I have been shooting the same load in my 40/65 highwalls for a few years now. Mick B convinced me to tinker. So instead of unsized cases and projectiles, I sized the first 3/8 in down then ran a 410 parallel plug into the case (have a lathe make my own). Sized the PJ money bullet to 408 so they slip fit with no neck tension. Found I had made a mistake as well - usually use 30 thou wads -accidently cut 15 thou wads so bullets were 15 thou deeper. ( I drop tube only - no compression)
Happy with Wednesdays practice target so shot in the comp today.
13 shots 10 to count 100m (110 yards) pure black powder and open sights from the bench (primitive v block front rest and rear bag)  Pretty happy to have it marked at 100.9 

Very nice shooting.
Would you share with us how you manage powder fouling, and the humidity conditions under which you fired that group? I'm finding humidity greatly affects how I have to mange fouling with BP.
I assume the 15 thou wad backed off the bullet so the front bearing band did not engage the rifling?
Thanks in advance

One of my early discoveries in BPCR was to eatablish cartridge OAL first.  Figured that out after burning about 
a ton of powder shooting with the bullet touching the rifling as the experts recommend 

Not at all trying to be derogative but there are no experts but only those who win and those who loose. What often time works for one may not also work for another. I have found over time that it is best to get out to the range and to learn how to become a teacher rather than a follower and not to the benefit of others but more importantly to ones own. Often times and more so than not you will here someone say do this or do that, use this and do not use that based on someone else's accomplishments and never their own. I have seen such comments numerious times on this site and is best for one to just shy away from them. So and so a National BPRS shooter and friend does this or a Schuetzen competitor I know does that serves no useful purpose but to try and fool someone into believing they know what they themselves can not do or have not done but some how they are now more than capable to tell eveyone here how as Bob Z / Schuetmeister has just clearly pointed out. The best advice one can give is to go directly to those they so highly speak about as they surely have nothing to share it not being them but only wishing it to be so instead of going out to work hard to earn that right so they could become the ones here on this site not only to listen too but to also learn from. Macca all though I have no intrest in BP shooting I am indeed listening to you and how you got there on your own and I do indeed respect it very highly.

JLouis

I was shooting next to Macca when he shot that target on Saturday, the best 13 shot BP target I have seen, no doubt he is going to show it to me again and again forever.
Mike.

Macca I found your out of the box thinking very interesting. If I have it right you created a 3/8 long straight neck to help align the bullet to being central to the bore is that correct. And if so is the bullet cylindrical or tapered by design and how long might the baseband be. I would really enjoy hearing your thought process on how you came up with that approach and the benefit you felt might gained if time allows.

JLouis

Hi JLouis
The bullet I use (pictured) in this post was designed by I believe Dan Theodore. He also designed the one for my Browning 45/90. Both are tapered with the first 2 bands reduced. Base band is 1/10 of an inch and it has a money bullet profile.  The design of the bullets is still in the BPCR archives. Originally I tried breech seating and partial breech seating (made my own seater) shot ok but not great. Then I read Wayne McLeran's (Texas Mac)book on these guns and examined the chamber with a lead impact chamber cast. The chamber is not true to the bore (concentric). So no matter how accurate you are with a breech seated bullet the bullet is never truly aligned to the bore.
So the natural progression was to allow the bullet to align itself. Hence my bullets jump at least 25 thou. 
Now don't get me wrong - this wasn't a quick process - I went through whole gambit of loading techniques regarding fixed ammunition and after a lot of experimentation I have principles which I use when I reload.
1. Brass is within 5 thou of chamber length and annealed
2. Brass is washed and then sonically cleaned after each firing. I dont care about shiny brass just want the insides clean so that the case volumes are consistent
3. Bullets are between 10 and 10.5 on the Brinell Hardness Scale (somewhere around 15 to 1.)
4. I use 64.5 grains of 2P Wano which is drop tubed with a 40 inch tube. I use powder volume to give me bullet seating depth.
5. I use a 90 gsm tracing paper over flash hole wad. I now use a 15 thou oil Joint material(vegi wad) over powder wad as well as another tracing paper wad. 
6. I do not compress at all. If the powder column is outside my parameters then it is re poured.
7. The sizing of case and bullet is described previously. Really all I'm seeking is same clearance between case wall and projectile in each load. By sizing only 3/8 I'm only sizing that part of the case which holds the bullet. There is no neck tension.  The cases align perfectly in the chamber as they have been fire formed in that chamber.

I spent 35 years teaching high school Chemistry and Physics - so its in my nature to analyse and experiment.
Cheers macca

Macca, in the course of all that experimentation, did you ever try some bullets that are harder from the introduction of antimony? Think old wheelweight or Lyman 2, mixed with the tin/lead alloy.
I did a good deal of fixed shooting in my .32-40 over the past couple of years, and despite not needing the harder alloy, it seemed to like it fine. Got some good results. Maybe a little tougher bullet would make that jump with less deformation. Just an idea, since each one of these things has its own set of preferences. Nice shooting from what you've got though. Attaboy.