Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Single Shots help with Vintage 1885

Okay, I could use a little help here.
here's my project.
I inherited this 1885 from my 90 year old Dad. It was built in 1887 and has not been fired for 75 years. Chambered in 32-40.
The only brass I could come up with is 30-30 and one pass through the 32-40 dies sized them beautifully. I did a little research and came up with a load using H4895 and 170 gr special bullets from Speer. Loads say 16-22 gr of powder. My first load was 16.5 gr and I have not shot it over the Chrony yet but will as I work up loads. I just fired a couple of shots to see if was all good to go. I did have a gunsmith look it over and give it a thumbs up before I shot it.
Here is my Question.
In the last photo you can see the brass after being shot. My concern is the black mark up near the neck. What is the cause and should I be concerned?






Thanks for any help. I'm kinda pumped up about this gun

So is my Dad!