.32 Remington

[hydraulic]

I had one of those "too good to pass up" episodes at Tulsa, last week, and wound up with a really nice Model 8 Remington in .32 Remington. This is the rifle, in .35 Remington, that what's his name, the Texas Ranger who got Bonnie and Clyde, used. It came with a set of Redding dies ($59 in Midway) and a box of shells, six of which were empties. I bought a handful of 170 gr. .32 flat point bullets and when I got it home I loaded 34 grains of 4895 in those six. Sitting on my rear I put all six into the 8 ring at 100 yds. (area about the size of a grapefruit. It has a Lyman peep sight that screws onto the tang. Trouble is, those .32 bullets were 20 cents apiece, 34 grs. of 4895 @ $l7 a lb. figures out at about 9 cents apiece and with the primer I'm shooting $.30 shells. Now, after all this information, I'll get to the point. I don't have a .321 a bullet mould, but I do have a Lyman 323470 for 8mm. The bore slugs at exactly .321, and the gas checked 8mm's measure .325. I also have slathers of AA2200, which I've tried with the Jacketed .32's. They chronoed at 1860, and operated the action OK. What's the chances of safely using 323470 bullets over 25 grs. of AA2200?

[felix]

As long as you can seat the boolits and they slide into the chamber without any neck interference, you are good to go. Use a magic marker around the neck of a loaded round and make sure there are no signs of ANY concentric scrapes. ... felix

[hydraulic]

Thanks, Felix.

[NVcurmudgeon]

Hydralic, yeah, what Felix said. I have a Rem. 141 pump in .30 Rem. and it has a tight chamber neck. If you need more than those six cases try Huntington's. They had a ton of .30 Rem. three years ago. Dunno about .32 Rem, but I guess you know .30 and .32 are the same case.

[hydraulic]

curmugeon: Thanks for the heads up. Checked with huntingtons and they still have .30 Remington cases @$29 a hundred.

[drinks]

If the commercial sources dry up, remember you can make .25, .30 and .32 Rem cases from .30-30, as well as .25-35 and .32 WS, just turn off the rim to body size and make an extractor groove.

[hydraulic]

Drinks: IT WORKS! I messed around the shop today, fiddling with a .30-30 empty and found that by chucking a dowel mandrel in my drill, taping the case to the mandrel, securing the drill in the vise, that I had a workable lathe. Using a file and a hacksaw blade I turned down the rim, cut an extractor goove and ran it through the .32 Rem. sizing die. Tried it in my Model 8 and it chambers and extracts just fine. I'm going to load 10 grs. of Unique and the .323 8MM bullets and try it at the range tomorrow. Thanks for the tip.