32 Miller Short ??

[Johnch]

Earlyer today I was at the range checking some hunting loads

A nice older guy was at the last bench shooting at the 200 yd back stop
I shot my groups and wandered down to see how long he going to be

As I wanted to change targets for the next batch of loads

He said 3 rounds and he would be done
So I watched him finish

As I had never seen his type of set up

He was shooting a single shot falling block rifle
But he was breach seating a cast bullet into the rifling ( I think that is the proper term )
He would then insert a primed / charged case into the chamber
It had sometype of wad over the case mouth to hold the powder in place ( best guess )

His loads were on the real mild side
But his 200 yd group was just over a 1 hole group , probely 1/2" for a 10 shot group

I ask him what cal. it was when he was done and he stated 32 Miller short
But the cases he was using , said 357 Max and they were not necked down ??


Never heard of it
What type of shooting is this set up used for ?
As I know it wasn't for hunting

He made me feel my best hunting 44 mag group of 2+" at 100 yds to be huge compaired to his groups



John

[c3d4b2]

Here are a couple of links that will give you some info.

http://www.lasc.us/Brennan_8-2_IntroToSchuetzenRifleShooting.htm

http://www.lasc.us/Brennan_6-6-1_LoadSingleShotRifles.htm

[felix]

Using the thickness part of the case. One of the best BR boolit rounds. ... felix

[Johnch]

Thanks for the info

I had no clue
So next time I see him
I will at least know a little more

John

[JIMinPHX]

The practice of loading a boolit in the chamber & then following it with a cartridge holding powder & primer is called "schutzen" or something like that. I believe that Paul B does a bit of that with good results. I'm not sure what calibers he uses.

[sundog]

Oh my, John. You get hooked on single shot and there's no going back. The neat thing is that a lot of the shoots are 2-3 day family events. We have 2 big matches a year at my club. Fun.

[Buckshot]

............The 32-40 (to name a common cartridge) was a favorite with the breech seating scheutzen crowd before and during the turn of the previous century. It's a very laid back and sedate form of target shooting competition, and many meets are more social (it would seem) then actual shooting.

Ten or twelve years back I was at a local gunshop and it was obvious he'd just gotten in a bunch of used rifles. There were a bunch lying across the countertop and a Winchester Hi-Wall with a heavy straight octagon bbl caught my eye. It had a long Fecker scope in Unertl mounts. The barrel was stamped 'Barry Darr' and was chambered 32-40. The top of the action had a claw in which the boolit seater would sit and pivited to breechseat the slug.

The store owner said an old guy had passed on and his kids were interested in some fast cash so brought in his guns. I didn't recognize the name mentioned but I'm sure he'd shot at our range, as they used to host a scheutzen match, and Barry Darr used to compete there.

I was told that the tools were around somewhere and if I was interested he'd let it go for $700. That's a bit beyond my normal instant, "I'll take it" price range, especially for a bench gun. Two days later I'd decided I'd probably better get it. Naturally I was told it'd sold the day before.

................Buckshot

[Bret4207]

He's a Shuetzen shooter. So is Green Frog and some other guys here. Plain Base lead alloy boolits- that should make his group all the more impressive. The CBA guys tend to be more into that, you could check their website. Also the Single Shot Exchange and American Single Shot Rifle Association are magazines devoted to that style of shooting, more or less. Lucian Carey did a series of articles for the Saturday Evening Post (IIRC) decades ago involving one "JM Pyne", a thin disguise for the legendary HM Pope who built these styles of rifles. The stories later appeared in The Gun Digests over a period of years, the collected stories are also available in book form. Ned Roberts "The Breech Loading Single Shot Rifle" discusses these rifles as do other books in the collectors category. The #1 book out there Is Charlie Dell and Wayne Schwartz book "The Modern Shuetzen Rifle", well worth whatever it costs.

If it were me I would try and get to know that guy a lot better. He can probably teach you things you'd never even thought of.

[PineTreeGreen]

Don't remember where,but last night I stumbled on to the name ".32 Miller Short"
When I googled it,it came up with Accurate Powder data. Interesting.

[badgeredd]

Thanks for the info

I had no clue
So next time I see him
I will at least know a little more

John

Maybe Dale 53 will chime in here.

Where in NW Ohio are you?

You're seeing a rifle discipline that is as much art as anything, IMHO. There is a range in northern Indiana owned by the ASSRA at Etna Green. It was my good fortune to visit there this year when the fellows were shooting. AND there was a SS rifle for sale that was chambered for the 32 Miller Short. Also while there, I was lucky enough to meet Dale 53 and Green Frog from our forum. You HAVE to get over there next year to see the guns and the shooting they do!

Edd

[beagle]

Well as I recall, they were using AA9 in the .32 MIller Short. You have to watch these old guys, they're tricky....and know a lot./beagle

[badgeredd]

Well as I recall, they were using AA9 in the .32 MIller Short. You have to watch these old guys, they're tricky....and know a lot./beagle

beagle,
I'm old and tricky, but I can't be accused of knowing a lot!:groner:

Edd

[Dale53]

Here is further data on the .32 Miller Short that I did for Joe Brennan's book:

http://www.lasc.us/Brennan32_Miller_Short.htm

Schuetzen rifles are absolutely fascinating. Here is a target shot by Jim Borton:

http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj80/Dale53/JimBortonsTarget.jpg

This was shot at 200 yards with a Schuetzen bench gun - a DeHaas-Miller action with a Smith gain twist barrel and chambered for the .32 Miller Short.

Jim has shot over a dozen perfect scores at 200 yards - most of them at registered matches. This spring, he shot a 249, a 250, and another 250 in the same relay. A day later, he shot another 250! These were all registered scores shot in competition. When you realize that the "25" ring is 1½" in diameter at 200 yards and half of the bullet must be inside the ring to score the higher value, THEN you begin to understand how difficult this is. We have just a handful of people at Beeson's Range at Etna Green, IN (home of The American Single Shot Rifle Ass'n) that have shot a perfect score. It has become a bit more "common" (that is hardly the word) to see this at a four day match but it is still and will remain so for a long time, a VERY difficult feat. Keep in mind that these are TEN SHOT GROUPS!

We have a plain base lead bullet going about 1400 fps subject to movement in the slightest wind, plus mirage, variable light, etc that makes it very difficult to do. I understand that it can be quite satisfying, tho' (just so there is no mistake, I have not shot a perfect score at Etna Green).

Dale53