Marlin 45-70 with monolithic brass bullets

[3Crows]

Like it or not, I have to say my Marlin 1895 SBL is my all time favorite rifle. I have put about 500 rounds through it or more and it cycles and shoots wonderfully. Mostly reloads using hard cast 405 grain bullets. In fact, it probably has fewer than 20 jacketed bullets through the pipe.

Looking at some of the monolithic bullets which I assume are brass or some alloy harder than 18b cast lead, will these decrease barrel life which with cast lead is for all practical purposes, infinite? Curious for any info regarding monolithic bullets in 45-70?

Thanks.

 

[.455_Hunter]

I doubt you could afford to shoot enough monometal bullets to have any noticeable affect on a modern gun.

 

[jmr40]

I don't think they will hurt the rifle at all. I also don't think you'll gain much if anything over cheaper conventional bullets. The all copper bullets do a great job of increasing performance with calibers normally considered borderline too small for the game hunted.

 

[3Crows]

I guess my real concern is that my barrel is well seasoned with lead hard cast and what might be the result of shooting monolithic brass bullets to such a barrel, maybe wear is not the concern. Other than the first few rounds of LR Hornady it has never seen anything but HCL. Some folks claim one way to clean lead from a barrel is to shoot jacketed bullets. Others claim that is just a good way to solder the lead in the barrel even better than it was making cleaning more difficult. I do not think my barrel is leaded and (a maybe once) Chore Boy clean and occasional bore snake is all it knows.

 

[Scooter22]

Buy or cast some heat treated boolits. You can get some real hard ones. I,ve HT 150gr Lee FP for my 30-30s. I,ve pushed them full speed with no leading and good accuracy. My normal load is reduced down to 1800fps or so for plinking.

 

[horsey300]

I guess my real concern is that my barrel is well seasoned with lead hard cast and what might be the result of shooting monolithic brass bullets to such a barrel, maybe wear is not the concern. Other than the first few rounds of LR Hornady it has never seen anything but HCL. Some folks claim one way to clean lead from a barrel is to shoot jacketed bullets. Others claim that is just a good way to solder the lead in the barrel even better than it was making cleaning more difficult. I do not think my barrel is leaded and (a maybe once) Chore Boy clean and occasional bore snake is all it knows.

Most mono metals are copper or copper alloy, I can only think of one made from brass (and I would not swear to that). I'll say that if you have a lead dirty barrel, clean it before shooting the coppers if you want them to shoot worth a hoot, my Barnes bullets didn't like my Hornady dirtied barrel lol!

 

[3Crows]

I am just going to stay with my hard lead cast. No good reason not to.

Next year I am going back to Alaska where once again my Marlin SBL will serve as my protector from bad things. Might need to restock on HSM and Buffalo Bore loads and forget the monolithic ammo.

 

[jeepnik]

At typical 45-70 velocities you're not going to see any significant improvement over a good hard cast lead bullet. The, sadly underestimated, 405 gr lead bullet will kill anything in north america. If you want to kill an elephant there are cast lead 500+ gr bullets available.

One of the wonderful things about reloading the 45-70 is that with the exception of being a powder hog they are fairly cheap to reload.

 

[PapaG]

Copper. Expensive. Unless you are going after BIG stuff the hard cast stuff will be just fine.

 

[Obturation]

45-70 makes a fine do-all rifle, it's my choice too. Don't concern yourself with wearing out a barrel, copper is softer than steel, velocity is the barrel burner and with the big stuff you'll stay within a velocity range that would be hard to damage a barrel with. I just use hardcast but if I know I'll be shooting at meat I use barnes tsx , it'll take a lifetime to shoot 100 of them and it would take thousands to cause any noticeable wear. If you do start to wear the barrel, use a little bigger cast bullet, problem solved.
Good luck