I have recently purchased a Marlin model 1893 in 32-40. The bore seems to be in good shape with good rifling and no noticable pitting and slugged .321”
I have reformed brass from starline 38-55 cases trimmed 2.120” and tried a few different loads with the lyman 319247 sized .322” and have had poor sucess so far.
I have been reading that folks like the gas checked RCBS 32-170. This bullet is made for the 32 special so the crimp grove is not in the right spot for the 32-40 but folks claim to fix that by using 30-30 brass trimmed to 2.030” allowing the bullet to be set back further and still crimp in the groove.
I have refomed some 30-30 cases to 32-40 and trimmed them as short as 2.020” and with the RCBS 32-170 seated as deep as it will go to a COL of 2.500” it will cycle though the action but will not chamber correctly. I have marked on the bullet with a sharpie and loaded the round into the chamber. With a little resistance the bolt closes and the bullet ogive gets pushed into the rifling a few thousandths. Im scratching my head and wondereing how other people are getting this combo to work.
The reason im wanting to load this bullet is because Im thinking that the old bore may give me better acuracy with a gas check. I currently buy all my boolits from Montana bullet works. Thanks for any advice