Breach seated bullets

It depends on the rifle and what it's intended for.

I have a Remington 700 with a 308 Palma Match chamber, with tight specs on the neck, requiring the necks to be turned to fit the chamber, when a cartridge is locked in.

The only thing resized on the cases is appx 80% of the neck, on Wilson dies.

There isn't much tension between the bullets and the neck, so the bullets are purposely seated so they have to be pushed back into the case appx .010 when the bolt cams into battery.

This is the best condition for consistent/repeatable accuracy from this rifle.

I only shoot one bullet with one brand of primer and powder charge from this rifle. The bullets it shoots best with the 1-12 twist are custom 150 grain, flat base, hollow point.
 
Bearhunter - are you breech seating jacketed bullets or lead cast bullets? I had read on breech seating cast lead bullets for target work - a specific tool used to get the bullet jammed into the rifling the same amount of distance, so the bullet seats to same depth when a black power loaded cartridge inserted behind that - is there any similarity to what you do?? How does that system accommodate for wear / burning off of the start of the rifling over time?
 
Potashminer said:
Bearhunter - are you breech seating jacketed bullets or lead cast bullets? I had read on breech seating cast lead bullets for target work - a specific tool used to get the bullet jammed into the rifling the same amount of distance, so the bullet seats to same depth when a black power loaded cartridge inserted behind that - is there any similarity to what you do?? How does that system accommodate for wear / burning off of the start of the rifling over time?
Click to expand...
I don't have a breach seating tool for my Haenel but did for my 38/55 Highwall.
I made a dummy plug with a case of the correct length, and filled up with lead.
I then place my Bullet into the breach and push the breach seating case behind it, then close up the action .
I then eject the plug and chamber a case loaded with the correct powder charge with a crafter's wax plug on top of it to keep the powder in
This sets the bullet into the leade the same way every time .
Cat
 
Just bought a schutzen rifle in 32-40 that uses breech seated bullets. From what I have been able to gather, these have been loaded with black and smokeless but wondering how black works since the bullet is often not even touching the case mouth creating a space, not good with black. I didnā€™t ask if he was useing black or smokeless but either way looking forward to shooting it. I could discuss this with the seller just thought it would be an interesting topic for the forum.
 
When using black powder and breach seated bullets, a lot of shooters use a filler of corn meal , or a fibre wad to make up the difference .
In the 32/40 - which is very close to the 8.15x46r, 40 grains will take you close tp the case mouth IIRC, I will have to check my log book.
I use mostly a light charge of 4227 these days and powder coated cast 180 grain bullets.
This gives me very good 200 meter offhand accuracy with both the irons or RTB scopešŸ™‚


Cat
 
I was shooting one of my 32-40's breech seated just this morning. You can use a plugged case effectively in some action types. The Steven's 44-1/2 works well because it has some camming power. It's not nearly as good in a highwall though. I can post pictures of a very simple tool you can make for the 32-40 that will work quite well in actions like the Winchester 1885 with little camming power.

I used to shoot a lot of black powder while breech seating in 32-40's & 38-55's. Just fill the case right to the top with black then put a thin wad on the powder. A 0.030" veg wad works well. If you have a small air gap ( like 1/16" or so ) it doesn't seem to hurt anything. I've done it many times.

These days I almost always use IMR-4227 as it's easier to get good accuracy. For strong actions anywhere between 13.5gr to 14.5gr will usually work very well with a 185gr to 205gr bullet depending on your twist.

The key is soft bullets and a good lube. The hardest I use is 16:1 but mostly I use 20:1.

What kind of rifle did you buy?

Chris.
 
Oh, one thing with breech seating and black powder. Sometimes when using black powder you'll stretch a case into the rifling or even separate one. I've done it a few times and it seems to have to do with the chamber design (whether it has a 45 degree transition at the case mouth before it gets into freebore/leade), and also the brass thickness and powder granulation.

I started breech seating with plain Goex powder which is not particularly strong and never had an issue. In one of my CPA's I separated a case using Swiss 1.5 but it's only ever happened once. In a highwall I have, when I tried OE 1.5 in thin Starline brass I separated a few in a row and then switched powders to solve it.

Steve Garbe wrote an article about the phenomenon in the Black Powder Cartridge News years ago.

One other thing. The 32-40 is really sensitive to bore fouling when shooting black powder. If you are getting poor groups it's probably fouling or a tiny piece of lead in the grooves. You'll need to wipe the bore carefully between shots and make sure the chamber is very dry. I found that cartridge is a lot more sensitive to bore condition than the bigger ones.

Chris.
 
When shooting my 45/70 and 40/65, I soft seated the bullets (as bearhunter does) and as the cartridge was pushed into the breach, the bullet hit the lands and slipped into the case the rest of the way.
The only issue is if you want to take the case put before firing - quite often the bullet would stay in the chamber.
Cat
 
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