After a recent thread looking for local ammo I decided to dip my toe in the reloading waters. Never touched the stuff before and just did some really basic reading the last couple days online. Looking to start on 45-70 and aiming for subsonic (I shoot suppressed). I'm just plinking with this thing and maybe take it for hogs or deer some time, no long range precision or anything like that so not looking for best of the best, just good enough to get the job done and not bottom of the barrel discount garbage. So some questions:
1) brass: I'm looking at Starline 45-70 brass, is that decent?
2) primers: hard to find of course. Do any large rifle primers work or do I need specific large rifle primers? i.e. if I can find large magnum rifle primers but can't find standard large rifle primers is that OK? Are the one's marked as mil-spec 7.62 normal large rifle primers or are they specific to 7.62x51? I see a box of CCI labeled as #200 that implies there are other numbers as well, do I care about that?
3) Powder: I've seen some threads recommending Trail Boss powder for subsonic 45-70, some recommend Accurate 5744, and one recommending IMR 4895. Any thoughts on those or recommendations for something else? I have no idea what the differences are between all these dozens of powders, should I care that much which powder I buy?
4) bullets: Brownells has SNS 405 gr .459 bullets that are marked 45/70. I thought 45-70 stuff was actually .458 but what's a .001" between friends I guess? Seems like commercial subsonics are often 405 gr or 410 gr so I should be good with those right? Any other recommendations on bullets? Can I generally run anything .458 (or .459 I guess?) in 45-70 and just pick my favorite combo of weight, jacketing (or none in this case), and nose shape?
5) loading manual: any recommendation for something useful that covers 45-70 subsonic?
Thanks.
1) brass: I'm looking at Starline 45-70 brass, is that decent?
2) primers: hard to find of course. Do any large rifle primers work or do I need specific large rifle primers? i.e. if I can find large magnum rifle primers but can't find standard large rifle primers is that OK? Are the one's marked as mil-spec 7.62 normal large rifle primers or are they specific to 7.62x51? I see a box of CCI labeled as #200 that implies there are other numbers as well, do I care about that?
3) Powder: I've seen some threads recommending Trail Boss powder for subsonic 45-70, some recommend Accurate 5744, and one recommending IMR 4895. Any thoughts on those or recommendations for something else? I have no idea what the differences are between all these dozens of powders, should I care that much which powder I buy?
4) bullets: Brownells has SNS 405 gr .459 bullets that are marked 45/70. I thought 45-70 stuff was actually .458 but what's a .001" between friends I guess? Seems like commercial subsonics are often 405 gr or 410 gr so I should be good with those right? Any other recommendations on bullets? Can I generally run anything .458 (or .459 I guess?) in 45-70 and just pick my favorite combo of weight, jacketing (or none in this case), and nose shape?
5) loading manual: any recommendation for something useful that covers 45-70 subsonic?
Thanks.