.38-50 Hepburn

[beltfed]

Ian,
As I said in the E-Mail,
Like wise, the weekend matches were a poor experience with the 38-50. Weather, etc
Arnie

[Hiwall55]

Must be catching, we All shot like crap this weekend at Big Piney.

[Kurt]

It turned out to be a dumpster fire for me. Tomorrow I will try to figure out what went wrong

Hey!! Ian, I see you came in third Master, what's wrong with that ??
Your .38-50 shot better or you shot better than I did

It looks like it was a good turn out looking at the leader board.

Kurt

[ian45662]

Very good turnout. Hopefully that bodes well for the nationals which will take place there next year.

[ian45662]

Shot a smaller match today. 27 off the sticks and 4 chickens….. I feel a little better after friendship. I was getting really bad paper rings last weekend. When I got home I had checked the brass and it was getting long. I couldn't fit my chicken bullets into a fired case which are .003 under groove so they should have went right in. I’m not sure how I let them get that long but I dialed my trimmer back so that they are approx .005 short of my chamber. I may trim them back a few thou more and see what that does but it shot much much better today.

[Distant Thunder]

Ian,
I like to keep all my brass no more than .005" short of the 45 degree chamber stop, .44-77, .45-70 & .40-65. I find that anything .010" or more and I will get paper rings which I would rather avoid. I'm not sure how much they affect accuracy, but they can't be a good thing.
I don't have much in the line of case stretching, but I don't anneal my cases nearly as often as some shooters. I have not annealed my .45-70 or .40-65 brass since day one, not ever. I am thinking about annealing my .44-77 brass this winter after 6 or 7 loadings. They have not been annealed since they were fire formed initially. I have seen a lot of cases ruined by annealing and since I don't size my brass, not ever, I don't see a need to anneal. I do very lightly close up the case mouths for my bore diameter PP, VERY LIGHTLY.
The only reason I am thinking about annealing my .44-77s is because of the cost and time it takes to make new cases. If I do, it will only be the necks, I will avoid the shoulders altogether.
I am in the habit of quickly checking my case length before each loading, in part because I keep them as close as I can to the chamber length, but also so I'm not trimming more than a few thousandth when I do have to trim a few.
Of those 3 rifles, my .45-70 is the most forgiving of "short" brass. My .40-65 and .44-77 will start coughing up paper rings with anything more than .005" short.
With my .40-65 I do trim to .005 short of chamber length. I had to trim my .44-77 right at 2.250" to avoid paper rings. Most of that brass is finally getting to chamber length.

I don't chamfer the inside of my case mouths anymore either, that effectively shortens the case length too. I do deburr the ID using a special reamer that fits the fire formed case and with one or two turns by hand any burr is gone.

As always, YMMV. It's a journey, enjoy the ride.

[JKR]

Ian,
I like to keep all my brass no more than .005" short of the 45 degree chamber stop, .44-77, .45-70 & .40-65. I find that anything .010" or more and I will get paper rings which I would rather avoid. I'm not sure how much they affect accuracy, but they can't be a good thing.
I don't have much in the line of case stretching, but I don't anneal my cases nearly as often as some shooters. I have not annealed my .45-70 or .40-65 brass since day one, not ever. I am thinking about annealing my .44-77 brass this winter after 6 or 7 loadings. They have not been annealed since they were fire formed initially. I have seen a lot of cases ruined by annealing and since I don't size my brass, not ever, I don't see a need to anneal. I do very lightly close up the case mouths for my bore diameter PP, VERY LIGHTLY.
The only reason I am thinking about annealing my .44-77s is because of the cost and time it takes to make new cases. If I do, it will only be the necks, I will avoid the shoulders altogether.
I am in the habit of quickly checking my case length before each loading, in part because I keep them as close as I can to the chamber length, but also so I'm not trimming more than a few thousandth when I do have to trim a few.
Of those 3 rifles, my .45-70 is the most forgiving of "short" brass. My .40-65 and .44-77 will start coughing up paper rings with anything more than .005" short.
With my .40-65 I do trim to .005 short of chamber length. I had to trim my .44-77 right at 2.250" to avoid paper rings. Most of that brass is finally getting to chamber length.

I don't chamfer the inside of my case mouths anymore either, that effectively shortens the case length too. I do deburr the ID using a special reamer that fits the fire formed case and with one or two turns by hand any burr is gone.

As always, YMMV. It's a journey, enjoy the ride.

Jim,
Interesting point you’ve made about chamfering. Is your ID reamer something you’ve made yourself? Somewhere I have something like that for 30 cal. made by Wilson.
I’ve been using steel pins for cleaning and do notice some peeling. It takes more chamfering than I like to clean it up.
JKR

[Don McDowell]

I think you guys need to think a bit more about shooting a shorter bullet in those 38’s

[Distant Thunder]

JKR,

What I have is a tapered reamer that I bought for some long forgotten job years ago. I stumbled across it awhile back and a light went on in a normally dim place. It turns out to be a size that does both .44 (.448) and .45 (.452) caliber. The taper is very slight in the 4" length, it works well. I don't get much peening but I do get some. I have tried a couple different things and this works best. It doesn't really touch the side walls, it just removes the burr.

I have always been careful not to over do the chambering, but my .44 forced me to find a better way.

[beltfed]

I have found that a two diameter expanding plug /M die of the appropriate two sizes can be set to
gently bump back the slight curling in of the case mouths that may occur during firing or during case tumble cleaning.
Thereby removing NO metal from the case mouths
Arnie