ok, so I  finally found my good  B&S digital caliper, the one that will do metric and inches.

Damned if my full length 30-30, 32 WS, & 375 W fire-formed cases don't mike all 52mm or a very small amount more.   

now to get an accurate chamber cast so I can determine the length and diameter of the stop ring band that will fit the AM custom SR  bullet tightly and well into the tapered leade of the rifling.

thanks that looks just like what I've got---I think.  even studying the not-so-good chamber case I think I can see where the end of the case merges with the throat but is a very faint line.  I'm gong to try a couple new chamber casts this evening.   I'm also going to do a muzzle cast of the first couple inches.  I think it may be eroded a little from cleaning.     Can one do a rebated or recessed crown?    O.f course with my offhand shooting it might not make any difference

after more checking on the cases on hand. reshaped full length 30-30w and  32w sp cases capped with my BA SR will drop in and fall out of the chamber of my Aydt showing NO marks on a blackened bullet and case mouth unless the mouth has been flared slightly to scrape as its seated.
My small batch of unfired 375 w brass all uniformly mike at 2.00 or 2.01, resized they may stretch a very little. they fit just like the 30-30s

I have a bag of 50 older unfired  W38-55 brass that mike at 2.13 Oal.   Sized in  the .46r sizing die they grow to 2.16/17.  Capped with the same bullet they will not seat all the way even levering them in. Ejecting them leaves the bullet wedged in the throat.  Carefully tapping the blackened bullet out shows a clear print of all 7 narrow lands on the sides of the nose and the blackening on the SR is uniformly wiped off.

At this point I believe that trimming the 38-55 back a little will give a round that will chamber with a slight effort with the bullet aligned into the throat and lands and tightly locked between the case mouth and the throat.  This I believe this is the optimum set up for a SR bullet. this should let me use the BA SR Bullet.

In this  rifle's chamber the shorter 30-30W, 32 Wsp, and 375 brass  will require a bullet with a longer stop ring and perhaps the nose reconfigured to fit the leade a little more solidly.   I will probably do this with the AM mold 32-82N altered for my specific rifle.

It is pretty obvious  to my eyes that trying to use standard length .46r brass and the Buffalo Arms SR bullet would not be real productive --in this rifle's (apparent 8.15x52r) chamber. (Assuming one wanted to use the SR bullet method of shooting---breech-seating other bullets the brass might work fine as long as you get a real good mouth/chamber seal) the jump-slam from case mouth into the chamber throat and rifling will deform the bullet before it get well into the rifling with lead bullets

yeah thats the remaining question mark for me,   If the nose fits the bore properly---tight bore ride or slightly tapered to engage the rifling--and the stop ring fills the grooves as well as filling the for and aft gap between the case mouth edge and the lock-up point;   What about the reduced diameter base that fits into the case mouth?     Of course the 22 rfs have been shooting soft lead  "heeled" bullets for more than a century with no problems. 
And I know a bunch of guys who shoot gas-check bullets minus the gilding metal GC, and they have no problems with them----or so I'm told.
And the original SR bullets had to fit inside the case, and most were swedged lead.

Breech-seating solves all this   but for me shooting these fine old euro-schuetzens that way would be like putting a tramp-stamp tattoo on Venus d'Milo


I KNOW!!!! a properly fitted stop ring bullet--   BUT with a "heeled" minie' ball base that will expand to fill and seal the bore.      now who could make a mould like that

westerner wrote on Nov 30^th, 2013 at 1:18am:


Wouldn't be me, would it? 

Spent a few minutes searching 8.15 x 52 R and almost all the hits I get are on this site! Since this place appears to be the sum total of knowledge, looks like I'll be at your mercies.

BS-ing only, or be there dies? Fixed ammo with stop ring? Looks like my learning curve approaches a vertical line!

Just so y'all know what's happening, Joe has a "Kettner" action of mine and is turning it into something useful. Started talking .32-40, then 8.15x46R, and now 52R. It seems to be evolving.

Just did 3 successive chamber/throat casts. also tried a muzzle cast.   
muzzle shows a little obvious cleaning rod wear in the first 1/4 inch or so.  It'd be easy to cut back except the front sight is VERY close to the front edge. I'm wondering about a hemispherical ball-grinder and a polisher to create a new deeper crown.  I have seen such crowns on old ML rifles

I heated the action barrel chamber area with a "heat gun" on medium until it was warm/hot but not uncomfortably so. 
got three very much better casts,  last one with about 2 inches of rifling beyond the throat.     I can see absolutely no indication at all of where a case mouth would end.  the chamber flows seamlessly into the rifling.  looks like it was designed for a case longer than the 46r for sure probably a 52r and a bullet with stop ring that would equal the outer diameter of the case mouth and neck.  length of stop ring and bullet nose configuration I'd think would be just enough to  have the slight camming action of the Aydt block solidly seat the bullet into the throat and the leade of the rifling.

  I can see where an expanding hollow base bullet might help keep the reduced diameter bullet base centered and perhaps provide additional propellant gas seal.  It does make one ponder ways and means.