![Image](http://i.imgur.com/zkzcBKbl.jpg)
![Image](http://i.imgur.com/7XraAfCl.jpg)
Fast forward to a couple months ago, and I finally got around to setting it up to shoot! The Hepburn is in .32-40 Ballard & Marlin, so takes standard .32-40 brass, which made me even happier! (for almost a year!) Then I sat down and slugged the perfect bore! The round lead ball measured .327" after coming out, and I was a bit shocked. I even slugged it a 2nd time, as I figured I must be mistaken, but nope.
It seems one of two things took place at some time in it's life. As a match rifle, it was either ordered from Remington to be used as a "breech seater", or later re-rifled to enlarge the bore, and shoot it as a breech seater. Either way, there was no way I was ever going to seat a .328" bullet in a .32-40 case, and be able to chamber it in this gun! Beyond the large bore, it has a very tight chamber, so seating a unsized case from any of my other .32-40 caliber guns wouldn't happen. All the others have larger chambers!
I dug through my old single shot tools and dug out a push seater for seating bullets into the bore. Tried a smaller .325" bullet I had and it worked fine, but I needed bigger. So dug through my molds and found a Lee 180 grain 8mm mold that was .323" and decided to modify the base band to .328" diameter. Using my drill press and my decimal drill index, I stepped it up one size at a time until I got to .328" Then I reassembled the mold and cast some bullets to check them for as cast diameter and trueness. All checked good, so ready to try it breech seating. Gave the push seater another try with the larger bullets and it worked fine, but I could tell if I shot a fair amount, my hand would get tired seating bullets into the bore.
It's the tool with the light oak knob below in this picture:
![Image](http://i.imgur.com/xmDKzgql.jpg)
By chance I had purchased some .40-90 Ballard brass from Jerry Cleave in Squaw Valley, Ca, and mentioned my predicament. Jerry builds some pretty nice tools for schuetzen shooters, and said he was building copies of the old Schoyen breech seater toggle tool for a Hepburn. So I sent him two fired cases to use for the guide, and I got back a beautiful tool!
![Image](http://i.imgur.com/Ac0tiOIl.jpg)
It drops in place beautifully and has plenty of leverage to breech seat a bullet with ease! The fit and finish is as fine as any high end gun, and every part has a matching serial number on it! The handle can be moved from right to left side in a few seconds by removing one screw! I'll try it left side, as it allows the gun to sit on the bench, and seat bullets with my left hand. But I'll try right hand also, just to see which feels best!
![Image](http://i.imgur.com/5YVyD6ml.jpg)
Can't wait to get my new bullet, and the Cleave tool out to see how it shoots in the Hepburn!