When Purchased Ammunition Won't Do

I picked up a book devoted to the Trapdoor Springfield in 45-70. There was also a short lived trapdoor in .50 and others exist that were not US military, but they are not included in the book.  The book is rich in info including sights and their function, various loads, history, trigger dressing, etc. 

You can find it here: http://www.the45-70book.com/

It is looking like I’ll need to be reloading in order to get any accuracy out of the thing.  I’m slowly gathering the things I need; powder, primers, bullets of every type and size imaginable.  My father had a reloading press that is older than dirt.  What could be better for this project?  The Lyman Tru-Line Jr is outdated and won’t take modern dies, but at free, how could I refuse.  A little time on Ebay and I had a new turret on the way to fit new dies.  Midway USA sells an adapter for the case holder that all the reviews say is fragile junk, but if you need it, you need it.  Included with the press came a scale and a charge thrower (powder measure).  By the time I bought all the adapters and knick-knacks, it might have been cheaper to just buy a new press.  Oh well, the Tru-Line has a loyal following.  100s of old coots can’t be wrong.  Right?

Lyman Tru-Line reloading press with a turret for modern dies.

One immediate help from the book is I discover the rear sight is installed upside down.  This may sound odd, but it easier to do than you think and it actually works fairly well inverted.  Anyway, I fix that and also built a new raised front sight by soldering a blade onto a front sight shroud.  It lets me find a setting on the rear sight that will be dead on at 100 yards.  The old front sight is still there, so I can go ahead and raise the rear sight ladder to take those 1600 yard shots if I feel like it.  Of course, that gives me a roughly 128 inch diameter group, not counting wind.  Hmm.

First Firing

After a bit of searching the internet (the source of all truth and knowledge) I ordered up some ammo.  This is a bit more intense a deal than with most guns.  The caliber has been around since the dawn of the metal cartridge.  It has progressively been used in stronger and stronger guns with hotter and hotter loads.  It is entirely possible to buy factory ammunition off the shelf that will blow a good Trapdoor to smithereens.  Owie-boo boo.  I finally settle on loads with “Cowboy Action” lead bullets from Ultramax and 2 different weights of jacketed bullets in mellow loadings from Remington.

Off to the range.  I have some GIGANTIC targets because I know the gun hasn’t fired in 50 years or so and I have no idea where it hits.  I want to start at 50 yards and work my way out, but the coppers have exclusive access to the 50 range this day so they can practice shooting bad guys.  I start out at 100 yards.  Sure enough I can’t hit the target.  With a little help from someone at the range, I discover I am shooting way high.  I later learn that with the sights at the lowest setting it is designed to hit dead on at 260 yards away. 

With that figured out, I can aim at the bottom of the GIGANTIC bullseye and hit near the top.  Time to shoot a box or 2 of ammo and see how she does.  Miserable.  Both the Ultramax and the Remington ammo shoot about 8” groups.  This is worse than double the size Custer’s men were doing, and they still lost.

405 grain Ultramax

300 grain Remington

I measured the holes and popped the info onto a spreadsheet.  I also split the info into vertical (Y) and horizontal (X) components.  My father claims the vertical component is from the gun and the horizontal component is because I sway like a drunkard standing in a canoe, or something to that effect. 

The best fit line through each group can sometimes be helpful figuring out what is causing the scatter, but these groups are round enough that I don't think there's much here to learn.

The project begins...

Not too long ago, my father started giving me some of his firearms.  This was partly a need due to storage concerns, but also a realization that he wasn’t using them anymore.  I soon developed the opinion that a rifle hanging in a rack isn’t really worth much if you don’t use it on occasion.  This is an ongoing saga of my quest to make a Trapdoor Springfield shoot, and maybe shoot well.  It will be a way for me to document my path, series of failures, and occasional successes so I can remember them, and others can learn from them.

The gun is a model 1873 in the then newly created 45-70 cartridge.  It was actually built in 1877, one year after Custer’s last stand.  There appears to be no good way to know the real history of this particular US military rifle as they made gazillions of them for 20 years and continued to use them through the Spanish American War.  They continued in service in the Reserves past WW2.  I do know, from the lack of a “cartouche” or inspection stamp on the stock, that the stock was probably replaced somewhere in the mists of time.  I also know that despite having a bayonet, it was not originally issued one.