Quote:

---

Longknife; If you want to hunt the rifle see if you can get the 405 grain LEE HOLLOWPOINT mold. What a phenomenal bullet!

I THINK it might cast a wee bit too small in diameter, but if so, the bullets could be sized down and paper patched.

Anyway, unlike the 330 Gould and some others, the Lee HP is NOT a frangible bullet but rather, acts like a Nosler Partition at over 1400 fps with the front HP making massive damage and then blowing off, allowing the rear 300 grain shank to penetrate deeply. GREAT bullet at fast .45-70 velocities and cast soft should be perfect for the BP velocities, too I think.

---

The problem with hollow point 45-70 bullets is meat loss.
If the nose blows off I don't want the thing. I consider the Nosler partition to be a flawed bullet for this reason.
The 400 grain Speer. If moved too fast, 1700+ it can make a real mess as well.
The two best cast hunting bullets for 45-70 are the 457193 and the 456192. The 191 is not too bad but does not always shoot as well. These three are copies of the Marlin 45-70-420 (193)bullet, the 45-75-350 (192) and various 300 grain 45 caliber Winchester loadings (191). The RCBS 300 gr FPGC is excellent as well weighing about 320 cast 1:40.
Bullets heavier than 420 need more BP to push them and and not needed for most game. The 193 is a good killer on American Bison. The Lyman 457133 HP (Gould) is almost identical in shape to the 192 and will perform the same if the hollow point is made much shallower to just a dimple by shortening the HP post. Given the PITA they are to cast I have never owned one but a friend cut the HP post off after screwing up too much meat on deer using it as issued.
If the bullet is cast 1:40 to 1:30 and has a good sized flatpoint .25 (for 40 cals) to .35 the hollowpoint superfluous.

Dan

Post Extras