Carbide 45-70 dies?

[The Hobbit]

Thanks everyone, grabbed a set of rcbs dies yesterday. Any knowledge on my question about the hornady brass? Can I use it with other bullets or just the hornady bullet?

[Walleye Hunter]

Thanks everyone, grabbed a set of rcbs dies yesterday. Any knowledge on my question about the hornady brass? Can I use it with other bullets or just the hornady bullet?

I ain't no specialist yet but I believe that brass is brass and bullits is bullits and neither knows who made the other.

[The Hobbit]

I ain't no specialist yet but I believe that brass is brass and bullits is bullits and neither knows who made the other.

Thanks for the well deserved smart ass reply. I ask what seems a obvious question because I seem to remember reading somewhere that the leverevolution brass was shorter the regular brass. That if I wanted to load the ftx bullet I needed to shorten regular brass. So does the opposite hold true, do I need the magic case stretcher to use the hornady brass with a 405 grain bullet.

[Delkal]

It seems like a terrible idea for Hornady to make brass that is not to SAMMI specs just for their one type of bullet. Never heard that one before. How much shorter is the case? The biggest problem I see is if you have some standard cases mixed in you will have to adjust your crimp and seating for the regular case. The longer case will get crushed. And if the Hornady case is too short you might not even get a good crimp with standard dies. This sounds like a PITA.

But as long as all of your brass is all the same length and can crimp it in your die it shouldn't matter what bullet you put in. You will have to pay attention to where the bullets crimp groove is (if you use it) and remember if you seat a bullet to a shorter OAL the case capacity is reduced and pressures can increase slightly. But with a 45-70 your shoulder doesn't want you to push a max load.

[scott125]

i measured the Hornady brass I have and got a reading of 2.045''. Way short. My Starline brass is the proper length. I only use the Hornaday brass in my Springfield trap door using black powder. Since I don't crimp those and since I only shoot the trap door for fun I didn't think the short length makes much difference. I'm much more fussy with brass and loading for my rolling block.

Suggest just getting Starline brass. If you don't want the Hornaday I'd be interested. Just more rounds to load for the trap door.

[41 Redhawk]

Hornaday brass from Leverevolution is shorter than normal 45/70 brass because the gummy tipped bullets are longer than other 45/70 bullets. This is so the OAL of the loaded cartridge is not too long to function through Marlin leverguns. If that is the brass you have you can reload it with the gummy tipped bullets for the correct OAL. You can also load normal 45/70 bullets in that brass but the OAL will be shorter than normal and you will need to reduce the powder charges as the case capacity will be less. Conversely, if you are loading the gummy tipped bullets and have normal length brass you will have to trim the cases to match the leverevolution cases. Hope this helps

[Bang]

I guess there is latitude in what can be described as straight wall cases. To say carbide dies are only for straight wall cases isn't exactly correct. The 9mm Luger case tapers .011". Introducing a tapered case into a tapered die, steel or otherwise, would be like a Morse tapered drill bit requiring a wedge drift to unseat it. I believe steel die interiors are straight. If so, there is no reason they couldn't be carbide. Not sure about this though. Been a while since reloading .45-70.

[JenniferG]

I guess the bullet seating stem has to be special for those FTX soft tip bullets. The part number is 397120. The bullet seating stem must push down on the ogive of the bullet rather than the tip of the bullet. Standard bullet seating stems are designed to push against the meplat if flat and tip for round bullets. I went through this bullet seating stem thing with my Lee dies for 38/357 using semi wadcutters.Don't ever believe anything is a universal fit. Check everything before you get to bullet seating. Pull that stem out of the die and make sure it's going to work with your particular bullet. If the bullet doesn't sit in that seat correctly you'll get bullets pushed into the case and not be concentric or damages the case. It doesn't have perfectly fit but using a flat or rounded seating stem that pushes on the tip on a pointed bullet makes for inconsistencies, the enemy of accuracy and safety.

I looked into reloading the FTX and I see no advantage to the design. As was posted already the cases are shorter or have to be shortened to use those bullets. I guess if you like the idea of the FTX reloads then give it a try I noticed they are one of those items that are readily available right now.



https://www.hornady.com/bullets/rifl...-450-marlin#!/



https://www.opticsplanet.com/hornady...gr-397120.html

[Delkal]

FTX bullets all all marketing and a solution to a problem that doesn't exist. Load a 400 grain cast bullet to a medium hot load and you have a deer hammer that will go thru any non dangerous game in North America (and probably most of the dangerous game too). Why shoot a light for caliber bullet with less penetration so you get a little less drop at 200+ yards.

If you ever go to the deep end with reloading start casting your own bullets and get a Lee 457-405-F mold for 10-20 cents each. You will never find the bullet in anything you shoot..

[Walleye Hunter]

Holy Chit! I was clueless that those bullets were that heavy.