Downloading, reguarding fillers ?

[Marshal Deadwood]

When downloading from longer case calibres,,such as loading light 45-110s to mild 45-70 velocities for 'plinking' at short ranges,etc,,,,to avoid air space in the case,,,what is the 'best' filler ? Should the powder load be compressed before adding the filler ? Should both be compressed ? Or, should both be added as standard volume measurments without compression ?

How do you ,,,use,,,filler ? What do you use ? ,,cornmeal ?

Sorry for asking the question so confusing or vauge, I have very limited knowledge on useing fillers to 'download' ...

MD

[Ranch 13]

 If I was wanting to slow the 2 7/8 down I'ld be using standard grade 1f and just enough that the bullet and wad would have firm contact with out  compressing. If that didn't slow it down enough to suit, the cut the charge some more and add either thick felt or cork wads between the wad over the powder and the bullet.

[Hell-Er High Water]

Marshal,

For several years now I have been using the following method to download the 50-70 Gov't case to approximatly duplicate the U. S. Gov't carbine load which, according to Cartridges Of The World, was known as the 50 U. S. Carbine round and loaded with a 400 grain bullet and 45 - 50 grains of Fg BP.  Full blown 50-70 loads are brutal in a light weight carbine!!!!!!!!

In the standard 50-70 case I load 43.0 grains of FFg BP and a 360 grain bullet.  Powder is loaded through a drop tube and a large tuft of PURE COTTON is placed over the powder.  The cotton comes up to the case mouth before the bullet is seated.  Seating the bullet then compresses the cotton so that it acts like a wad column over the powder.  This eliminates a long wad column but keeps the powder held firmly against the case head and primer.

Pure cotton will bun to an ash when ignited but synthetic cotton will melt and form a plastic type residue when ignited.  If you don't know that what you have is pure cotton, a simple test is to take a small sample of what you are going to use and hold it with a pair of tweezers and light it with a match.

A load similar to this may accomplish what you are trying to do with the 45-110.

Keep us advised.

HHW

[Sgt. Jake]

  Ranch 13 Offered some good advice.Ive never down loaded the 2 7/8,but as Ranch13 said, the govt downloaded the 45 govt. with cork wads ,for the 55 gr.load.   Good Luck  Sgt.Jake