400gr DD/PRS Testing in Lever Gun

[Silver Creek Slim]

I loaded up 20 rounds on Saturday and did a rapid fire test in my Marlin 1895 circa 1978. It has a 22" micro-groove barrel. The loads were: 63gr of FFg Goex (measure by weight), orange juice carton wad, 400gr DD/PRS boolit pan lubed with 50% Beef fat (hamburger grease) 50% Misc Wax, R-P cases, Rem 9 1/2 Magnum primers, moderate crimp. I loaded one round in the chamber and 4 in the magazine tube. Shot the gun empty. Reload as fast as possible (1 in chamber, 4 in mag tube). Repeated until 20 rounds were shot. I squeezed the trigger as soon as the sights were lined up with the target. The target was set at 50 yards. Below is the picture of the target.

Slim

[Tommy tornado]

Did a couple of those bullets keyhole?

[Silver Creek Slim]

Did a couple of those bullets keyhole?

No, they just tore the paper out more. The holes in the cardboard backing were round.

Slim

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[Tommy tornado]

Thanks for posting your results.  I am currently trying to decide between the 400 grainer and the 500 grainer by DD for my trapdoor.  I really like his .45 LC bullet. 

[Cuts Crooked]

Yo!  Tommy!!! A pard of miine shoots an original TD and we've found that the 400gr does better in it than the 500.

[Tommy tornado]

Yo!  Tommy!!! A pard of miine shoots an original TD and we've found that the 400gr does better in it than the 500.

Which is funny because I think the original Trapdoor round was a 500 grain bullet for the Infantry.

[Cuts Crooked]

Which is funny because I think the original Trapdoor round was a 500 grain bullet for the Infantry.

Yeah I think yer correct on that...I don' know my Trapdoor stuff all that well. But I seem to recall that they went to a lighter slug fer the Carbine load, later in it's history.

[Grapeshot]

The original bullet for the .45 Government round was 405 grains.  For the infantry rifle it had a charge of 70 grains of Black Powder.  For the Cavalry Carbine the charge was 55 grains of Black Powder and a cork wad to take up the air space.  In the 1880's the bullet for the infantry rifle was changed to the 500 grain bullet that we are familiar with.  This proved to be more accurate at long range than the 405 grain bullet.

The carbine load was left as is.  .45-405-55

[john boy]

Here's a 10 shot string test load from last week at 100 yards on sand bags with a H&R 1871:

Load Name: DD/PRS 400gr (45-70) 61gr Goex #1
Bullet Mfg: DD/PRS
Bullet Type: Lead 1:20
Bullet Caliber: 45-70
Bullet Weight: 382
Ballistic Coeff: 0.270
Powder Mfg: Goex
Powder Type: FFg
Powder Weight: 61.000
Powder Lot Number: 0291-02DE-04D
Primer Mfg: CCI
Primer Size: 200 LR
Primer Type: LR
Primer Lot Number: C06H
Case Mfg: Starline
Case Length: 2.090
Case # Times Loaded: 2
Cartridge OAL: 2.548
Comparator OAL: 2.550
Av. Group size: 2.518
Av. Group Velocity: 1205
Cartridge Mfg Date: 2004
Cartridge Lot Number:
Moly Coated: No
Crimped: Yes

Average muzzle velocity was 1234 fps.  No cleaning of the bore was done between shots.
Next recipe will be 63 grains compressed in the 0.1 to 0.2 range casted at 1:30

Because of the length of the bullet that needs to be seated for the 500 grain Twin Groove (lack of powder) to achieve OAL ... they shoot miserably in a 45-70.