Breach seat question

[patw]

I have a 32-40 Stevens 44 1/2 with the breach seat tool.  I had my cases ready and before going out, decided to make sure the newly sized brass fit, and it did not.  My book says max case length is 2.130 with a trim of 2.120.  When I force the action closed, there is a taper at the end of the brass, and I would have to trim to 2.085 to get the shell to fit.  I had not planned on resizing the brass after shooting, just decap and reprime.  My question is this, do I just force the brass once and then reuse it, or do I start by trimming it to 2.085 so it will fit the chamber?

[Lurker]

This is the American Single Shot Rifle Association's URL.

http://www.assra.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl

This is a good place to ask Single Shot Rifle questions.

Bill

[Rangr44]

Your rifle's chamber is evidently tight, or minimum, chambered.

I would advise trimming your brass accordingly.

.

[gcrank1]

Do check the ASSRA info.
If your chamber was made to specifically 'breech seat', then using 'fixed ammo' criteria doesnt work.
If it is a field chamber and you just want to breech seat then it is different than above by a bit.
What do you have?

[patw]

I bought the rifle years ago from a machinist/gunsmith who had rebarelled it specifically for breech seating.  His wife shot it in Schuetzen matches.  He gave me some cast bullets with the gun and he was supposed to give me the bullet mold later ( I never learn).  I used up the bullets and kept waiting for the mold.  The rifle sat in the back of the safe for several years and I finally came to the realization that if I wanted to shoot it, I would have to get my own mold.  I got the mold, but now I forgot what I used or how I did things back when.

To tell the truth, I played around with it and found the answer.  With the bullet seated, if I don't trim the brass, the shell will jam. The bummer is that I bought and resized some 38-55 brass since 32-40 was not available, and it turns out I could simply have used some 30-30 brass.

[gcrank1]

It sounds like youve got it figured out. Did you trim the reformed 38-55 brass back or is it still full length?
The old original 32-40 cases were longer than current by 1/10th" (?) If yours are longer than that new stuff I bet there is someone out there that would like it for their full length chamber. As you say, the 30-30s reform even shorter, and are so cheap, that if that fits Id do it and sell the other.

[Frank46]

Just a hunch, but maybe the smith chambered your rifle for the shorter 30-30 cases reformed to 32-40?. Frank