Breech seating idea

[jonk]

Thinking about the loading procedure with an 1859 or 1863 Sharps with loose powder got me to thinking.

Is there any reason you couldn't do the same with a cartridge rifle? Particularly a black powder rifle, even using smokeless powder?

Take for instance my Swiss Vetterli. Let's say I drop a bullet into the breech and snug it up to the rifling with a dowel or something. Snug enough so I can hold the gun skyward without the bullet falling out. Then I take a primed case, cut short so as it doesn't scrape the bullet, charge it with, oh let's say 23 gr of 4198, and carefully insert it into the chamber, holding the muzzle up so it doesn't spill. Once chambered, lower the muzzle, and close the bolt.

So long as there isn't any secondary projectiles- such as wads or cards- I don't see that this would cause issue. Or?

I'm just thinking that for guns with really long throats, this might be just the treat.

[HORNET]

That's about how the ASSRA competitors do it. They usually use a breech-seating tool or case with a plug sticking out to give a controlled seating depth for the boolit and many use a very light plug of something like floral foam to keep the powder in the case instead of having to point the muzzle up (and to reduce case volume to improve ignition). Make sure the foam plug extends far enough to at least contact the boolit base if you do this to reduce chances of "ringing" the chamber.

[jonk]

Does that foam go from powder to bullet base, or just neck to bullet base?

[gnoahhh]

It's a very short wad that is flush with the case mouth, or a little proud so the base of the bullet bears against it. It's just there to keep from spilling powder when loading the case into the chamber.

[dbldblu]

I have done this with a Ruger #1. Groups were not enough better than regular ammo to justify doing it beyond an initial experiment. I did not use any fillers.

[mrbill2]

The fellows that I shoot with that breach seat use 1/8' sheet cork for the wad.

[96wa6]

The throats on those breech-seat rifles are usually specially cut to seat special tapered bullets with many "rings" that look sort of like Lee tumble-lube bullets. Each ring from the nose down increases in diameter. (Redding even stocks some molds for .32 and .38 tapered "Pope" style bullets.)

I have a Stevens 44 in .25-20 Single Shot with a worn throat (worn juuuuust right). Breech-seated it with one of those special bullets pan-lubed with Emmerts. Most are cast very soft, mine is 40-1, lead-tin. With a case with a dowel in it, I seated the bullet by closing the action. Removed that case and replaced it with a primed one with some AA #9 in it. (Forget how much.) Very gingerly, so the powder doesn't spill.

At 100 yards using a non-set trigger, sighted with a period brass scope of around 6x, I shot tiny groups all day. Totally amazing system. Kids shooting "tactical" rifles next to me stopped shooting and stared open-mouthed. At a local match, I won with perfect scores (off the bench), and even cut a blade of grass with a single shot at 100 yards on a bet.

And you always get a lot of attention when you pull out a powder measure and place it on the bench next to you.

So you probably will not get great results breech-seating standard bullets in a standard throat. But with the right equipment, YEOW.

(First time I'm trying posting photos; bear with me ...)