Watched an expert Friday with a single shot

[Doc Highwall]

You can breach seat any rifle that has a straight access to the chamber. You could even breach seat a Contender or Encore as long as you had a way of attaching the breach seater. It's only drawback is the time it takes to load but it was not meant to be fast only the most accurate.

[Shooter]

You can breach seat any rifle that has a straight access to the chamber. You could even breach seat a Contender or Encore as long as you had a way of attaching the breach seater.

No need to attach. Make your seater out of a dowel with a knob on the end. Whack it with the palm of your hand.

[texasmac]

No need to attach. Make your seater out of a dowel with a knob on the end. Whack it with the palm of your hand.

That's not a very precise way to breech seat bullets. The imprecise seating plus the distinct possibility of damaging or expanding the base will have a negative effect on accuracy. A better technique is to insert the bullet and then use a case with a tight fitting hardwood dowel to precisely seat it. The case rim ensures each bullet is seated to the same depth. If the caming action of the block is not sufficient to seat the bullet, then an extension can be attached to the case rim to hand seat the bullet. A very usable extension is an old screwdriver with the tip cut down to fit the primer hole. It can be silver soldered to the case or threaded to screw inside the tapped primer hole

Wayne

[Doc Highwall]

I agree with both of you but if I was going to breach seat for best accuracy I favor texasmac way with gentile insert on. A relation to this is smallbore shooting where you insert the cartridge as far as you can with your thumb and close the bolt slowly not with a slamming affect for best accuracy.

[Shooter]

I wasn't very clear, I ment the dowel was to go into a drilled case, so the rim or shoulder controls the depth.

[WildmanJack]

Today at the range I watched in fascination as a gentleman to my left loaded and shot a Schutzen. I watched as he placed a boolet into a neat brass gadget and then seated the boolet into the lands, then he took one case (1) only. He deprimed it, cleaned the primer pocket, re-primed it, then dropped a measured amount of powder ( smokeless) into the case. He then very slightly belled the mouth of the case and inserted it into the rifle. He then placed that boolet into a very, very, small group at 100 yds. I was not only impressed with his accuracy, but completely taken by the methodical, extremely accurate way he was loading.
It was an education in shooting that's for sure.. Something I won't soon forget..

Jack

[Bullshop]

I bet they were plain base boolits too.

[WildmanJack]

Yup, they sure were..

[trap4570]

They also have a tool that seats the bullet into the breech a specified distance and the bullets are molded to be tapered. Everything is indexed and everything done the exact same way from shot to shot. The larger muzzle loading slug guns of .50 cal and up even use two piece bullets. The bottom part is soft lead and the nose is a harder lead and they swage them together usually before loading. I think they change the weight of the nose or configuration of the nose depending on the range and wind conditions. I've seen them use x shaped paper patches while loading the bullet into the false muzzle. I have an antique slug gun of approx. 66 cal, but the false muzzle and related tools are not with it. It weighs about 40 lbs. It is as interesting to watch the loading process as it is to watch the match.

[texasmac]

Here's a photo of a high wall breech seating tool made by Rush Weber. Russ gets around $175 to $200 for these. It comes fitted with two cases that are fireformed in the rifle the seater will be use for. Other cases and calibers are easily adapted. When using the seater the bullet is perfectly aligned and the tool is adjustable for seating depth.

Wayne

[fa38]

<<<<OK, This peaked my interest and I understand that you take the bullet and push it to the barrel until it is touching the lands and grove and then place the filled cartridge behind it. The questions that I have are one (what do you put into the case to keep the powder from decompressing and spilling into the barrel?), Two (how do you know the proper distance between the bullet and the is obtained and what is the proper distance?) and third, (can modern powder be used or just Black and Black substitutes?).

Thanks .

Matt>>>>

For the short cases like the 32-20 or the 32 Miller short you can use a poly wad, cork wad, or floral foam to keep the powder in the case. The wad can be at the case mouth or down on the powder.
In longer cases like the 30-30 straight, 32-40, 33-40, 38-55 you won’t really need a powder wad, just a little care in inserting the case into the chamber.

