Shakari 45-70

[kdog70]

Well, I got my Shakari Firing and working with some reloads as follows:

Rem case 55 Grains of 748 Win. Mag primers and a Rem 405 bullet, no crimp to a COAL of 2.540

Hornady case 55 grains of 748 Win. Mag primers and a Rem 405 bullet to the same COAL and no crimp.

As I work with each set of brass do I need to watch for pressure on the brass as I hunt for accuracy or will my action fail before it shows up on the brass. I have a Marlin 45-70 but haven't shot it yet, saving starline brass for that gun?

[RugerNo3]

The load you are using in the Shikari would be safe in the Marlin Levergun, but is 15 to 18 grains TOO HEAVY for a Shikari. The lug on the barrel is silver soldered in place as a shotgun action is built. The Handi rifle is welded and uses a stronger frame. Any load safe for the 45-70 Shikari will be safe in a Trap Door Springfield. They are equivalent pressure wise. I don't want to be around you for sure. As an aside there is no way to read a case or primer to know what pressure range your load is. This applies to all loadings in all firearms no matter the configuration. PERIOD. This is the reason for published data by the reloading component industry. Then it should be read often and used with no alcohol or physical distraction. Gould luck.

[Smokin Joe]

The Speer # 13 manual lists 59 gns of 748 under their 400 gn bullet with a mag primer at 2.540" as a 21000 cup load in Winchester cases.

The Lyman # 47 manual lists 49 gns and a standard primer in Remington cases with the Speer 400 loaded at 2.640" as a 12600 cup load and with 61 gns as a 25000 cup load.

My only concern with your load would be the case, and then even if you're using the shorter Leverevolution brass, if you load to standard OAL specs, it shouldn't be a problem.

Except for a sore shoulder, as I found out with my Shikari when approaching those muzzle velocities!

[kdog70]

I got my data from Speer #14 which says under their 400 grain bullet 55 to 59 grains of Win 748. I don't need to shoot much more than that hopefully as I just want to hear a bang with this older gun. I'll have the Marlin for full bore loads and I run a 300 win mag and 338 Edge if I need any more juice farther. Although I do want to mess around with this single shot with sabots and some heavy bullet going real slow. All of that is for a later date though.

[Smokin Joe]

Re: the sabots, I played around with them a few years ago. I found that the higher pressures would "blow" the sabot. Stick to the lower pressure loads unless you can find a real good high-pressure sabot.