Henry Rifle Forums

Hello,
i need to reload hornady 45-70 ftx 325 gr bullet, for my 45-70.

standard SAAMI brass length is 2.105'' but Hornady say to trim them to 2.04 '' to maintain the COAL with the flextip length

wit what tool do you remove 0.065'' from standard brass ?
i have a lee case trimmer with gauge, but it is limited to remove only brass exceding 2.105 ...

bruno

I use the forester case trimmer it will trim them to any length you want.

BigAl52 wrote: ↑

Tue May 03, 2022 9:02 am

I use the forester case trimmer it will trim them to any length you want.

I use the same trimmer and it’s great. It’s like a mini lathe and you can set it for any length desired. If you can find any, the original brass from Horndady’s LeverEvolution ammo will be the correct length.

Keep it simple and just trim off the flex tip even with tip of bullet and use standard length brass. I did that when trying the 200 gr. FTX in .45 Colt and it worked fine in revolver and Henry rifle plus worked well in 45 ACP! This was back when XTP bullets were hard to find but my LGS had plenty of the FTX.

fortyshooter wrote: ↑

Tue May 03, 2022 1:58 pm

Keep it simple and just trim off the flex tip even with tip of bullet and use standard length brass. I did that when trying the 200 gr. FTX in .45 Colt and it worked fine in revolver and Henry rifle plus worked well in 45 ACP! This was back when XTP bullets were hard to find but my LGS had plenty of the FTX.

This is what i plan to do from now on. A few years back their 220 grain 300 black out subs had points, but crap expansion when penetrating. Many people clipped the tips off and had much better expansion. Now it is pretty much the standard.

I plan on giving it a go here to see how well it works.

Here is a gel test result of 45 Colt 200 gr. FTX bullet. Fired out of my Ruger BH Bisley with 5.5 inch barrel. 16+ inch penetration and 1262 FPS.
.625 expansion. These are rifle bullets so less expansion at these slower speeds but still plenty!

That's with the tip clipped?

DsGrouse wrote: ↑

Thu May 05, 2022 8:30 am

That's with the tip clipped?

Yes quote are given with clip point .
i don't want to remov it, because this test with FTX is not to hunt, but to test ballistic curve .

Currently i use hollow and flat point lyman 457122 or, sierra ....

but over 150 200 ft, curve is not good ! big bullet drop ...

gotcha,

Any hand crank trimmer will allow you to set the length of your case. Mine is a Redding trimmer. You'll need to make sure you have the correct case mouth collet.
something like these
https://www.lymanproducts.com/lyman-universal-trimmer
https://www.redding-reloading.com/onlin ... ming-lathe

For what's worth, a friend of mine cut off the "flex tip" (45/70) flush with the bullet so he wouldn't have to trim the brass. They cycled and were very accurate out to 100 yds.

Load up a dummy round in a untrimmed case and see if it will feed and function through your rifle. You might get lucky.
My old marlin in 30/30 will handle the 160gr FTX in standard length brass without the need to trim.

I bought six boxes of the leverevolution. I plan to reload those with the 325 grain FTX after I discharge them all. Picked up some starline brass and plan to load those those with a 350 grain Berry bullet at the standard case length. I think it should all go well. I'm trying to avoid case trimming and it looks like I'll be able to.