Load and Accuracy Info
If you’re so lucky to own a .50-70, it’s a forgiving cartridge to load, and in my experience the average .50-70 rifle will outshoot a comparable .45-70 rifle in terms of accuracy. I expect my old, coarse sighted .50-70 Trapdoors, even with a bit of pitting in their bores, to produce 3-shot groups of 3/4 to 1″ groups at 50 yards, and 3 to 4″ clusters at 100. The larger groups at 100 yards aren’t the fault of the rifle or the load, but the product of very crude musket sights.
The loads? First, with all-new Starline brass,
I open up the flash hole with a 3/32″ drill to promote good ignition of black powder or black powder substitutes with Federal 215 Magnum primers. The standard bullet is the 450-gr. Lyman or Lee bullet cast from a 20-1 temper mix that drops from the mold with a diameter of 0.515. No sizing is necessary.
I lubricate them with either SPG lube, Lyman Black Powder Gold or a 50-50 mixture of beeswax and olive oil. If you don’t cast, Buffalo Arms is a reliable source for the cast and lubricated Lyman bullet and Lyman .50-70 dies.
The best performing loads in my 1870 rifle have been 70 grains Swiss 1-1/2 black powder (or Olde Eynsford) at approximately 1,290 fps, and a duplex load consisting of 7.0 grains of IMR 4759 as a priming charge plus 52 grains of Swiss 1-1/2 for approximately 1,315 fps.
For a complete smokeless load, try 9.5 grains of Trail Boss for approximately 845 fps and MOA accuracy. Always use “Trapdoor” reloading data.
That’s the story of the other Trapdoor — the successful and frugal conversion of a Civil War muzzleloading rifled musket into a very workable .50-70 Trapdoor.
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