Either of your straight black or duplex with an over powder wad in the case mouth seem reasonable IMO. You might consider adding a felt wad (1/16"?) on the bullet base, seated so the felt is a snug fit between bullet base and case mouth. With duplex you may be able to shoot dirty or with blow tube between shots (depending on temperature and humidity).
Your 45-70 might be competitive in some Schuetzen matches but with a 400gr bullet, recoil may become a real issue if you intend to shoot bench rest matches. 
Best of luck and please let is know how it works out.

westerner wrote on Sep 22^nd, 2025 at 5:09pm:


😂😂 I got laid off a couple weeks ago and am looking for work now. Our last match was just before that and I was having issues. Got home and when I breech seated my bullets, there was absolutely no engraving. Took a chamber cast, and the rifling doesn't start until about .325" in front of the case. The bore was pitted when I got it (I knew that, so no issue), but it seems I finally shot out the old barrel. I will either get it rebored up to a 35, or just get a new barrel put on it when I get steady income again, so the 45-70 is just a stopgap. I have a martini MK2 22lr that I'll shoot too, but since I have all the stuff for the 45-70, I'm going to give it a shot

JHand wrote on Sep 22^nd, 2025 at 5:58pm:


Bummer dude. TJs liners are very accurate. Should be cheaper than a re-bore. Good luck and hang in there.

A nice, low recoil, very accurate 400 gr load, is 10.0 - 10.5 Unique, either fixed or BSed.

It takes a bit of elevation but, is very insensitive to wind.

Our clubs 200 yard offhand single shot match Black Powder is often used. Doesn’t bother me or most other shooters. Watching BP smoke on the firing line  is a useful wind indicator . Shooter wining about small things during a match ought to switch to Trap shooting & be with like minded competitors.

Ability to ignore distractions and shoot well is a useful skill. At times I have asked to be squaded with disruptive shooters to work on my ignore ability. Westerner has the right perspective. Ignore and use it to your advantage. Most adverse conditions make it easier to finish higher in a match.

Boats 

westerner wrote on Sep 23^rd, 2025 at 4:59am:



I don't think I'll have that advantage. The 2 guys to my right, and the one to my left are my BPCR group

boats wrote on Sep 23^rd, 2025 at 8:32am:

 
If they can't stand the heat, they shouldn't be in the kitchen.

Whistling to classical music, yes, the thought alone is annoying.   

Well, got an update. Had a busy day at the range. Started off breech seating with Unique. Tried 2 different bullets, a Lyman round nose that cast at 413 and a buffalo arms money chicken bullet that cast at 435. Got ok results, but definitely nothing to write home about. I did not have high hopes for the Lyman bullet because I had to size it down .005. Next off tried fixed ammo with the money bullet and it got better, but still not great, then got to the Lyman bullet and found magic. The picture below is 5 shots at 200yds and just under 1100fps.

Moved on to duplex loads next. Used 7gr 4227 and about 80gr Swiss 1.5 with a .060 was and a 3/16 felt was. Holy crap that had recoil! Sill was ok, but not great, about a 4" group.

Moved to fixed ammo with 83gr Swiss 1.5 with a 535 buffalo arms postel (my silhouette load) and got much better results. Found out this rifle does not like breech seating. Had some windage issues, but I think that was caused by the fact the benches were not long enough to rest the barrel where I do off sticks. The vertical spread was great though.

Definitely learned a lot today, and with 120ish shots of 45-70, I'm feeling it! The fixed load with unique was the clear winner

Here is my breech seater. It is set where the base of the bullet is JUST barely engraved to the base. The bore slugged to .458, and the buffalo arms bullet I used was a reduced band .459. The barrel is a factory badger, so it's not set up for breech seating, which I think is part of the issue. Another part of the issue may be that unique doesn't like being so loose in the big case, so another powder may work better. 

I pulled out my calipers and the fixed ammo group put 4 shots into .74" (edge to edge measurement) at 200yds, I pulled the 5th, and had an ES of 8. I think it's going to be hard to beat that

Over the past 20 or so years I have often shot a 45-70 in local Feuerstutzen matches. By strict rules (Bavarian Feuerstutzen) it is not allowed because rifles must be in 8,15x46 and must be original or replicas of Teutonic rifles, original or replicas of American guns are VERBOTEN!

Anyway, I never expected to win and was in the game for fun. I shot 500gr lead over BP with a 5744 kicker. As said previously, the roar of a full charge and lots of smoke really aided in my placement on the score sheet

Three years ago I got a Shiloh Business rifle to continue this and put MVA sights and a level on it but no shoots have come up. No I have just acquired a Browning 1885 Trad hunter in 30-30 and equipped it with MVA's and got a palm rest for it. Now researching the rules I have discovered I still cannot legitimately compete in Feuerstutzen, wrong caliber wrong action. Oh, BTW, palm rests are not allowed either

Looking at our Unique load, where was your dacron wad and your .030 Walter's wad placement in the load? I can sympathize with the pain of recoil after shooting a lever gun match with the afore mentioned load that I posted and I'm looking for a reduced load and that looks like a great one. Tighter group too!

HG

So I took pictures of the whole process. There was a quote I heard a while back "I do 10 steps, 4 of them are probably pointless, but I'm not sure which 4." That may apply here.

First, I full length resize, expand the case mouth, then clean the brass. I put a strip of a #2 coffee filter on my primer seater, and use the primer to punch a wad when I seat it, then I dump 12gr of unique on top. I cut pillow batting into roughly 3/4" squares and stuff it in the case, I punch it down just a hair to make it easier to put the next wads in. I put a .030 fiber wad on top of the pillow, my thought is the pillow was is a bit "stringy" and the fiber wad seals all that from getting in the bullet lube. Then a newspaper drop wad to keep the fiber wad from sticking to the bullet. I then seat the bullet down and use it to push all the wadding down. This keeps the wad pushed against the base of the bullet to guard against chamber ringing.

I will be taking this to the range Wednesday again to verify that the really good group wasn't a fluke.

Last pic

Based of a suggestion of someone else, I loaded 45-70 with 12 grains of Unique and I decided to keep the powder in the primer vicinity with 1/16th of a sheet of Charmin TP (yes 1/16th) pushed very loosely down to stay 1/4 inch above the powder (giving the powder plenty of room to slump). This produced a very even burn of the Unique and had enough hold on the case interior to keep the powder down there. Note that the little square of Charmin was pushed evenly down with a neck sized stick like loading a ML without the ball. My alternative would be like 1 grain of kapok fiber. Way back when I thought that dacron would work and then I found several warnings not to use dacron. YMMV but I hope you don't find out why it said to avoid dacron.

Talk it over with JES Reboring, he can probably freshen your 32-40 to a 35 for less than half what a reline will cost.. His service is pretty quick as well.

I would love to see a comparison of your 12.0 gr load and my 10.0 no filler load, if you have the time. 10.5 is good, too.

F150 primers (or try a Rem 2 1/2)
971 fps, SD 6.9, 100 yd group, ES 19, .84 group, 4 in .48, 100 yds

One of my favorite pass times is to go to public rifle ranges and shoot others wind flags. I don't get out enough. 

The shooter next to you or the shooter down the line is kicking your ass. Just shoot his wind flags. Problem solved.