What about a straight wall cartridge vs a tapered wall but no shoulder ?  I wonder how the characteristics would be with smokeless vs black.

When I first got into this sport, in 1985, there was a "Schuetzen" 32/40 chamber, that had been popular, prior to that. It is a straight taper, with no neck, ending at about .344 OD. The only throat to it, was just a 30° angle, from that diameter, threw the lands and was a BS only chambering. I think that style chamber, for match rifles, went all the way back to the beginning of match shooting, with the 32/40. Pope, may have used that chamber, too.

I have two rifles in that chambering.

The .32 RKS pushing a 235 grain Paul Jones spitzer bullet with a muzzle velocity of 1,526 fps is supersonic at 200 yards and has won the Canadian Schuetzen Benchrest Championship at 300 yards after going subsonic.

With the .32 RKS case I am capable of driving this bullet over 1,600 fps.

Heavier bullets result in greater kinetic energy from the mass which reduces the wind deflection of the bullet.

When I started the Schuetzen game the .32 calibers were 180-190 grains with 16:1 twist barrels, which changed to 200-210 grain bullets with 14:1 twist barrels to 220-230 grain bullets with 12:1 twists to 235 -240 grain bullets for 11.5:1 twists - to reduce the wind deflection of our bullets.

I use a 235 grain Paul Jones Spitzer in a 11.5:1 twist barrel  shooting 1,526 fps in a .32 RKS case with 12.4 grains of H108 but do sometimes increase to 13.1 grains H108 to shoot 1,600 fps.

frnkeore wrote on Nov 30^th, 2024 at 2:41am:


I also have a couple rifles with that chamber and the chamber reamer. Never have to bell the case mouths when shooting breech seated bullets.

My .32 RKS has only shot 13 Perfect 250s and more than 50 249s using a 24X Burris scope or Anschutz iron sights and my forearm is only 2 inches wide (narrower than the 3 inch widths that are allowed). 
And I use a front sand bag instead of using the advantage of a mechanical contraption to hold my barrel steady. 
Maybe I should go back to the 32-40 which was not so successful for me.
Maybe my .32 RKS is little bit more successful using the heavier 235 grain bullet which is less susceptible to wind drift similar to Ken Lewis use of a heavy bullet in his 33-47.

249 iron sight 200 yard target

I never use BP when breech seating so don't know if a straight taper 32-40 chamber is better. Do have a lot of experience with the standard 32-40 chamber and BP. Some chambers/rifles do okay and some such as my Meacham HW which once broke 17 out of 20 new cases don't. 

Have shot thousands of BP rounds in the 8.15X46R and never broke / separated a case. Have not lost a case yet using BP in the 32 Krag. 

Art, as far as I can tell it really depends on the chamber design, and if you are breech seating.  I've never lost a case with bp and fixed ammo.  When breech seating, if the rifle has a 45 degree angle at the end of the case before the throat, it is quite a bit less likely to separate a case.  It also depends on the powder.  I used to shoot a lot with Goex Fg powder.  When Old Eynesford came out I tried it (but in 38-55) and it separated a case almost every time I pulled the trigger.  Swiss 1.5 shoots best for me, but is more likely to separate or stretch a case than plain Goex.  I suspect that a felt wad on the powder, like Randy Wright describes in his last book, would go a long way to solving this.  Maybe that's what the old timers did?

Chris