frnkeore, 4759 still works as well as it did then. It is all I use in my treasured Single Shot rifles. In full smokeless loads or as a priming charge for Black. I have not found a need to consider changing as these old guns still shoot better than I can hold. Regards, FITZ

I've had several .40-63 Ballards and they all preferred bullets in the 320-350gr range - but all were rifled 1 in 20". I tried some down to 255gr. and up to ~380gr. One bullet that worked very well in all three was 345gr. Ideal #406150 which drops right at .410" in 1:30 alloy. Actually, I've never found an oversize .40-63 that didn't like that bullet! I think it's supposed to be for a Winchester .40-72...?

Before RMC and Buffalo Arms showed up, I tried forming brass from all sorts of strange European brass - including 7x57R, which has a rim that is much too thin for any Ballard .40-63 I've ever encountered. JMO, but you'll need to find some way to bump up that rim thickness to keep the headspace within reason. One of my .40-63 shootin' buddies sprung the breechblock on his #4 while shooting straight black and safe duplex loads - and several of us, including him, blame the thin rims on the formed brass he was using.  

I read where RL-7 can be used in tiny amounts as the smokeless component of a duplex load. I've never tried it in a Ballard, but did try some in my .40-65 Hepburn at ~3-4% by volume with BP. It worked well enough but seemed daring and new-fangled to me so I went back to my good ol' SR-4759. I've never seen pressure data with RL-7/BP, but I have with enough duplex loads using 4759 to have a feel for what's happening.
 
xtm

RMC - Rocky Mountain Cartridge - Dave Casey turned my .40-63 brass from dimensions I gave him from a cerrosafe chamber casting. They came to me annealed and since I've never run them through sizing dies, I've not yet had one split or fail otherwise.

A lot of formed brass fits in a .40-63 chamber OK, but most of it is loose enough at the base to bypass the Ballard extractor. I already mentioned that most of it has a rim that is too thin -- well, most of it is really not wide enough at the base and rim either. This may seem inconsequential, but a chambered case behind an extended extractor will jam up the works until you pry or tap it out with a rod. All my case problems with this Ballard 1 1/2 disappeared when I received my perfectly-fitting RMC brass.  

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The .40s are the largest bores that I shoot - got rid of everything larger when heavy recoil ceased to be fun for me!

BTW, I like .32-35, too! Whataya do for brass for that one?

May just be me, but I'm sort of scared of Unique loads for the .40-63 in the Ballard action......

xtm

I spent about 5 years with my 32/35 Stevens/Maynard. Starting from just thinking it was a good cartridge to, having my set of reamers made. I won a lot of ASSRA matches in Oregon with it and shot it in CBA matches too. It's been my most accurate BP cartridge (4 shoots in .5" and a flyer out to 1.95" at 200 yds and a evenly spaced 1.72" group that still stands as the club BP record).

Like i said, I'm a machinist. So, what i did was make a swaginging die with a inside dia of .395 with a radius at the start. I have a C-H type shell holder mounted on my arbor press, the ram has a .500 reamed hole in the ram and a set screw to hold tools. I put a 30/30 in the shell holder and swage the body down to the solid case head. I put the rim in a step collet, turn the head to .400. Run the case through the die I made with the reamer (you can shorten it to 1.88 at any time). Load it and fire form it. I even made cases on the 30 American for it with the Small primer pocket. I found little difference accept that you have to add about 1/2 gr of powder for the same velocity.

I can supply loading data if your interested. It was a 14 twist Douglas barrel 26" long on a Hoch action ( i bot the Hoch in '86 and had to do a lot to it before it could be even called a workable action). I shot a 187 gr Ron Long spitzer in it. I eroded the throat in it with the high pressure CBA loads and haven't shot it since '96 but, i haven't shot much of anything since then.

My 7mm brass was to thick at the neck to make my breech seater, So what I did was to make a mandrel at .412 and press the brass onto it then, put a flat live center against the base to both hold it on the mandrel and act as a driving clutch. I took a rounded and polished piece of drill rod and spun about 1" of the neck down to the thickness I needed and refire formed.

That brings up a question. The 40/63 is a everlasting case and in my gun, the neck is to small for "normal" neck thickness. How in the heck would the guys back then have loaded a thick everlasting case with a fixed bullet. I've never heard of BSing mentioned with the everlasting case by the manufactorer only long lasting.

Fitz,
Thanks for the excellent lesson and reminder about the "Olde Ways" of 19th century shooting that always seem to be cast aside and quickly forgotten!  

I have been fortunate to come across the Ballard re-decapper and straight-line bullet seater for .40-63 - this is all I need for superior fixed BP handloads. I've never breech-seated anything larger than .38 cal., but I'm sure it would add to the accuracy...
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Three types of original .40-63 cases you might run into: Left - Berdan-primed everlasting case; Center - UMC Boxer-primed 40-70 case with thin brass, not everlasting (please note the small rifle primer pocket!) ; Right - Boxer-primed everlasting case of heavy brass with large rifle primer pocket.
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Photo of a full-length cartridge next to a short one formed from 7x57R with the bullet seated out to proper length -  each next to an empty case and the straight-line bullet seater. Bullet is 330gr. Ideal #403149.
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xtm

Does anyone have just one pet smokeless load that they can give me?

Frank