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!

I see that with under pressure loads. The brass doesn't fully expand enough to obdurate. First firing you are in effect fire forming the cases so it may go away if you can minimally size the necks next loadings. Not an expert but some of the older rifles had odd sized bores so might be worth while to slug it or do a Cerrosafe chamber cas and include part of the neck. But if accuracy is OK probably not necessary.

I bought some new 32-40 Brass not that long ago so it can be available.

Really nice rifle and a cool cartridge, hope you hunt it.

That is basically my thoughts exactly but want some input before I go much further. I will try doing a bit of a ladder tomorrow and shoot it over the chrony to see what my speeds are doing and what they look like. I wish my eyes were better for open sights so could really assess the accuracy better. Sucks getting old!

Also, an annealing before the first firing might soften the brass enough for it to seal. Something that is suggested for first firings of Starline brass in the BPCR circles.

annealing is a must, but now spend an extra minute and clean the chamber the carbon is building up on it too, I shoot old black powder cartridge German rifles with Trail Boss, and when annealed the gas leak problem is almost gone

Your rifle was made in the black powder era with the corresponding metallurgy.
If it were mine, I'd shoot cast bullets exclusively (or almost) and stick with either black powder or equivalent pressure smokeless loads of powders such as 4759, AA5744, 4227, Trail Boss, etc.
This action is strong, but after 130 years, metal fatigues, and it wasn't designed for a steady diet of "patched" bullets.

I have an antique 1885 made in 45-60.
In the 1930s it was reamed out to 45-70.
I am converting to 7mmRemMag.