45-90 Express Loads

[M. M. Wright]

A while back someone asked if anyone knew what the velocity of the old black powder express loads for 45-90 was. Since I needed to load a few 45-90s It was an easy stretch to run some of them across the Crony. I had plenty of clean sized and primed brass so I counted out 20 and ran them through the neck expander so the bullet pull would be the same for all. Next I had to do a little experimenting to find how much powder I could get into the modern cases. It turned out to be 85 grains of ffg GOEX but it had to be dropped through the 30 inch drop tube and compressed under the arbor press before seating the bullet which put the final 1/8th inch of compression on.



Here's a shot of the set-up we used to chronograph the loads. Some of you will remember my old '86 that had a dark bore but the hundred rounds or so I've put through it has it shiny as a new one inside.


A labor of love and no I don't mind the clean-up.
Velocities were:1604, 1683, 1722, 1492, and 1570 for an average of 1614. Ordinarily I would use a grease cookie under the bullet but to get in a bit more powder I didn't but found I had to wipe the bore after every shot to maintain accuracy. Note the 2 out to the right. I can even see they were a little sideways.

[Ray]

Excellent loading bench and range report !

More often than not we only hear of the "scouring affect" of black powder in a negative context.

[Jay Bird]

That's what I call a "post of substance". Well done M.M. ..... ..I like the "over the hood" shooting fashion....good ole boy style.

Your gun is plenty accurate enough for minute of deer....or like I like to say, minute of beer can.----6

[M. M. Wright]

Yeah six, that 300 grain bullet really works on our little whitetails. I actually killed one at 225 yds. with it and almost that same load.

[J Miller]

M.M. Wright,

That may have been my post about the 45-90-300 velocities, I did ask sometime ago. Thanks for the chronographing.

Question; is that amount of variation normal? I have no experience loading large black powder rounds.

Joe

[bikerbeans]

That ole Chevy is smokin' bad, you might want to consider a valve job and a set of rings.

Very nice rifle.

BB

[Pitchy]

Your having fun Ron, thanks for sharing.