A while back I bought a nice looking highwall in very good condition.  32-40 with a #4 part octagon barrel and SST.  I haven't shot it yet, but did a chamber cast after breech seating a couple of bullets.

I attached a picture of the somewhat wrinkly chamber cast.  As you can see, there is a taper that starts at the case mouth and goes very gradually into the rifling.  Much of the taper is at greater than groove diameter.  If I breech seat a 200gr bullet right at the case mouth, only the first two bands are engraved.   

In the picture you can see how far ahead of the case the rifling starts.  For reference there is a 200gr tapered bullet and a 185gr Zischang bullet with no taper.

How would you seat a bullet in this rifle?  A fixed diameter bullet seated really deeply to engrave properly ( that would be at least 1/2" ahead of the case ), or do you think it would work by just seating the bullet a little ahead of the case and filling the throat with only 2 front bands engraved?

Any ideas would be appreciated, particularly if you've shot a rifle with a throat like this.

thanks,
Chris.
    

Thanks, I'll give that a try.

Chris.

What has worked well on two .32-40 rifles with long leade (.5 degree included) is to shoot a 2-diameter bullet (see drawing below) the leade starts with groove diameter at chamber mouth and tapers to bore diameter. That long lead allows the grooved diameter bearing bands to seat easily with a breech seater using mechanical advantage. The two base band bearing bands are .001 greater than groove diameter giving positive bore seal. I have two molds with same bearing band diameters; with one spitzer nose, the other has a more "traditional" blunt nose. Both are quite accurate in both of my .32-40 rifles.

RSW that bullet's bands are configured a lot like the Zischang bullet I have in the picture I included.  It has about 0.001" taper front to back, but of course it's not a spitzer.  I'll have a look at my various seaters and see if I can adjust one to seat it deeply enough.

Chris.

The Ideal Company offered two Hudson-type bullet designs in .32 caliber, the 319273 and the 319289.  These were both designed to be breech-seated ahead of the chamber.  The 319273 required that the throat be specially reamed to take the bullet and the 319289 was for use by those who did not want their chambers so modified.

Perhaps your rifle has the 319273 treatment.

Well I know the basic ideas with respect to breech seating as I've been shooting rifles that way for about ten years 😊.   I just haven't had one with a throat that required that the bullet be seated more than 1/2" ahead of the case mouth to reach the rifling.

Based on what Joe says, seating the bullet that far out shouldn't be a problem.  I'll give that a try next week and see how the old rifle shoots.

Chris.

My .32 RKS case length is 1.470".

The base of my bullet is in the barrel 1.610" which means there is a gap of .140" betweeen the case mouth and the base of my bullet (past the chamber leade) when fully breech seated to ensure at least 1/2 of the base band is engraved which ensures no gases can cut around the side of the bullet.

Many Schuetzen shooters have been seating their bullets this deep for decades based on the advice of Russ Weber who made adjustable depth seating breech seaters.

RSW has a diagram in his book about putting a bullet in backwards (Russ Weber assessment procedure) in the barrel to measure the minimum depth a bullet needs to be inserted.

Tommy Mason and Russ Weber who seat their bullets deep.

Thanks I will give the backwards bullet idea a try. It's something I've seen but never tried.  I'm not sure if that will result in the bullet reaching the rifling, but it will be interesting non the less.

Nice targets Dave!

Chris.