Hello Everyone,
I've been lurking here for awhile and it's re-ignited the reloading bug. (I haven't loaded in 12 years, and never had cast anything but RB and Maxi's for the muzzleoaders). THis is my first post and I am already asking for help.
Recently I have picked up a couple of pre-war S&W Hand Ejectors in .32 S&W Long. These have been fun to shoot, nice to carry, and pack more punch than my .22 Kit gun. I can't believe how much smaller these are than the j frames, and now carry one of them on my hikes and fishing trips. I've been on a kick to develop some snake loads for the .32's but have run into some problems.
My first thought was just to load some Unique or Bullseye into a .32 S&W Long case, top off the powder with an overcard (a 3-hole punch cutouts of plastic butter tub lids), add some #12 shot, and put another overshot card and crimp in place. I planned on sealing it with elmer's glue. I tried putting together one load but it didn't seem there would be enough weight/shot capacity for this to work.
I ended up getting 100 nickel-plated .32 H&R magnum cases thinking that the extra length would allow for more shot, and would still fit in the 32 S&W Long cylinder as there wouldn't be anything extending beyond the mouth of the case. I thought I should be able to get 75grains of shot in the case and would use a comparable cast load to determine the powder charge.
After resizing the cases, I find that the web at the base does not allow the .32 Mag case to seat in the cylinder. I guess H&R and Federal did this so that you couldn't load WC in .32 mag cases for use in a .32S&W Long. I guess I should have though of that.
I went ahead and charged 1 of the cases with 3gr Unique, added the overpowder wad, shot, and overshot card just to see how much shot it would hold.- 50grains including wads. I still think that might be light and may have to re-think the whole project.
Anyone have any snake load recipes in .32's?? I've been intrigued with the ..327 Federals, and perhaps that's the better platform to develop snake loads on. Anyone tried shotloads in the .327 Federal yet??
Don.