Some quick expansion/penetration testing with new .32 LSWC

[patrick_sween]

If you saw my thread about mold mods you have seen that I'm making an enlarge meplat version of the Lee TL314-90 SWC for my Ruger .32 SS. I just shot some milk jugs and thought I'd show some results. Fired one round with the bullet as cast, about 103 grains, at about 850 fps. Nose riveted slightly, but otherwise no expansion. Penetrated 4 jugs and was found in the fifth, with a nice round hole punched in the near side of the fifth to show it was still nose forward right to the end. I've been toying with the idea of further mold mods to HP this bullet, so before going that far I drilled one with a 0.188" HP down to the SWC shoulder, which reduced the weight to 95.5 grains. Used the same powder charge, so velocity was likely a little higher than the solid, but probably not much. The resulting HP penetrated 3 jugs and was found in the fourth, expanded to about .4" in a perfect mushroom. It also looked like it tracked in a perfectly straight line. Given the results, I'm thinking I might go ahead with the HP mold plans, since the performance was what I'd call perfect. I'm looking for a farm varmint load that's not too loud, cheap, and accurate enough to plink with, but still having the thump to really flatten a coon or possum. BTW these are cast of SOWW with 2% tin, BHN in the 8-9 range. Thanks for looking!

128859

Patrick

[Echo]

Wow. Good looking boolits, slight riveting on the middle, perfect (IMHO) mushroom on the HP. You get a big WAY TO GO!

[depoloni]

That looks like both designs are working extremely well for you! Tip my hat!
That HP size/depth sure seems like it's about right on. Did you lose any meaningful bullet weight with the HP expansion test? Doesn't appear so.

[patrick_sween]

No weight loss, and very noticeably more damage to the first and second jugs with the HP. Split the first top to bottom and blew the cap off, then split the second, before punching neat holes in and out of the third. Was pleasantly surprised to get that good of expansion at such low velocity, but a .188" HP looks cavernous with a .230" meplat and these are cast very soft for a reason. So far so good! Would like to test a few in wet newsprint to get a better idea of penetration in a critter, but based on the jugs I bet I get plenty for anything less than a foot thick through the middle.

Patrick

[Michael J. Spangler]

Wow. I love the 32 but my 1930s hand ejector leaves something to be desired in the sight department.
Your first thread on this bullet had me wanting a K32 now I really want one!!!
Awesome work!

[Green Frog]

What kind of powder are you using? I've been using some Accurate #7 and some (discontinued) H108 for my 327 FM loads to shoot in my Project 616 and my BH 8-Shooter.

Froggie

[patrick_sween]

I'd like to try these in a .32 Long out of a S&W 30 or 31, I think the solid version might make a pretty good personal defense choice given the long straight penetration and big flat point. Now if I could just find a nice 31-1 for less than $500 I'd buy it in a heartbeat! These loads are only costing me about $3.00 per 50, so they don't cost any more than a .22 shooting decent ammo. I always figured a 30 or 31 with the right grips would make a good kids trainer and a nice kit gun if you could find a load that shoots to the sights. The 30 and 31 used to be much cheaper than the 34s, but stupid me didn't pick one up then and now they run about the same, too much! I'll keep looking, really enjoying the .32s so I need another.

Patrick

[patrick_sween]

As for powder these tests are with TiteGroup. I have a decent supply of it and these loads get me 2800 rounds to the lb. so it's pretty cheap. Current working load is 2.5 gn. I haven't chronoed these yet but estimating mid 800s based on the books.

Patrick