I was loading some 32 SW for a Stevens Pocket Rifle for my father over the weekend.
I ran into a small issue, the OAL is listed as .920" for 32 SW, everywhere that I looked online and in my books, but the Stevens would not chamber the cartridge. I tried 3 different bullets, and none would chamber. On one of the bullets I could see a mark on the lead where it was hitting the a step in the chamber. Kind of hard to explain, but there is noticeable geometry change in the chamber.
I loaded more and kept lowering the bullet seating die until the cartridges would chamber. I ended up seating the bullet to .850" and it chambered fine and fired fine. No issues.
My question... does anyone know if 100 years ago, the 32 SW was shorter in OAL than listed today?
I was loading with Trail Boss so there is no issue with decreasing the powder capacity, I followed the instructions for determining safe loading. All 9 shells fired fine.
And the first round of shells i loaded, i shot out of my 327 Federal, and they all shot fine.
I am more curious about the shorter OAL i had to use. If it was a few thousands, i could understand, but .070" shorter seems extreme.