Chamber Casting Results

[rr2241tx]

Recently acquired a Shiloh 1874 marked .40-2.1 and have been pulling out my few remaining hairs trying to make it shoot. Finally got around to casting the chamber and as I had suspected, there's 0.32" of groove diameter throat. At this point, I'm considering having the chamber re-reamed to .40-2.4 and ordering new brass from Starline. Anyone have any experience doing this? Will I need a new sizing die or will my dies still work just backed off 0.3"?

[bearcove]

Tried paper patching in it?

[rr2241tx]

No. Haven't tried paper patching. I'm either having it rechambered to .40-70 2.4" BN or rebarrelled with a properly chambered .40-70 2.1" depending on what Shiloh's pricing works out to be because I have a lot of money tied up in supplies that won't transfer to the longer case but the longer cases, a breech seater and a sizing die is basically a buy once situation. I might consider having it sleeved if it comes to that.

[Bad Ass Wallace]

Would it be as simple as getting a custom boolit mould made to suit that chamber, either Paul Jones or Steve Brooks.

Lots of Shiloh rifles made in that chambering are performing well with good boolits

[geargnasher]

If you're breech-seating anyway, what difference does throat length make? Is your breech seater not slightly adjustable for depth?

Gear

[montana_charlie]

I am assuming this is a Farmingdale rifle. Does it have a 'B' in the serial number?
CM

[Lead pot]

The farmers with the cylinder type of free bore can be made to shoot very good, but you need a bullet with a little bit different design then the normal bullet with a bore riding step.
Look at the bullets in the photo these will shoot very good with the free bore your rifle has.
Or a PP bullet patched to groove diameter or 1-2 thousands under groove diameter.
I would try the PP bullet patched to groove diameter before giving up on that barre. It will shoot with a proper bullet.
You will have a tough time with a bullet with a reduced nose like a creedmoor or postell type bullet unless you seat it way out till it makes contact with the lands.

[montana_charlie]

Or a PP bullet patched to groove diameter or 1-2 thousands under groove diameter.

That's where I ws headed if he answered, "no".

CM

[rr2241tx]

Yes, it is a Farmingdale barrel, but the receiver is rollmarked Big Timber, no letters in the 4 digit serial number. There is no doubt it can be made to shoot by using PP boolits, breech seating or using that tumble lubed boolit in Lead Pot's photo. I'd like more info on the mould for that boolit. I might be able to do something with that. I already have two Paul Jones moulds and a Steve Brooks mould and have tried two other styles and unless they were breech seated they all were minute of refrigerator box. Breech seating really isn't a viable option in a timed relay of BPCR Silhouette although it really isn't a problem when I have 45 minutes to shoot a 10 shot target. I may need to change my screen name to Frustration.

[kokomokid]

Where do you shoot BPCR around San Marcos?

[rr2241tx]

CTSA has an NRA Silhouette range down the same road as Dietz Gun Range off Hwy 46 in New Braunfels. They shoot something like 7 different disciplines there, BPCR is just one of the games they play on that range. http://silhouette-texas.us/

[texasmac]

Why consider rebarreling? How about having the barrel set back an inch or less and rechambering to .40-2.1 or a different .40 cal. chamber with a shorter throat?

Wayne

[rr2241tx]

Got pricing for rechambering. The Sharps barrel is finished with a tulip against the face of the action and the octagon is tapered from the ogive of the tulip to the muzzle. Just lopping off a couple of inches and rechambering would require starting over with a new forearm as well as the barrel work and basically it is cheaper to have a new standard 30" tapered octagon barrel fitted than to shorten the existing barrel and shrink the tulip back onto the shorter barrel. I guess one could have a 40 bottleneck off a .45 2.4 up to 3.25 basic brass done and get past the freebore that way, but then you still have the long tapered leade which was something like 2.5" beyond the freebore and most likely issues with diminishing returns with that much powder in a 30" barrel and even without setting the barrel back the difference in price between a rechambering and a new barrel didn't make sense to me. Although, it would be mighty impressive to show up to shoot with a .40-3.25 Ackley Improved and an inch of lead sticking out the top of it. Not sure I could make it through a 100 shot match with a beast like that though. So I'm going to rebarrel to .40-65 and sell the .40-70-2.1 SBN dies. Now that I can afford the toys, my ability to play with them is limited somewhat by better judgement acquired through years of painful consequences of stupid decisions. I hope the next time I decide to spend this much money on a rifle I have sense enough to have the chamber cast before I lay my money down.

[Lead pot]

Those knurled bullets are pan lubed and hey will hold more lube then a 4 groove bullet will.

That chamber will shoot just fine if you want to use a GG bullet but you will have to have a mould made so the bullet does not have the bore riding nose it has to look like the grooved bullets in my photo.

[Buckshot]

...............Well, if that '74 was chambered like that in 38-55, I guess the cartridges would look like this:



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

[calkar]

forgive the noob comment, but it seem to me that the basic boolit design in post #7 (not including different lube ring configs.) would be great for just about every rifle. No other design features seem to be neccessary. It makes me wish I had machinest experience to make moulds in this shape for all the calibers that I shoot cast.

[Buckshot]

forgive the noob comment, but it seem to me that the basic boolit design in post #7 (not including different lube ring configs.) would be great for just about every rifle. No other design features seem to be neccessary. It makes me wish I had machinest experience to make moulds in this shape for all the calibers that I shoot cast.

..............It depends upon the configuration of the rifle's throat and leade, whether they'd be wonderfull or not. If you're shooting in BP competition and your rifle has a standard 45-70 chamber configuration the boolit would have to be seated so deep you'd loose a serious amount of your powder space. Our modern drawn, solid head cases have by their design caused a reduction in capacity.

Possibly not so much an issue with smokless, but without a doubt deeply seating slugs raises pressures.

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

[rr2241tx]

Buckshot, you've got the idea, but with a 420gr grease groove Creedmoor Paul Jones bullet I had less than half a caliber seating depth and still had no contact between the first driving band and the lands. There was literally no way to keep the boolit lined up on the centerline with that little neck contact. It worked fine breech seated, but there isn't time to breech seat during a NRA BPCR Silhouette relay.

[Buckshot]

Buckshot, you've got the idea, but with a 420gr grease groove Creedmoor Paul Jones bullet I had less than half a caliber seating depth and still had no contact between the first driving band and the lands. There was literally no way to keep the boolit lined up on the centerline with that little neck contact. It worked fine breech seated, but there isn't time to breech seat during a NRA BPCR Silhouette relay.

..............A member here (BruceB) had a Farmingdale '74 chambered 50-90 and also due to that long throat had a dickins of a time getting it to shoot. He had it rebarreled IIRC. I'm sure he wouldn't mind a PM if you had a question.

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

[leftiye]

Custom Mountain Molds design similar to a Loverin design maybe. It would fill the long freebore and reach the rifling and maybe still be in the case LOL. You would of course have exposed lube grooves, maybe full of lube, but if kept properly containered that wouldn't necessarily be a problem. Paper patched like Buckshot's samples with a long cylindrical section would be similar.