new, but because they’ve been discontinued, No. 3 rifles often sell for as much as a No. 1 (and sometimes more). The Marlin is less than either Ruger, but don’t confuse price with quality (or fun). The Marlin is a hoot to shoot, too.

A 45 70 Ruger No. 1, with Circassian walnut furniture and a 26-inch barrel.

The Ruger No. 3, also in 45 70. These rifles sold for about $139 when new. Today they can sell for as much as $1000 in pristine condition.

A Marlin 1895 45 70 Guide Gun. I bought this rifle because of its wood. It’s a good shooter, too.

I mentioned that my several of my friends now have 45 70 rifles, and we all reload 45 70 ammo. The idea is that we want to find the most accurate load for our rifles, and every rifle (even the same model) has its preferences. No two guns shoot the same.

Here’s where all this going. One of my buddies tested a load that looked promising in his 45 70 (a load using Trail Boss gunpowder with a 300 grain jacketed hollow point bullet), so I tried his load along with one other, all in the above three rifles, to see how they would do.

I shot at two targets for this test (a standard silhouette target and a 5-bullseye target). I shot each rifle at the silhouette’s orange center first (my aim point) because I didn’t know where the rounds would hit and I wanted to make sure I was on paper. Then I shot a second group from each rifle at the bullseye targets. I shot 3-shot groups except for one, as noted in my results in the table below. Note that all targets were fired at a distance of 50 yards.

First, the targets…

There are five different groups on this target. My point of aim was the bottom of the orange rectangle.

The bullseye targets. I wasn’t worried about each group’s location; at this point, only group size was of interest. After picking the best load, I’ll adjust the rifle’s sights.

And finally, my tabulated results….

The first load tested would not chamber in the Ruger No. 1 because the bullets were seated too far forward in the brass cartridge case; better to find this out at the range than on a hunting trip!

The Ruger No. 1 really liked that 16.2 grain Trail Boss load (it was my buddie’s favored load). It delivered a 1-inch group. This load was also good in the Marlin, but not nearly as good as others I have shot in that rifle (the Marlin shoots into 0.6-inch with the right load). The No. 3 Ruger seemed to like the 3031 powder load with the 300 grain jacketed hollow point bullets.

As I mentioned above, every rifle responds differently to a given load, and that’s what we try to find…the best load for the best rifle.

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All spun up…a real hot tamale!

I experienced something recently I had heard and read about in years past, but I had never personally experienced. I’d been wanting a .257 Weatherby No. 1 ever since they became available. To understand what that means if you’re not a single-shot rifle aficionado like I am, I need to start with a bit of background.

Roy Weatherby was a southern California entrepreneur who developed a line of ultra-high-velocity rifle cartridges in the 1940s and beyond. Weatherby built a rifle company around his proprietary cartridges, and they are fine firearms. Roy has gone to his reward, and he was one hell of a man while he was with us. I met Weatherby in the early 1980s and I know of what I speak, but that’s a story for another time.

Next bit of information: Of the several cartridges that Mr. Weatherby developed, his personal favorite was the .257 Weatherby. It’s a very, very fast quarter-bore (a .25-caliber cartridge) that has a huge brass case holding a lot of propellant, which vents all its fury on that little bullet when, as they say, the hammer falls. The cartridge is wicked looking. The thing resembles a hypodermic needle, and if you’re shooter and a reloader like me, you get all gaga over such things. The .257 Weatherby has muzzle velocities approaching 4,000 feet per second. To put that in perspective, consider that the 5.56mm NATO round, the one used in the so-called assault rifles and our US Army M-16, is “only” a 3,100 fps cartridge. The .257 Weatherby is super fast. It’s the fastest .25-caliber cartridge there is. In that caliber, there’s nothing faster.

Next bit of gun info: One of the most desirable and beautiful rifles in the world is the Ruger No. 1. It’s a single-shot rifle, which means you load one round at time. When I hear my gun buddies get their shorts in a knot about the “gubmint” limiting us to 10-round magazines, I have to laugh. That’s nine more than a real rifleman needs. One shot, if you’re doing things right, is all it takes.

Next point…last year, Ruger offered their No. 1 single-shot rifle in a very limited run chambered for the .257 Weatherby cartridge. I love the Ruger No. 1 and I always wanted something in chambered for the .257 Weatherby cartridge. For me, it was a no-brainer. I had to have that rifle, and I finally found one (at a good price, and with nice wood). It’s the one you see in the photo at the top of this blog. It’s awesome. Circassian walnut with nice horizontal streaks, a 28-inch barrel, and chambered for the ultimate round. The stock looks good from both sides, too. Take a look…

The excitement with a new rifle like this (beyond the pride of ownership and the dreams of distant hunting trips) is developing a load that groups tightly. Usually, I can get a rifle to shoot into an inch at 100 yards with the right combination of powder, powder charge, bullet, primer, seating depth, and the other variables in cartridge development. It’s a mini-engineering development program, and finding the right recipe is a big part of the fun. Maybe someday I’ll do a blog on that, too.

So I started with my first load, which consisted of 87 gr Hornady bullets, and varying loads of IMR 4350 propellant (what most folks would call the gunpowder, but we reloaders call it propellant). The rifle was grouping okay (nothing great; I haven’t found the perfect load yet), when I got to the last load to be tested. It was a max load, which means it had the highest propellant charge I was testing that day.

None of the loads showed any pressure signs (like flattened primers or difficulty opening the action). That’s what you watch for, to make sure you don’t create loads with excessive pressure.

Even the max load seemed okay, but when I fired the first shot I saw from the hole it made on the target that it was tumbling. After firing the next four, two more tumbled and, not surprisingly, the group had opened up significantly.

It was a lousy load from an accuracy perspective, but here’s where we get to the “never seen this before” before part of the story.

Here’s what the target looked like…

Now, for the really interesting part. Check out the bullet hole at the 7:00 position…the one at the lower left (the target was mounted on its side).

Here’s a closeup of that bullet hole…

Check out the comet-like trail starting at the top of this bullet hole…

The dark roostertail you see above is the lead spraying out of the bullet’s copper jacket as the bullet disintegrated in flight. Some of the bullets disintegrated sooner and started tumbling before they hit the target. This one was breaking up as it went through the target!

Like I said, I had heard of this phenomenon before, but I never actually experienced it firsthand. The muzzle velocity, according to my reloading manual, was just under 4000 fps. Just for grins, I calculated the bullet rpm at that velocity, and by my reckoning, it works out to something approaching 300,000 rpm. That little puppy was spinning, and between the centrifugal forces the bullets were experiencing at that rpm and the aerodynamic heating at those speeds, they were breaking up in flight. That’s fast!

Interesting stuff, to be sure.