Using a seater with some leverage is the easiest way to do it. The bullet can be seated anywhere from touching the case mouth to a half inch or more in front of the case.
If you use a seater that you push the bullet in buy hand the barrel should probably be throated for the bullet as it can get hard on the elbow after seating 100 plus bullets for a 100 shot match.
You change the seating depth until you get the accuracy you need. Benchrest shooters will play around with the depth. As I usually shoot offhand I am not as concerned about a ¼ inch difference in accuracy. It can change with a difference in seating depth.
A good place to start in seating depth is when at least half of the base band of the bullet is engraved by the rifling.

Powders used in this type of shooting can be anywhere from Bulls Eye up to 4198. Ball powders are used a lot because they flow through a powder measure so well. AA#9, H110, WC820. The classic powders are IMR 4227 and 4759. The velocity of the bullet is usually under 1500 fps to avoid leading
My favorite powders in the 25-20 Win is AA #7 and HS 6. In the 32-40 its WC820 and 4227

[xtimberman]

The tool on top is a simple breech-seater that I made by soldering an empty case to an old ruined phillips-head screwdriver. I inserted a tight-fitting dowel that is flush with the case mouth.



This was made for a .32-35 Maynard rifle. The tip-up breech is easily accessible and doesn't require pounding with a comfortable screwdriver handle. A T-C Contender tip-up would be similar.

xtm

[felix]

FEEL should be standard practice for all kinds of reloading, like when sizing, seating, and most especially crimping if done. This obviously requires a single station press with LOW leverage. ... felix

[felix]

Rotating a case in the chamber according to indicators is a bad practice. If it has to be done to get accuracy, then either the case has variable walls, or the chamber is not straight on, and usually both in practice. Shooting a gun with indicators will wear the throat to oblong sooner or later. ... felix

[jazzman251]

I'm a member or AASRA and recently this link to breech loading was posted. It's interesting and informative.
Enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_-xGH02JIE

[xtimberman]

Rotating a case in the chamber according to indicators is a bad practice. If it has to be done to get accuracy, then either the case has variable walls, or the chamber is not straight on, and usually both in practice. Shooting a gun with indicators will wear the throat to oblong sooner or later. ... felix

If that throat wear be true or not...many schuetzen-style riflemen still perform that step. Many of us have proven to ourselves that it often makes a difference - and removes a variable in that quest for a tiny group. Most of us suffer from OCD anyway.....

You do realize that your post is gonna cause some of these fellas to try to come up with a statistical arbitrary case-orientation formula to save the chamber throats on their favorite rifles....?

xtm

[Doc Highwall]

jazzman251, thanks for posting the U-Tube video.

[Longwood]

Rotating a case in the chamber according to indicators is a bad practice. If it has to be done to get accuracy, then either the case has variable walls, or the chamber is not straight on, and usually both in practice. Shooting a gun with indicators will wear the throat to oblong sooner or later. ... felix

Back when I was shooting competitively, and had a time limit, I always neck reamed my cases for a loose bullet fit and seated them way out so my bullets would seat perfectly into the rifling during loading and made sure the carefully weighed and volume sorted cases were always chambered exactly the same way each time. Usually with the marking on the base of the case upright and readable.
I tried using the screw driver handle on a machined phoney case for a while but it took too long.

[Longwood]

jazzman251, thanks for posting the U-Tube video.

At about 5:37 on the video you will see a simple seater pop out of the breach. It is simply a piece machined from brass that is placed in the chamber with a handmade, two pronged, stick. I used one like it before I made the screw driver type.
I think that guy John in the video is cheating a little. Did you notice he is wearing some sort of "Counter weight" inside of his shirt, just above his belt?

[Longwood]

They also have a tool that seats the bullet into the breech a specified distance and the bullets are molded to be tapered. Everything is indexed and everything done the exact same way from shot to shot. The larger muzzle loading slug guns of .50 cal and up even use two piece bullets. The bottom part is soft lead and the nose is a harder lead and they swage them together usually before loading. I think they change the weight of the nose or configuration of the nose depending on the range and wind conditions. I've seen them use x shaped paper patches while loading the bullet into the false muzzle. I have an antique slug gun of approx. 66 cal, but the false muzzle and related tools are not with it. It weighs about 40 lbs. It is as interesting to watch the loading process as it is to watch the match.

Have you ever shot that rifle?
I would consider having a new false muzzle made for it, then shooting it.