Got another .32

[26Charlie]

Picked up a Remington M14 pump in .32 Remington caliber - date code says it was made in Apr 1929 - nice shape and has a Lyman rear sight and Ivory bead front.


The rifles in the picture are (l to r) the Rem M14 in .32 Remington, a Rem M81 in .32 Remington, a Rem M8 in .30 Remington, and a M1899 Savage TD carbine in .303 Savage made in 1921.

[26Charlie]

The first picture below is results - the second is a closeup of the components.

Best group was the 321297 HP with 25.0 gr. Scot 4197. I slipped a sheet of paper behind the target and marked the shots, then drew the group and put the data on the paper.

The cartridges shown are, l to r (bullet on left & cartridge on right),
.32 Remington with 323481 205 gr.
.32 Remington with SAECO #081 200 gr.
.32 Remington with Mountain Molds 195 gr.
.32 Remington with 321297 HP 180 gr.
.30 Remington with RCBS 30-180-FP 190 gr.
.303 Savage with 311291 175 gr., case made from .30-30 sleeved with .40 S&W at the base & fireformed.

323481 is too long as shown to feed in M14, although it works in the M81.
The SAECO, Mountain Molds, and 321297 HP have to be seated deeper than their crimping grooves because the noses (081 and MM) are too fat for the short throat or (323481 and 321297 HP) too long to feed through the magazine.

[Buckshot]

.............Pretty nifty looking ole rifles. Too bad they can't afford to make rifles to the same level of craftsmanship today. I mean, that we could afford to buy!

................Buckshot

[26Charlie]

Which raises the interesting question, how come they could make them back then for prices hunters could afford to pay?
I agree, a new rifle to an old design will be expensive, but could be done, as witness the levers and single shots and the lightning colt replicas etc. being made. For some reason these have to all go from $900 up new.
By looking round I have found all these for $300 each or less; I think it is because they are only still on the edge of being desirable antiques.

They shoot cast bullets well. I know it is hard to see, but the best group with the .32 Rem M14 pump is 2 1/8" at 100 yds.
I'm going to try some plinking/small game loads for it next. I've got a mould for the 321298 150 gr. plain base bullet for the .32 Win Self-loading to try, probably with around 6 gr. of 700-X or Red Dot.

[Char-Gar]

Guns and all sorts are not always priced based on the cost of manufacture. Often they are priced by what people are willing to pay. Price can be a very complex and illusive thing, often about market value. The whole things is to max out the corporate bottom line.

Watch when a new product is introduced... Folks rush to buy it and when they first rush is over, in a few months or a year, the price starts to come down. Wait a year and the price is half. The cost of manufacture did not go down, they had to lower the price to sell them.

Firearms like the Colt Lightning clone will only sell a certrain number of items per year. Droping the price in half won't result in twice the sales.

[9.3X62AL]

Good points, Chargar.

I have courted the idea of getting one of the '73 repros off and on, and was set to buy one in 32-20 when that Marlin 94 CCL showed up in 2004. At slightly more than half the price of a redux '73--and twice the strength--that was a no-brainer. The '73 is a cool little carbine, not real strong but pretty smooth-running.

[26Charlie]

I set up the powder measure for 6.0 gr. 700-X, and loaded the 321298 flat-point plain-base weighing 153 gr. into .32 Remington cases. To get a suitable length to feed properly, I crimped the bullet over the top band - this design has a scraper groove forward of the top band, then a crimp groove, then a lube groove. I put lube in the lube and crimp grooves ( my 1/3 beeswax, 2/3 tallow mix).
Had an awkward bench position for 50 yards; I seemed to get 4 squeezed off OK and twitch a flyer in each group.
Group at 50 yards from the M14 pump is 4 into 1 1/2", 5 into 2 3/4".
Group from the M81 semiauto is embarrassing, and had to be single loaded as the load is too light to eject the empty.

As long as I had the measure set to 6 grains of 700-X, I loaded some rounds for the .303 Savage and the .30 Remington. I used a 122 gr. pointed plain-base bullet from a Modern-Bond mould number E-311-781. This bullet is much like 311359, but with a plain base instead of a gas check.
At 50 yards the .303 Savage gave me 5 into 1 7/16".
The .30 Remington M8, also single-loaded, put 4 into 1 9/16", 5 into 2 7/8".

These are useful small-game loads striking near point-of-aim at 50 yards, when the heavier loads are sighted in at 100 yards.

[Four Fingers of Death]

I don't think they were ever cheap, but people tended to not own more than one big game rifle and a 22 and a shotgun. Besides, the rifle was the main meat getter for a lot of folks and was not a luxury, If you said to your immediate family that you were going to spend a few months pay on a rifle, you would be howled down, but for a rifle that was providing the meat for the table, you had to make some sacrifices.

[26Charlie]

Mick is right, I think. When the workman's pay was about $75 a week, the Win M70 cost $139.50, The Remington 721 $89.95. This was when I was a teenager.
Workman's pay is now about $700 a week, so rifles are $650 to $1400.

[hydraulic]

26 Charley --There is a fairly new website devoted to the great Model 8 and 81 called, "The Great Model 8 and 81." I know they would like to have your post.

[nicholst55]

Interestingly, it was a Model 8 Remington in .35 Remington that put an end to Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker's murderous spree, in the hands of retired Texas Ranger Captain Frank Hamer. It's on display at the Texas Ranger Museum and Hall of Fame near Waco.

If you examine the coroner's photos, you'll notice that both miscreants have a bullet hole right in the 'no-reflex' zone (between the eyes) - among many other bullet wounds, of course. Hamer was known as a dead shot for his entire LE career, and while it can't be proved, I like to believe that Capt. Hamer took care of business with two quick shots.

According to his biography, he stepped out of concealment and ordered the duo to surrender. Bonnie Parker responded with a shotgun blast whereupon Hamer fired two shots, before the remainder of his team opened up.

[Bret4207]

26 Charley --There is a fairly new website devoted to the great Model 8 and 81 called, "The Great Model 8 and 81." I know they would like to have your post.

Whats the actual site address?

[Mk42gunner]

Another vote for Mick being right. Both of my Grandfathers were farmers and had a 22 rifle and a shotgun. No high powered rifles, (there weren't any deer around here at the time).

Robert

[waksupi]

Another vote for Mick being right. Both of my Grandfathers were farmers and had a 22 rifle and a shotgun. No high powered rifles, (there weren't any deer around here at the time).

Robert

Same story with my family. I was the first one in the family to own a center fire rifle. We lived in small game and bird country, with deer as the years went by. But, the deer hunting was shotgun only.
The only guy I remember in the whole neighborhood with a centerfire, was Marlo Mathes. He had a German Mauser, that he had brought back from Europe. He was a tank commander during the Battle of the Bulge.
I do believe he was my strongest inspiration to have a longer range rifle, after watching him roll coyotes far beyond what anyone else in our group could manage.