From the 45-70 Cases Part lll

From the 45-70 and Others Part lll

There are a lot of cases that could be made from the 45-70 if it was longer. The case length is 2.1” and that is a lot shorter then anything that can be made from it. If you have the facilities to stretch it fine but most of us don’t posses such equipment. The good news is you can buy anything from 45-90 to 45-120 sometimes called basic. Many of the obscure cases can be made from the basic including the 44-70 Maynard, 44-75 Everlasting, 44-90 Remington necked, and the 44-90 Remington straight. There are a couple of dozen of the Sharps, Remington, Ballard and others. If you are in doubt take a chamber cast to measure the chamber diameter against the 45-70 or basic case. That will give you a lot of necessary info. Some of them are made from 30-40 Krags and 405 Winchester cases which we will deal with at a later date. When you are dealing with some of those old guns a chamber cast is necessary because different companies gave their cartridge the same name but the dimensions are entirely different. Sharps for instance made two different 40-70 cartridges one was necked while the other was straight. There are many examples of that with Sharps, Remington, Winchester etc; It makes you wonder how an old time gun store kept all the different calibers on hand.

 While not cheap in all instances, it is serviceable and can be reloaded several times at least. The nice thing about low pressure loads is the brass will last longer not to mention the firearm. Once you get the formed brass you can load it with a die that is close or make your own. Frequently those dies cost a lot and unless you are going to do a lot of shooting with that weapon it doesn’t always pay to but a set of those dies. I have reworked various sets of dies to suite my needs with good success. If you are a machinist or have access to one that will take care of the odd die problem.

Another thing that I have done is thinning and turning down rims without a special tool or lathe. I put them in a drill and touch them with a file as it rotates. If I want to thin the rim I just lightly touch a file to the top of it until I get the results I want. To make it smaller in diameter just touch the side a little. If you are real careful you can bevel a rim this way though I don’t see much of a need for that. Don’t make the rims too thin or you could have misfires because the cartridge might drop too deep into the chamber. It would be a form of excess headspace and the firing pin might not be able to reach the primer. If the firing pin doesn’t strike the primer sharply you could have either a misfire or hangfire. Also don’t make the rims too small or the extractor might not be able to hook it and extract it. After you process the rim you can hold some steel wool and smooth and polish it to make it look professional. A little practice and you can do a decent job but it is time consuming and I sure wouldn’t want to do a large number of cases that way though I have had success on a number of occasions. Anytime you work cases it is very important to make sure the bases don’t get excessively hot. That will weaken them and cause a dangerous situation where it could rupture. If you are using the file properly the rims won’t get hot.

There are definite differences in cases as far as weight and hardness goes. As a test I weighed some cases from 4 different brands. The Starline brass is the heaviest but not by much over Remington and PMC. Winchester brass was the lightest by almost 30 grains. Starline seems to be the hardest while Remington is the softest at least in my experience. I do a lot of case work and I use different brands for different operations as one brand might be more suitable then another for a specific job.

Another round that benefits from the 45-70 is the 6.5 Daudeteau which was used by the French and Uruguay in the 1890’s. There are differences in the rim because the gun used by Uruguay was a conversion from the model 71 Mauser while the French used a Daudeteau rifle. The model 71 requires a slightly larger rim though the rest of the body is the same. You would shorten the case and neck down besides the rim work. Neck reaming and annealing would be a distinct possibility with this one. If you take a 45-70 case down to a small caliber neck reaming is mandatory to avoid hard chambering and excess pressures. I would take it down about half way and ream there somewhere around 33 caliber would work fine. If you take it down to the 6.5 and ream you might make the neck too thin. You should use two or three steps to avoid shoulder collapse. Necking down from a 45 to a 6.5 in one step usually puts too much stress on the case thus the multiple steps. Patience is the watchword when performing this task. Another option is outside neck turning which might work for you. The same case trimmer can utilize the neck turner or reamer of your choice. When a gun is fired the bullet has to be able to exit the neck at a certain point and if it is unable to do so dangerous pressures can result. Here again the 7.62 X 54 Russian case would probably also work. The Russian case might be easier to work with due to its already smaller caliber and has a beveled rim. The beveled rim was used on many of the older cartridges and it may have to be utilized on your brass to insure proper feeding. Another thing to keep in mind if you are deciding to use either a 45-70 or a 7.62 X 54 Russian is the Russian case is about .014 smaller at the base then the Springfield round. That information is very important in deciding which case to use.

These are just some of the conversions that can benefit from the 45-70 case. Since meny of these guns were obsolete by 1900 no one makes brass or ammo for them. However in my view they are way too interesting not to shoot so the effort in making ammo for them is well worth the while. After all the first reason to shoot any gun is fun.