On Mon, 01 Apr 2013 00:56:05 -0500, Richard
wrote:

On 4/1/2013 12:03 AM, Gunner Asch wrote:
On Sun, 31 Mar 2013 20:42:41 -0500,
wrote:

On 3/30/2013 1:01 PM, Leon Fisk wrote:
On Fri, 29 Mar 2013 11:55:08 -0500
wrote:

snip
But the real difference, and I'm guessing the reason these rounds (six
of then) wouldn't load is that the necks were bigger; fatter.
4 or 5 thousanths? Could that make such a difference?

Something to keep in mind is that the 30-30 case can be resized and
used as a 32 Special case. If your late father-in-law happened to have
a 32 Special around be very careful...

Here is a forum entry with some discussion on this:

http://www.shootersforum.com/levergu...r-special.html


Thanks Leon.
I'm learning - rapidly!

One of these four odd rounds was marked 32-20.
The others were marked 30-30.

32-20 will fall into that rifle.

And yes, he had a large collection of firearms.

I somehow managed to get home with 20 round of .45-70.
Wish I knew what those were for...

Find his 45-70!! Its a marvelous firearm!

Gunner, serious 45-70 devotee!


Oh how I wish!

The original rifle shooting that cartridge was the Trapdoor
Springfield. The NRA used to sell them surplus for around $5 or $10,
IIRC. That was before my time but there were still a few of the
originals around in the hands of Pennsylvania deer hunters when I was
a kid. It supposedly was the best "brush-buster" for Eastern hunting
in thick woods. Later comparisons showed that really wasn't true, but
it made a good story.

Gunner will tell you this but just in case you get ahead of him: the
original cartridges had pretty thin walls and are notorious for
head-separation problems if you overload them with modern powder. It's
tempting to do so because a smokeless load equivalent to the original
BP load produces a trajectory like a rainbow.

But the brass was thickened sometime late in its regular production
life, and a guy in my old rifle club, who had a Ruger #1 chambered for
it, told me that the recent brass is thicker still. He really souped
them up.

The old Trapdoors are fun, but they weren't the greatest shooters.
They could be pretty loose if they were old military rifles.

--
Ed Huntress