.320 cases

[loiner1965]

just browsing and passing time on the web and wondered can the .32 s&w die set work on the .320 cases etc.
many thanks gentlemen and i wish you all a merry xmas and a safe shooting new year

[ulav8r]

I looked through the case forming spreadsheet and found 36 different 32 caliber cartridges, none were named .320. What .320 case are you talking about?

[bouncer50]

I think the 32 Short Colt is the same as the .320. Overseas as i recall the .320 came out first. And the short Colt was a copy of it. Some one can correct me if i am wrong.

[Eddie Southgate]

S&W had a cartridge used in a long barreled pistol that came with a rifle stock and I believe had a flip up aperture sight it was called a .320 You can see a picture of one on page 32 of Sixguns . Only other .320 I know is a rifle cartridge of English origin .

Eddie

[loiner1965]

its the .320 bulldog /english .
so many .32 calibres but all different

[skeettx]

http://bullet-blog.com/320-revolver-2/

http://hlebooks.com/380cfkit/380cfkit.htm

[loiner1965]

used them in the past and they are very good....just wondered if they were a common die set that would work on the .320.
i had a 11mm mas revolver and the .45 webley seater die would also crimp the heeled bullet nicely even though it said by various forums you need a special die etc

[Ballistics in Scotland]

its the .320 bulldog /english .
so many .32 calibres but all different

It is more accurate to say so many carridges, and the difference, with most of them, doesn't matter very much. They had the same diameters (although I would expect some rather haphazard matching of groove to chamber throat diameters), but they mostly used heel bullets with the chamber bored straight all the way through, and it didn't much matter where brass met lead.

I say "mostly" because the .32 Long and Short Colt cartridges changed from an outside lubed heel bullet of .312in. diameter (about the same as the case neck) to an inside lubed one at .299in. I don't know if they changed the bore dimensions, but the new bullet had a hollow base to make it expand to fit the original bore dimensions. The idea was to make it look as good as the .32 S&W Long and Short, which increased the case diameter instead of reducing the bullet - but not to actually make it work as well. It is unlikely to have provided good accuracy, but how would 99% of the customers for small pocket revolvers ever find out about that?

What this means is that if you have a British or Belgian .320 revolver, the old version of .32 Long or Short Colt will be fine, but the new version won't.

As if this wasn't complex enough (Are you paying attention, you at the back there?), Colt also loaded a .32 Colt New Police, which actually was the .32 S&W Long with a flatter nosed bullet.