It's a lovely thing, and I want one. Especially since I now know how to put the ammo together.
About that ammunition... a lot of these, after import to the US, were rechambered to .32-20 so you could use an easily(or more-easily) available ammo. Problem is, .32-20 bullets are about ten-thousandths too small in diameter, which means lousy accuracy. Since suitable bullets were almost impossible to find for quite a while, a lot of them were bored out and either rebarreled or rechambered/rifled to a larger cartridge, or a liner put in to change them to something else. .22LR was very popular. They've been changed to cartridges from .22lr to .22 Hornet to .357 Mag and such. Nowadays, if I found one that'd been rechambered, I'd see about using the RCBS heeled bullet in the .32-20 cases; ought to work nicely.
Added: a lot of those that reached the US(Britain, for that matter) were dismantled and the receivers used to make target and hunting rifles. Many of which are still happily being used to put holes in targets.
About that bullet: it being larger than the case, it means crimping is, ah, difficult; a modern seating/crimping die won't do it(at least the one the owner has). The first loads we put together, the heel was a tight-enough fit into the case that we used the seating die to push them into place; after that, you could seat the bullet with finger pressure. Which is exactly what a lot of people do; not something you'd want to carry in a pocket, but fine for the range. I've read of modifying a Lee Factory Crimp die in .32-20 to crimp the case mouth around the heel.
The original Kynoch rounds have a 'stab' crimp; three places around the case, some type of punch die was used, each as if you took a center punch and upset the case metal into the heel.
Lubing: I used LLA. Some people use a .323" sizing die to size and lube(I've read that getting it adjusted correctly is a pain, some have had to plug the lower lube holes to keep the mess down), others seat the bullet in the case, then dip the bullet into melted lube just deep enough to get some into the lube groove. The LLA seems to work quite well, and is simple to do.
That about covers my knowledge on this, and thanks to the folks who commented on the 'obsolete ammo' post.
5 comments:
You could use a cannelure tool to put a light crimp at the heel.
I use one to put a crimp behind the bullet in my carry ammo. Similar to what Federal does, or use to anyway.
I use this one - http://www.gunstop.com/products/reloading-tools/cannelure-tool
For a rimmed round, you'd have to put the round in nose down provided the rim sat above the rollers.
It's a single shot rifle. Why do you need a crimp? No need to hold the bullets in the case during recoil, and no chance of pushing the heeled bullet into the case mouth.
Crimping seems to be an unnecessary step. If you use a sticky lube, or carry your ammo in a cartridge box, the bullet isn't going to fall out of the case.
One caveat: If you chamber a round, you might not be able to extract an unfired round without losing the bullet in the barrel. Happened to me a couple of times.
One of those in .357 Magnum would be fun to dink around with.
https://www.rccbrass.com/product/310-martini-cadet/
Four bucks each... damn. Friend will have to stick with modified .32-20
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