From threads here and on British militaria Forums, it appears that there is still lots of confusion among new Snider owners about how to get started with shooting their rifle. I've been doing it for around 10 years now and highly recommend it- if you have patience. Nice groups don't come easily. Here are some pointers that may be useful:
1) 24g shotgun brass (as purchased) is a cylinder. It won't chamber in a Snider by simply trimming to length. It must be run through Lee or other sizing dies which forms it into a shape that will chamber in any Snider. The case is quite significantly re-shaped as the Snider chamber tapers from rim to mouth.
2) Forming Snider brass is super easy with the Lee dies. You can also buy ready-formed brass from X-Ring, in Washington State.
3) Formed Snider brass has a neck that is meant to firmly hold bullets like the Lee .575"w minie. The neck has to be flared to seat such bullets.
4) Most shooters presently only fire sized cases once, and then switch over to .60" solid bullets which vary from a loose to slightly snug fit in fire-formed brass. I regularly shoot about 8 different Ordnance and commercial Sniders and the fire-formed brass from all of them readily accepts .60" bullets. Snider bores typically have bottom of groove diameters of around .602 or .603" which explains why these bullets can be used.
5) With fire-formed brass, the chamber length becomes an issue and you may have to trim cases to fit. I generally trim new brass to 1.975" and that seems to work in the majority of my rifles, but I do have one BSA that requires trimming to 1.95". Look for a sharp cone at the mouth of your brass which tells you the case protruded beyond the start of the very abrupt "leade" characteristic of the Snider chamber.
6) Due to the volume of the shotshell brass, a lot of "filler" is required below the bullet. Personally I've mainly used cream of wheat, but even short pieces of foam backer rod will do. I tend to put milk carton wads between filler and powder and filler and waxed bullet. Since the bullets are usually loose in the case (lightly glued in by the wax) it is a good idea to have a measured out solid filler that the bullet sits on. I only use weighed 70 grn FFg powder charges as I like to keep one parameter constant. Even so, with that charge and firing .60s, the rifles are significantly undersighted at 200 or 300 yards.
7) Lubing the bullet can be done by pan-lubing (with very soft lube) or just dipping. I tend to go with quite hard beeswax mixtures and find dipping the only way to go. Almost everyone I know that gets good results with .60" bullets dips them in supplemental super-soft lube prior to shooting. Until you've found the right wax, powder charge, etc., don't be surprised if you see groups (even with the .60" bullets) with lots of flyers (ie. very poor groups).
8) If you're going the .60" bullet route, now all you need to do is tap out the primer with a rod, clean the case and repeat.
Personally, I still do about half of my Snider shooting with minie-type bullets that require some sort of resizing so I absolutely couldn't get by without dies. The .60" solid bullet has no historical authenticity and I consider that the main reason for shooting a Snider. Back in Victorian times one of the Snider's useful characteristics was that it could be fired hundreds of times with Boxer sub-bore minies without fouling affecting accuracy. The need to dip .60s in something like "Udder creme" prior to shooting (for best groups) tells you that with the large bullets forced into the rifling, the wax carried in the cannelures isn't adequate. If you don't want to dip, I've found pure beeswax in the grooves will allow fair shooting and a thick beeswax cookie under the bullet can work well, but adds a lot of work.
I would invite newcomers to Snider shooting to post questions in this thread for advice from the many forum members who shoot these rifles.
milsurpo
1) 24g shotgun brass (as purchased) is a cylinder. It won't chamber in a Snider by simply trimming to length. It must be run through Lee or other sizing dies which forms it into a shape that will chamber in any Snider. The case is quite significantly re-shaped as the Snider chamber tapers from rim to mouth.
2) Forming Snider brass is super easy with the Lee dies. You can also buy ready-formed brass from X-Ring, in Washington State.
3) Formed Snider brass has a neck that is meant to firmly hold bullets like the Lee .575"w minie. The neck has to be flared to seat such bullets.
4) Most shooters presently only fire sized cases once, and then switch over to .60" solid bullets which vary from a loose to slightly snug fit in fire-formed brass. I regularly shoot about 8 different Ordnance and commercial Sniders and the fire-formed brass from all of them readily accepts .60" bullets. Snider bores typically have bottom of groove diameters of around .602 or .603" which explains why these bullets can be used.
5) With fire-formed brass, the chamber length becomes an issue and you may have to trim cases to fit. I generally trim new brass to 1.975" and that seems to work in the majority of my rifles, but I do have one BSA that requires trimming to 1.95". Look for a sharp cone at the mouth of your brass which tells you the case protruded beyond the start of the very abrupt "leade" characteristic of the Snider chamber.
6) Due to the volume of the shotshell brass, a lot of "filler" is required below the bullet. Personally I've mainly used cream of wheat, but even short pieces of foam backer rod will do. I tend to put milk carton wads between filler and powder and filler and waxed bullet. Since the bullets are usually loose in the case (lightly glued in by the wax) it is a good idea to have a measured out solid filler that the bullet sits on. I only use weighed 70 grn FFg powder charges as I like to keep one parameter constant. Even so, with that charge and firing .60s, the rifles are significantly undersighted at 200 or 300 yards.
7) Lubing the bullet can be done by pan-lubing (with very soft lube) or just dipping. I tend to go with quite hard beeswax mixtures and find dipping the only way to go. Almost everyone I know that gets good results with .60" bullets dips them in supplemental super-soft lube prior to shooting. Until you've found the right wax, powder charge, etc., don't be surprised if you see groups (even with the .60" bullets) with lots of flyers (ie. very poor groups).
8) If you're going the .60" bullet route, now all you need to do is tap out the primer with a rod, clean the case and repeat.
Personally, I still do about half of my Snider shooting with minie-type bullets that require some sort of resizing so I absolutely couldn't get by without dies. The .60" solid bullet has no historical authenticity and I consider that the main reason for shooting a Snider. Back in Victorian times one of the Snider's useful characteristics was that it could be fired hundreds of times with Boxer sub-bore minies without fouling affecting accuracy. The need to dip .60s in something like "Udder creme" prior to shooting (for best groups) tells you that with the large bullets forced into the rifling, the wax carried in the cannelures isn't adequate. If you don't want to dip, I've found pure beeswax in the grooves will allow fair shooting and a thick beeswax cookie under the bullet can work well, but adds a lot of work.
I would invite newcomers to Snider shooting to post questions in this thread for advice from the many forum members who shoot these rifles.
milsurpo
