45/70 lead bullet

[liten]

hi does any one no, if old 45/70 round s came with sharp nose or a flatened off nose and overall lengthe of caseing plus the lead bullet   , thanks

[pony express]

I believe they were a plain, round, nose bullet.

[Trailrider]

They were round nose. Until the advent of repeating rifles in .45-70 came along (Winchester Hotchkis, Remington-Keene, Winchester M1886, Marlin M1881, etc.) there was no need for a flat meplat.  Overall length for the government 500 grain and 405 grain loads was about 2.55".  There was no need to limit the overall length of the bullets in single shot rifles since most of the bullets had the portion beyond the mouth of the cartridge case about the diameter of the bore rather than the grooves.  BTW, don't let the term "cylindro-conoidal" found in original specs confuse you. This simply refers to a round-nose bullet with a cylindrical body. The use of pointed bullets in big BP cartridges like the .45-70 is pretty recent.  While they may give a slight edge in ballistic coefficient, the longer length for the weight requires some faster twist rifling than was common in the original rifles.  I have seen Winchester HiWalls with a 1-in-19" twist, which will handle bullet that are fairly heavy and/or with sharp points, but generally the twists run 1-22, especially in military rifles and carbines.

[liten]

thanks  , it seems all you can get today is the blunt nose

[pony express]

If you cast, Lyman has moulds that are supposed to be the origional profile, one is a 500 gr, and a 385 gr that is supposed to be the same nose profile of the 405 gr.