45/70 in a 45/90

[tim56]

A mate of mine has just bought a 45/110 Sharpes which is a thing of beauty. Anyway, somewhere along the way i got thinking "Can you shoot 45/70 black powder loaded ammo in a 45/90 such as a Sharps lever action rifle".
The way i see it is its the same bullet/cartridge other than being a fraction shorter as in using a 38 special in a 357mag. Please note i am NOT talking about nitro loads , Black powder only.!! Whats your opinion.????? Tim

[simgre]

Yes, you can comfortably shoot '70 through a '90. You can go nitro as well without worries if the '90 is proofed so. I wouldn't be shooting 90's through a 100 or 110 or even a 120 for that matter, but not because of safety issues, but accuracy and fouling.

In the longer chambers it's going to be more like shooting a rifle with a really long throat and a lead bullet both bouncing in the long chamber with powder residue before it gets to the leade is going to play havoc setting the bullet up in the bore. Not to mention the bitch it would be to clean.

[thibben]

Yes you can shoot the 70 in a 90, was one of the 'attractions' during this era as the 45-70 round was the 'milsurp' of the time.

One problem is the gap between the end of the case in the chamber, BP 'smacks' the lead bullet making it obturate, the gap allows this to happen before it is desirable to do so = not so good accuracy.

This is why some folks stretch straight walled cases to fit their chambers with little to no gap, here's the tool to do it FYI: http://kal.castpics.net/CaseStretcher.html and a video thus: https://www.google.co.uk/#q=Kal-Max+Case+Stretching+Jig

Brgds Terry

[Geezer]

What they said, it is safe but loads of freebore.

In vintage/antique rifles, at least, you may also find different rifling twist rates to contend with between the two chamberings.