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WTB 40-70 BN dies


tacobill

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I  need a set of 40-70 bottle neck dies  .403   If anybody has a set of these laying around or knows where I could find them. Buffalo Arms dosen't have any.                                                    

Taco Bill

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Which 40-70 are you referring to?  Remington....Winchester....Sharps?  At any rate you'll need fired brass or a chamber cast to make the proper custom dies which are danged expensive.  That said, you may already know all that!    So put an WTB ad in ASSRA classifieds and Cast Boolits.  Also, watch ebay, Gunbroker, and the like.    I have a 40-70 SBN Shiloh  (.408) and hardly every use the sizer except for brand new brass.  Once fired, i use a universal decapper then  its trimmed and prepped for Paper patch bullets or thumb seated greasers.  You don't need neck tension for Blackpowder loads so that part and crimping is skipped.   Just food for thought.

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If its an original then lucky you!!!  If not and a modern gun I nearly guarantee your bullets are way undersized and you may lead the bore like crazy.  Do yourself a favor and slug the barrel before you fire it or buy expensive dies.

 

PS All modern 40 cal rifles I know of slug out at .408  groove diameter.   Originals fell in the .403-406 range. 

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I have an Original Remington Rolling Block Rifle from the 1870's. I wasn't sure of the caliber when I bought it, 1984, so I took the forend off and it was stamped 40-70 on the bottom flat of the barrel. I looked up the cal and it showed 40-70 Sharps Straight and Sharps Bottleneck. Then I found Winchester and Remington made them too. Barrel should have been 32 inches and was cut back to 29 1/2 inches and rechambered to 40-50 Sharps Bottleneck I slugged the bore and it was .4035 and the twist was for a 330 grain bullet. I believe they were shot with bullets that were .399 and Paper Patched to .403. I took 100 old Balloon Head cases and cut them down and ran them through a set of dies I bought from Buffalo Arms in Idaho for $80. Then I annealed them and loaded them and fire formed them. I also made 200 cases from new .45-70 cases, 100 brass for light smokeless loads and 100 nickeled for Black Powder loads.  I found a Winchester Bullet mold with handles, it was for a .40-82 1886. It throws a 330 grain bullet at .403. It's been fun shooting since I bought it. KaBoom she goes!!

 

Big Jake 1001

 

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The box of ammo that came with mine says .403  Called shiloh and they said all of their rifles in 40-70 have ,408 chambers. So I have a box of the wrong ammo. I did find some correct dies. Thanks for all the help in this.  Taco Bill

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