32-40 reloading fixed ammo questions. Many.

[stubbicatt]

Guys I'm really enjoying my 1905 Winchester High Wall Schuetzen rifle. I breach seat 200 grain .324" Saeco bullets and it shoots much better than I do. I like the rifle so much, that I'm considering branching out into fixed ammo for this rifle.

The reason I would like to try fixed ammo is to shoot "cowboy" silhouette matches at the rifle club. You have basically 2 minutes to fire 5 rounds, and while I haven't timed it, I don't think I can load breach seated rounds that fast.

So, I have just shy of 100 WW 32-40 cases. These babies are old, and they work fine breach seating, as you don't do anything to the brass, sizing wise. Just recap and recharge and voila! For fixed ammo, I'm pretty sure I may want to at least size ½" or so of the necks, flare, seat, and crimp. The cases probably need to be annealed. I've watched youtube videos on the procedure, but I haven't been able to determine how to anneal a straight walled case like this... where do you point the flame? At the case mouth? A little ways down the "neck"? I sure don't know, and if any of you does, I sure would appreciate the information. --These cases are made of unobtanium, and sell for about $2 apiece if you can find them, so I want to get it right, and not wreck anything in the process.

Secondly, I can always buy another mould, but moulds cost money, and if I can do so, I'd like to use my 200 grain, tapered bullets, in this project. Anybody done something like this before? Any tips or wisdom you can share? I suspect that I might have issues with the bullets being seated straight, as in theory at least, they would be only gripped by the base band of the bullet, as each successive driving band gets smaller the closer you get to the nose of the bullet. So my thinking is to try to find either a collet die or a bushing die, to just barely size the cases for the last ½" or so of the neck, gently flare the case mouth, and seat the bullet as long as possible in the case to where it will chamber.

Thirdly I reckon some sort of crimp might be in order, maybe not. I suspect that any crimp I apply would have to be fierce in order to touch the smaller driving bands, closer to the nose of the bullet.

Lastly, anything I haven't thought of that I really ought to know?

Thanks fellas.

[lotech]

I used the 200 gr. SAECO bullet in a reproduction Winchester/Browning high wall, but never tried breech seating. Not really a very practical bullet for conventional in-the-case seating as so little of the bullet is actually in the case, but from an accuracy standpoint, it worked well. Overall cartridge length was 2.88". Accuracy was very good using SR4759, 5744, and IMR4198. Reloder 7 should also work well.

[lotech]

Forgot too add... I didn't crimp these bullets as is my practice with cartridges used in any single shot rifle. As for annealing brass (and I'm not being critical of those who perform this step), I haven't done this in a long time; seldom see a need for it.

[stubbicatt]

Thanks lotech. I thought this through, and did a dummy round with the standard dies I have. I sized about ⅜ inch of the neck, flared, and seated the bullet so that as I push the cartridge in the chamber, there is a little resistance at the last ⅛th of an inch or so. Got a little engraving on the exposed driving bands. Bullet is seated to just cover the second driving band from the base. Haven't tried it yet in an actual cartridge, but this has some promise.

I'll load up a few and see what I get.

Next I have to commission a new buttplate, as the match won't allow hooked buttplates. I thought I'd see about 3D printing, as the replacement plate is only an occasional fitment, to get a consistent length of pull and prevent issues when the rifle is sitting in the rifle stand at the matches.

[lotech]

Stubbicat, sounds like you're on the right track. I full-length sized my brass, but you may get somewhat better accuracy with your minimal neck sizing. I believe Winchester still makes .32-40 brass, just not very often.

[bosterr]

32-40 brass can be made from 30-30. Lube the case and run into a full length size die. They do come out about a tenth of an inch short, but in a single shot this may not be an issue. When my supply of 32-40 brass runs out, this will be what I will do.

[lotech]

I used .30-30 brass for about a year after I bought my high-wall .32-40 as I could not find .32-40 brass anywhere. Didn't look great, but they worked as well as the real thing. As I recall, charge weights, velocities, and accuracy were unchanged when I finally did switch over to .32-40 brass.

[.22-10-45]

Just wondering..do you have a .32-40 reloading die set with the proper expander plug for your .32-40? RCBS Cowboy style dies are pretty good when shooting cast. I have an original .38-55 Winchester High-Wall (circa 1902). Here is the problem with the old Winchester chambers. Winchester built its reputation on repeating arms..so during the black powder era, factory bullets were built undersize to prevent fouling buildup from jamming a rifle. My .38-55 have a .379" groove dia. I cannot seat a .380" bullet and chamber a round. Winchester used a nominal .375-.378 bullet and depended on the black powder to bump it up to fit the bore. They didn't change these specs. when smokeless was adopted. You may have this same problem. Might be able to polish/ream case neck far enough to seat base-band of your bullet in case & let the tapered section fit up into throat. This is the next best thing to B.S. & I have done this in several single-shots with good results with either black or smokeless. I like an expander that is bullet dia. or at most .001" under..but I am using fairly soft 20-1, 40-1 tin/lead alloys. With that .380" bullet I had to ream/polish I.D. of case in order to chamber..though cases were quite thin after. Best of luck!