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.45-70, .45-90 reloading?

taperloc
Can .45-70 reloading dies be used to load .45-90 cartridges?
i.e. the same way .38/357 dies are used.
Thank you,
Taperloc.
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Comments

4 comments

Date Votes
  • Bert H.
    Hello taperloc...

    Yes and no... If you really know what you are doing, then yes it can be done. However, it you are not 100% sure of what you are doing, then it is best to pony up the $$ and buy a set of 45-90 dies.

    Bert H.

    Real Men use a SINGLE-SHOT!
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  • dobro54
    I would say no, as the 45-70 is shorter than a 90 and you'd be unable to fully resize the casing. .45 is the diameter and 90 is the grains of powder(black) it held. I loaded 70 grns in my weapon and barely had room for the bullet seating to a proper depth. T'was a hoot to shoot, tho'. Sad the dies are so spendy for those ol buff guns, ain't it? Luck to ya.
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  • Pinhead
    Some 40 yrs. ago, we had several single shot shooters in our club who shot the old remington rolling blocks and one or two sharps shooters. Since the correct shoolting dies were hard to come by in those days(45/90, 50/100, etc.) they would compensate by using steel washers of the correct thickness to use with the hole bored out to fit over the case body in front of the rim. One guy had a 45/70 and a 45/90 which he loaded with the same dies by this method. He even used the same weight bullets for both and by using the washer he didn't even have to re- adjust the bullet seater when he changed from one to the other. It took him several range sessions to get the load right for both but he worked it out. If I remember right they would use a washer with the thickness of the difference between the two case lengths(in the case of the 45/70 vrs. 45/90 this would be between .250 and .300 thickness). As Bert said tho, you would really need to know what you were doing and put some thought into it. It might be worth a try for you though.
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  • Iconoclast
    Back when I had a custom loading business, I did a lot of creative(?) things to load some of the more exotic rounds without investing in the specialty dies. Pinhead's anecdote illustrates one of the methods (and, no, I'm not going to share - thank ATLA and the tort laws!) . . . but as he and Bert assert, you really need to understand the process at a level well above that found in the instructions which accompany the press and dies. It is real easy to get into trouble when one steps away from the published instructions / procedures.

    "There is nothing lower than the human race - except the French." (Mark Twain) ". . . And liberals / DemoWipes" (me)
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