Thread: Improving 45-70 ammo with a mandrel

Righto! Finally got out today and only had a mild tail wind, 1000hpa, 19deg. Slight rain but meh. This was to see if using the mandrel made a difference. Also checking if my new sizing die affected things and yes. I wont be sizing pc projectiles down this far again i think
I started out with a squeeky clean barrel and shot
300gn hornady JHPs, cci200, starline brass, ADI2207
First shot really high.


Then i tried some resized .259" HRTB PC 350gn and the results were extremely bad. My barrel slugged at .2565 so i'm thinking .457" is too loose. I"ll retest these to see if it was me or the fact the barrel was settling in again


Then finally two groups of the HRTB using reseated regular .258-9 PC just dusted and seated after using the mandrel (as per everything today). This lot was actually pulled, had 3/4gn powder removed then reseated at .02" from the lands. I tried 2 groups of this fired at different cadence to see if 2mins vs 4mins between shots. Both shot well.