Loading & Range Report- Taylor's '76 .45-60 Black Powder

[Shasta]

I have been doing quite a bit of load experimenting with my Taylor's 1876 Winchester copy in .45-60. It has a 28" barrel and is fitted with a Marble's tang sight and a Beech front sight.





I have limited myself to one bullet, a cast lead Saeco 1E 306 grain, because that's the mould I have. Powder has mostly been Goex Fg because I have a lot of it on hand. Several different primers have been tried, with powder charges of 50, 55, and 60 grains by weight.

Perhaps the single best thing discovered is the absolute necessity of a 1/16" grease cookie under the bullet. Without it I could not get a cleaning patch & jag into the bore more than a few inches at a time after firing just five shots. With a grease cookie I can easily run a patch through even after twenty shots. It really keeps the black powder fouling soft.

Best load so far using Starline .45-70 cases modified to fit the .45-60 has been a Winchester Large Rifle primer, 55 gr. by weight of Fg Goex black powder, a milk carton wad, a grease cookie, another milk carton wad, and the Saeco bullet sized .459 using SPG lube. The powder is dropped into the case through a 2 ft. drop tube, then further compressed about 1/8" with a powder compression die before the rest of the components are added.

Here is a picture of the best target shot off the bench at a measured 50 meters:



Shots 1,2, & 3 went into 3/8". Shot 4 was a bit left and opened the group to 7/8". Shot 5 was right of the others and opened the group to 2 1/8". I don't know if #5 was caused by fouling build-up or if it was just me. Chronograph showed AV 1046, Es 32, SD 12, AD 8.

Looks pretty promising to me!

Shasta

[Lanyard Stretcher]

Very nice rifle! Nice group.

Mike

[shawn_c992001]

Maybe try some Triple Seven? Easy clean up and no where near the fouling, AND not as corrosive. I couldn't bring myself to shoot black in one of my guns. Hats off to you.

[Grizzly Adams]

Powder has mostly been Goex Fg because I have a lot of it on hand.

Fg?

[shawn_c992001]

Fg? I missed that part! Try FFg. Group size should drop.

[Andrew]

Looks very promising, you should be pretty happy.

[Shasta]

Yep. Fg. Like I said, I'm trying to work with what I got. I've found that my .45 Colt revolver really likes Fg too.

I just can't bring myself to shoot fake black powder, especially considering the cost. Cleaning up after shooting black is not at all difficult.

I intend to work up loads for Goex Cartridge and Goex FFg too. I have good supplies of both and have already shot the rifle some with them. Half the fun for me is figuring out good loads!

[rjohns94]

Excellent report and rifle. Looks like you are getting some meaningful data and won't be long before get settled in a great load. What plans do you have for that beautiful rifle? Hunting? target competition? thanks for the post

[Grizzly Adams]

Yep. Fg. Like I said, I'm trying to work with what I got. I've found that my .45 Colt revolver really likes Fg too.

Interesting. Winchester used to put the reloading data on the cartridge boxes back in the day. Fg was the powder grade they recommended for reloading the 1876 family of calibers. Yours is the first report I have seen of someone who actually used Fg!

[Ysabel Kid]

Shasta -

That is a heck of a group - thank you for sharing the pictures, range report and data!

I haven't had the courage to shoot black in my .45-60 Chaparral Arms reproduction. How do you clean the rifle afterwards? How far do you disassemble it for cleaning?

Thanks!!!

[RIHMFIRE]

Thats right smart shoot'n
and a very handsome rifle....

[Chuck 100 yd]

Fg was used by many if not most target shooters of the 1800`s as read in many accounts of the time.

Great range report Shasta. I agree, cant see using fake powder in any of my rifles when the REAL THING is at hand.

[Chuck 100 yd]

Fg was used by many if not most target shooters of the 1800`s as read in many accounts of the time.

Great range report Shasta. I agree, cant see using fake powder in any of my rifles when the REAL THING is at hand.

[Shasta]

rjohns94- To answer your question, my main focus for this rifle will be 200 meter lever action silhouette shooting. I would also like to try it for deer hunting, but then I have a dozen or so other rifles I'd also like to try for that! I never seem to have much luck hunting deer so it might just have to wait a while.

