32-20 to 310 Cadet

[swamp]

Decided to try this conversion. Don't need to, but I want to know I can do it and learn how. It is new Winchester 32-20 brass. It will chamber in both of my cadets. I seated a 115gr .314 boolit in a dummy round and chambers fine. My plan is to fireform and then trim to length. Charge would be my standard load. Or should I trim first?

swamp

[Bwana John]

What bullet?

You using a heeled bullet.........(?)

The different designs of heeled bullets are what determine case length.

Non heeled bullets don't really shoot that well.

[barrabruce]

That’s interesting.
I have to iron out the shoulder on 32-20 to fit in my chamber.
Also thin the rim and make sure the rim is not on wide.
What does your barrel mike at 0.316 or 0.324"

Personally I have done it both ways.
But I prefer to leave the brass a little long and bell the mouth so it snug in the chamber to align case concentric to fire form.
Use a few grains of bullseye and a wad followed by bunched up tight toilet paper packing.
This blows the case out and any trimming will straighten case mouths and any loss of length of fire forming is eliminated.

Than you only have to Match the end case length to the bullet fit in the throat /lands.

Perfect.

Well it works for me.

[swamp]

I have a NEI Walt 310 heeled mold. I plan on using a .314 non-heeled for forming. The heeled boolit will not seat without flaring more than I want to. I already have 310 brass and boolits.

The barrel is .323-.324. I plan to trim it to match my 310 brass.

I got both of my Cadets and supply of brass from a dealer in Australia quite a few years ago.
swamp

[1Hawkeye]

If you trim .20" off the .32 brass it will be the same dimensions as .310 and using 4.5 grs of unique with the 120gr heeled bullet it should be a duplicate to the original load. I use to use the same loads when I had a cadet.

[Bad Ass Wallace]

Non heeled bullets don't really shoot that well.

Not true! Original BSA Martini Cadets had a bore of 0.316" and a conventional non-healed boolit of 0.317" gives me good accuracy. In 32/20 conversions, the case mouth needs to be expanded to accept these boolits, and load them with normal 310 Cadet dies.

Where the heeled bullet comes from was that replacement barrels supplied by Greener were made at 0.321" and an ammunition company engineer at the Colonial Munitions factory in South Australia developed the healed boolit for this purpose. I have 10 Cadets and only 1 (made by Greener) has a bore of 0.321" the remainder are all 0.316".


https://www.castbulletengineering.co...3702-317-125pb

[swamp]

I did not want to try to open the mouth big enough to fit the heeled boolit. I figure to fire form to chamber than match length of my 310 brass. Not looking for match accuracy. Just looking to form.

[Blue2]

New experience for me . I have a 310 Cadet rifle I purchased a long time ago . I have been gradually getting the set up to load it . It appears to be in original unaltered chamber . I have an R.C.B.S. bullet mold and managed to gather up some new Australian brass. No dies though . I read on this site that I might be able to use 32-20 dies to just neck size. Lee 32-20 dies were less difficult to come by than the correct 310 Cadet dies so I bought a set to give it a try . Then I read that some fellows had tried 32-20 brass in their rifles and they would take the chamber without any problem. Some original chambers must have had a bit larger tolerance ! So I tried a new piece of Winchester 32-20 brass in my rifle and it slid right in . Probably need to be shortened to take a bullet but hey-that's pretty great . Still no loading yet . Another fellow on this site said he had been successful making up 310 Cadet brass out of Nagant revolver brass . I had some loaded PPU Nagant ammo so I tried it for fit . It almost went in . Just slightly short of allowing the breech block to close. OK ,I wonder-- I took the expander ball and decap rod out of my Lee 32-20 F.L. die and ran a piece of loaded Nagant ammo up into the die . Slowly of course and it went in --no problem as the Nagant round uses a smaller bullet and the bullet plus the brass thickness was still undersize for the sizer of the Lee 32-20 die . Nice fit--no jamming so lets try a fireforming shot . Undersize bullet gone down range and no pressure signs at all on the case .Lightly dimpled primer . The case is too long but it was not a 32-20 chamber as the fired brass had no shoulder and just appeared to be an extra long 310 case that need to be shortened to load properly . At 25 yards I tried five rounds that had been altered for profile in the 32-20 F.L.sizer and they stayed in a four inch "pattern" -not a group as they were mostly yawing a bit . Still minute of rabbit at close range . I have a full box of fifty rounds so it is an easy way to get a bunch of reloadable casing for my rifle . Once I get this bass fired off and cut back I will try loading up some of the bullets from my R.C,B.S. mold and see how the old rifle likes them . I expect the 32-20 dies will work well enough to neck size the casings for cast lead bullets .

[barrabruce]

Erghhhh
You don’t say you have done a chamber cast and figured what size projectile you need.
If a 32-20 case will fit in then it may have been altered but it don’t matter much.
It just means you don’t need to trim rims and things.
Think of the heeled bullet seated in the case as a pretty well taper from the rim to the rifling.
The trick is to have the bullet fitting into the forcing cone/leade and the case mouth where the heel starts.
So a chamber cast will help you to determine that overall length.
Seems no two seem the same so just go off what you have.

All the best with it.

[Blue2]

This was an exercise in fireforming a less expensive brass casing into a usable reloadable item . Not precision loading . I am familiar with casting and loading practices . This is similar to using 30-30 brass to make up 32 Special brass . The 30-30 brass is more plentiful and less expensive .