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I've been fooling with some old firearms lately. The recent one was a old 41 swiss. Now I'm moving on to a snider enfield in .577 snider. I'll probably make the brass from 24 gauge brass shotgun shells. On the lookout for a bullet mold. I'll probably use black powder in this old rifle.
here is a little info on it
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snider–Enfield
I'll bet your house is a museum. I'd like to walk through and just look at all the firearms you have but you'd probably be upset by all the drool left behind.
I have a couple
I got my lee snider dies and 24 ga magtech shells earlier today. I have a little harbor freight 2 inch chopsaw that I use for cutting down brass. It worked out good, there is a little ridge by the chopsaw vise. This ridge served as a stop/guide. Didn't even have to make up a jig from oak. Cut down five and cleaned the burrs and what not from the brass. Then sized them in the die. The die is so big I had to take the big nut out of the press in order to set the die. The die is 1 1/4 by 12 thread. I would size a 1/8 th inch at a time and pull and turn the brass. I had one case crack, must of been flawed from the start.
Now to fire form them, I'll use .575 mini balls for this. Then the inside of the neck of the fired case is measured to get a bullet size. If memory serves the snider bore is either tapered or it has a gain twist with he rifling, maybe both. Once I determine the bullet size I'll search for a mold. Thinking maybe 70 grains of 3 f blackpowder but not sure just yet.
I've been wondering about using 7.62 nagant brass for my .310 cadet. Not relly looked into that but it seems like it may work.
I thought I would add that I annealed case necks before resizing. I use a method called candle annealing. It has worked well for me in the past with other cases.
these 24 ga shells are a bit thin. I'm going to keep a eye out for other brass, maybe Bertram brand.
You can pick up brass for the Snyder, or at least you could. I still hope to kill a deer with the old beast but I still owe the 32 Rem a deer before I can drag a different antique out in the woods.
I picked up some head stamped brass from The Track of the Wolf but it's 4 bucks a cartridge. I've also moved on to a different annealing method for these big cases. I use a 1.5 hole saw with the teeth removed, I put the case in there neck out. Put it in cordless drill and hold the drill a bit of a angle and spin it in a torch flame for about 7 seconds, drop in water.