Ysabel Kid- As for final cleaning the rifle after shooting black powder, as soon as possible after finishing shooting, my routine is to open the action, push the brass cartridge lifter to the down position, then turn the rifle upside down so any powder residue pushed out by the patch falls away from the action. Any cleaner designed for black powder will do fine. I use a jag tip with a wet patch, and run as many patches down as needed to get a clean one, usually 6 or 8 will do, but depending on the degree of fouling more may be needed. I raise the cartridge lifter and run a damp patch through the bore into the lower half of the lifter to clean it. I then run several dry patches through to make sure the bore and lifter internals are dry. I then use a wet patch to wipe down the breech area, changing to a fresh patch as needed. I wipe down the rear of the barrel, the bolt face, and both insides of the receiver, raising and lowering the brass cartridge lifter to wipe everything down good. Then I wipe everything again with a dry patch.
I then use a couple WD-40 soaked patches to wipe out the bore and all metal surfaces of the rifle. I know a lot of folks bad-mouth WD-40 as a gun oil, but I live in a dry climate and it has served me very well for many years. That is as far as I go most of the time.
I have removed the sideplates and dropped out the brass cartridge lifter a few times, but don't find enough residue to make it worthwhile.

The gun-cleaning process takes longer to describe than it takes to do the job. In my opinion it is more of a pain to get the fired cartridges cleaned up than to clean the rifle. The empty cartridges are soaked a few minutes in vinegar, rinsed, scrubbed inside each one with a soapy brush, rinsed again, dried either on the stove or air dried, then run through a vibratory tumbler before reloading. Boy do I know how to have fun or what?!

[Ysabel Kid]

Sounds "exciting", that's for sure!

Thanks for the tip. My only black-powder shooting to date has been with muzzle-loaders. For these I use the old disassemble, and soak what you can in hot-soapy water method, scrub vigorously, dry, WD-40 (it's not a "water-displacer" for nothing), dry, light oil and your set!

[Wayne Miller]

The gun-cleaning process takes longer to describe than it takes to do the job. In my opinion it is more of a pain to get the fired cartridges cleaned up than to clean the rifle. The empty cartridges are soaked a few minutes in vinegar, rinsed, scrubbed inside each one with a soapy brush, rinsed again, dried either on the stove or air dried, then run through a vibratory tumbler before reloading. Boy do I know how to have fun or what?!

You, Sir, are a Party Animal!!

[Griff]

I got to shoot an 1876 for the first time over the weekend. a fellow Levergunner brought his up to the Billy Dixon range; don't recall the exact load, but .45-60 with I think a 325gr RCBS bullet and Swiss 1-½ powder. Let's just say how satisfying it was to get a "DING" on the coyote silhouette at 428 yards... offhand! Yes, there was some CHALLENGING shooting going on! Wish I had the talent to keep up!

[C. Cash]

Gotta love it when things work out!

[Griff]

Yep. Fg. Like I said, I'm trying to work with what I got. I've found that my .45 Colt revolver really likes Fg too.
I just can't bring myself to shoot fake black powder, especially considering the cost. Cleaning up after shooting black is not at all difficult.
I intend to work up loads for Goex Cartridge and Goex FFg too. I have good supplies of both and have already shot the rifle some with them. Half the fun for me is figuring out good loads!

I gotta concur. I shot about 70 shots thru my Sharps over the weekend. I shot several strings of up to 5 shots before wiping... I could see my accuracy deteriorate after the 3rd shot. So I started wiping after shot or two. Helped. Prior to this event I've shot for groups with 1f, 2f, and Cartridge in my big volume case (90grs.) while I didn't have great success with 1f, I haven't complete ruled it out. Several BPCR shooters highly recommend Swiss 1-½, and after seeing some great shooting over the weekend, I'm really looking forward to getting home and picking up the two cans I have waiting.

Shasta, remember Cartridge is actually a granulation between ff and fffg. I love it in my .45 Colts and shotgun, and have pretty much decided that if the Swiss works well in my .40-90SBN, the 2f will be saved for the .53 muzzle-stuffer.

As for cleaning... here's what I've found. A couple of patches with plain water; a patch or two over that with water, then dry until they come out clean. A final oil soaked patch for a coating. Then a quick wipe before shooting and I'm good to go. I honestly believe clean-up from real black powder (it's water-soluble) is much easier than with either subs or smokeless, which BOTH require chemicals to clean. You study what dedicated BP shooters clean with and you'll find they have a variety of water based concoctions for cleaning. But... note... they're ALL water based. Something that was is fairly plentiful supply on the frontier, they had a lack of chemicals. The difference in bore condition of most any originals is (IMO) the result of cleaning or not cleaning, not the fact that they only used water. What could be simpler.