Hi:

     I am ready to load new 32-40 cases for my 1885.  I have already done the following:
re sized the new brass
belled the case mouths to accept a lead bullet 165 grain plain base
primed the cases wit Re. 9 1/2 mag. primers 
dropped 14 grains of 2400 powder
ready to seat the bullets as soon as I determine the correct seating depth

     Is there any thing else that I should do to the shells?

     How much wiggle room do I have with the 2400?

     Any suggestion?

                                                                     TIA,

                                                                     Zeke

Sendro has a very accurate load with a 165 gr fixed load of 12.2 gr 4227. 14.0 gr 2400 should be plenty safe for your gun but, I would use pistol primers and leave the neck loose enough that the bullet is held tight but, can be pushed back by the rifling when loading. There are a lot of OAL's than can and should be tried with fixed. Don't crimp the bullet though.

Frank

Ran that scenario thru my new QuickLoad software for grins and giggles.

There's a myriad of parameters that can be varied, I just took the default in their library for the .32-40 cartridge and a 170 grain bullet.

QuickLoad thinks with a 170 grainer the pressure at 14 grains should be about 22,500 PSI, muzzle velocity 1700 fps.    At 15 grains it calculates about 25,000 PSI.  If this is valid, I'd say 14 grains is well up on the scale, and might want to start at 12 instead.  That yielded 17,000 PSI and 1550 FPS.

Take all that with a tablespoonful of salt - I only just got this, and haven't been to the range with any of the loads it calculates to see if they correlate to reality.

Frank, to refine this properly, I need to know the actual seating depth, rather than C.O.L.  The software wants to know the actual powder-space with bullet seated, as one of the starting parameters for the pressure calculation. 

I've been mucking about with this for two or three days now for my 2R Lovells.  There's so many input factors to get exactly right, that it has been giving me eyestrain.

If there's  a way to control for what primer is used, (and there must be), I haven't tumbled to it yet.

Phil

Frank:

Good that I asked.   The default the program uses is only .399

12.2 of 4227 with 165 grain and .450 seating depth gives 11,582 PSI, nominal M.V. from 26 inch bbl = 1316 fps.

12.0 of 2400, with 165 grain and .450 seating depth gives 17278 psi and 1560 fps.

This software ain't cheap at about $165, but it has provided endless fun trying scenarios.   Eats up my time as if I were a teenager with a video game !   D'ye know that (according to it) double charges of some fast powders in small cases can give 260,000 PSI?   No wonder things blow up!

One of the brain-strainers is that it was written by a German engineer, so it thinks in metric.  English unit inputs are there, but you cannot turn off the metric, so the screens are busy, busy, busy.   

If you want yer own to play with:    (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)

Phil

Wasn't it here that somebody posted pics of a blown-up High Wall?  High Walls were supposed to be invincible!

Speaking of Ballards, my latest acquisition is a Sedgley Ballard in 2-R Lovell.   Some people today think that .22 WMR is too much for a Ballard, but of the first three rifles that Hervey made, one was a Ballard.  And here's another made by a responsible gunsmith.  Well done - locks up like the proverbial bank vault.  But I really wanted to have more than guesses when loading this one.  So I set my credit card afire and bought the software. Turns out that my low-noise load of 7.7 grains of AA #7 and 45 grain Hornet bullet looks safe enough, at about 20K psi.  I've been using that one in my Krag Lovell.  

It doth occur to me that the people who really need this software are the ones shooting modern Schuetzen using small cases with heavy bullets.  Pressures could jump up fast using AA #9, which seems to be their powder of choice.  I had a thread on here a while ago asking what pressures these were generating, but nobody really knew.  Not having pressure-measuring instrumentation, QuickLoad seems almost mandatory for me.  I had/have plans to build one such on a Model 44 action.  Now I can know if it's likely to be safe before I commit.

Phil

I don't think you'll find anyone recommending mag primers with 2400. Even the pistol guy don't recommend mag primers with it. I always start my loads with pistol primers. 

1. they've given me the best results overall. I use rifle primers on somethings ( I always try different primers in load development) but, most of my loads are better with either F150's or Rem 2 1/2's. Usually the Rem with BP and 4759.

2. The pistol primers so pressure signs before rifle primers.

I wouldn't use that 14 gr load of 2400 with a cast bullet. The velocity is to high for the plain base bullets we shot. The 12 gr load is on the edge of the envelope but, BSed would drop it a little.

Frank