Round nose bullets for pump gun ??

[yman]

I have a very nice old pump 32-20. Recently someone gave me a Lee 100gr round nose mold. But I am very leery of loading anything but a flat nose bullet in a tube fed gun. Had an old gunsmith tell me that he used to get a 30-30 about 2 or 3 yrs that someone had tried to run pointed bullets thru. I plan to mold out of wheel wghts and keep the velocity low, just plinker rounds. What do you say? good idea or bad idea to use the mold??

[Echo]

Well - I've seen factory cartridges for the 30 and 35 Rem that had round-nosed jacketed bullets. It's my thinking that round nose's are OK, pointy boolits are not.

[Mk42gunner]

While I don't think there would be any problem using RN in the .32-20, a flatnosed bullet mold for the 32-20 is pretty inexpensive. Lee molds run about $25.00 shipped for a two cavity version, (I haven't really looked at prices for about a year).

Robert

[Outpost75]

Recoil in .32-20 is light enough in normal loads that magazine tube detonation should not be an issue. A sensible precaution would be to use small rifle primers, and not pistol primers, just as insurance. If the ammunition needs to be useable in a handgun also, the Federal 200 "small rifle and magnum pistol" primer has a heavier cup than their 100 primer, and compares in cup thickness to the primers used in military M882 9mm, or .30 M1 carbine ammunition. It is in-fact, the primer used for factory loading of .357 Magnum and 9mm +P+ law enforcement loads.

The accepted engineering standard in factory loads for tubular magazines, is that the flat on the bullet nose or "meplat" must be not less than 1/2 of the bullet diameter, or 0.155" for a cartridge like the .32-20 or .30-30. If you measure factory .30-30 loads, that is about what they are, unless a roundnosed bullet has a sizeable exposed glob of pure lead which is easily deformed.

[yman]

I hadnt thought about small rifle being having a heavier cup, I will make sure to check that out. thanks.
I wish lee made a flat point 32 bullet about 115gr, only flat point they make is a 90gr truncated bullet and its 314 dia.