Last week, I brought my two 45-70’s over to the range to try out some loads I made using some ancient IMR 4198 powder. I brought my chronograph along to make sure that old powder was being reasonable. Testing with some new IMR 4198 powder in my 38-55 earlier, I found that both the Old and the New powder gave roughly the same average velocities with the older powder slightly slower, but with a higher extreme spread.

The guns:

1. Original Winchester 1886 45-70 shipped in 1890. Here’s a photo …

2. Browning 1886 Saddle Ring Carbine with a MVA combination tang sight. Here’s a photo …

Load:

30 grains of IMR 4198 with a Remington magnum primer under a plain base 405 grain cast bullet. The IMR 4198 was from an old yellow can a friend gave me. Does anyone know when the yellow cans were produced? Here’s a photo …

Results for the Browning SRC at 100 yards: 5-shot group of 1 & 1/2″. Here’s a photo of the target …

Results for the original Winchester 1886: 5-shot group of 2 & 3/4″. I was doing a ‘no-no’ by using my tang sight with a rear sight that was slightly off centre, so it was always a question with each shot as to whether the front sight was actually centered in the peep. I think I could do better if the rear sight was not confusing my sight picture. Since I want to leave the original ladder sight on the rifle, I need to spend some time tweaking the windage until it exactly centres with my tang sight and front sight. Here’s a photo of the target …