Bent Ramrod
04-24-2008, 11:39 PM
I've been enamored of this little cartridge ever since I read Elmer Keith's description of how he bought one as his first cartridge sixgun. I didn't start out with the caliber, but last I checked, I have three rifles (Winchester Low Wall, Ballard #2 and Savage 23) and 3 pistols (Colt Army Special, rather violently reworked Colt Bisley and Cimarron SAA clone) chambered for it. I've also had a Colt Police Positive and a Smith Hand Ejector in the caliber, and am still kicking myself for selling off the latter.
I also learned the guitar accompaniment and the words to the late, great Robert Johnson's .32-20 Blues.:mrgreen:
I've glommed onto and tested most of the Lyman offerings in the 75-to-115gr range, as well as a few SAECO, Lachmiller and other brands, but the three numbers I keep going back to are the Ideal #3118 (now Lyman 311008) and its hollow-pointed version, the #31133, the #311316 and its hollow pointed derivative, and the #311419. These three numbers will do all that can be expected from the cartridge.
Slugging throats is recommended, as the nominal diameter of .311" is not always encountered. The Low Wall prefers .310", the Ballard and the Bisley seem to like .311", the Savage seems to have no particular preference between .310" and .312" and the Colt Army Spl and the Cimarron definitely prefer .314". Fortunately, the moulds I have are oversized enough to accomodate all these diameters.
So far, all the guns handle all the boolits mentioned satisfactorily. However, some particular favorites are given below:
Win. LoWall: Ideal 3118, 11.0 gr SR-4759
Ballard: Ideal 3118, 6.0 gr Blue Dot
Savage 23: Ideal 311419, 14.0 gr Reloder 7
Bisley: Ideal 3118, 4.5 gr Unique (works in Army Spl as well)
Cimarron: Ideal 311316, 4.5 gr SR-4756 or 4.0 gr American Select
Of course, I had to attempt Elmer Keith's recommendation of the".32 Magnum load" which was the 115 gr bullet (I figured Ideal 3118) ahead of ten grains of 2400. I got up to 9 grains of 2400 in the Bisley, which did 2" at 25 yards, before I chickened out. The sound was not so much a loud noise as the sensation that someone had inserted a railroad spike in my ear and smacked it home with a baseball bat. I don't even use that load in rifles, now, but it really got out there quickly.
Mattern mentioned in his 1926 book Handloading Ammunition that the .32-20 had a funny habit of throwing one wide one out of five which would spoil an otherwise excellent group. I have often found this to be the case, although I generally don't need any help from a cartridge to spoil a group with a flyer. Generally a "good" group will run from slightly under 1" to 1-1/2" at 100 yards, with a flyer enlarging things to maybe 2-1/4" for rifles. With pistols, a "good" group for me is 2-1/2" or under at 25 yards; however I seem to do better at tin cans, knockover gongs and the like at 50 yards than I do at half the distance with paper. At least that's what it seems like, anyway.
I find that in many cases a good crimp on the boolit actually enhances .32 WCF accuracy, especially with SR-4759, which needs all the pressure it can get to burn completely. This is particularly noticeable in the Low Wall, and since I crimp for the revolvers anyway, I wind up crimping all the loads I shoot. I started with the Lee Factory Crimp die after I got tired of the slight bulge under the seating die crimp interfering with chambering in the Bisley, and am now experimenting with a C-H Taper Crimp die, which seems to iron the (potential) bulge that might develop below the crimp down even better than the Lee die does.
One of the drawbacks of this cartridge, at least from the perspective of one who stocked up on brass in the Old Days when it was semi-obsolete, is that each lot seems to be of a different length, and most of these lengths are slightly less than the nominal length of the shell. I loathe case trimming even at the best of times, so I generally adjust the dies up and down to fit the batch of cartridges I'm doing at the moment. If they fit in the cylinder of the temperamental Bisley, they'll fit in anything else I have. I don't feel the lack of carbide dies is much of a drawback; case life seems better than the .44-40 anyway. New manufacture cases may not have this length problem, but it'll be a while before I use up my supply, so others' comments on this issue are needed.
In the modern sense, the full loadings of the .32 WCF are neither fish nor fowl. They're pretty overpowered for small game, and underpowered for large. The hollow-point boolits are sort of overkill; the flat-points hit quite resoundingly, but the weight is kind of light for deep penetration. However, the late-nineteenth to twentieth-century woods loafer, fence line rider, or subsistence hunter could doubtless do quite well with this cartridge. The guy I bought the Savage from said it was owned by an "old deer poacher," and the thoroughly-worn outside and pristine bore inside would seem to give credence to the idea that this was the well-used tool of an expert.
Can't think of a better ending for this screed than the old paper-magazine bromide of the 1950's-1960's: "So if you got one of them old .32-20's collecting dust in your closet, get it out and try it! You might be pleasantly surprised!"
I also learned the guitar accompaniment and the words to the late, great Robert Johnson's .32-20 Blues.:mrgreen:
I've glommed onto and tested most of the Lyman offerings in the 75-to-115gr range, as well as a few SAECO, Lachmiller and other brands, but the three numbers I keep going back to are the Ideal #3118 (now Lyman 311008) and its hollow-pointed version, the #31133, the #311316 and its hollow pointed derivative, and the #311419. These three numbers will do all that can be expected from the cartridge.
Slugging throats is recommended, as the nominal diameter of .311" is not always encountered. The Low Wall prefers .310", the Ballard and the Bisley seem to like .311", the Savage seems to have no particular preference between .310" and .312" and the Colt Army Spl and the Cimarron definitely prefer .314". Fortunately, the moulds I have are oversized enough to accomodate all these diameters.
So far, all the guns handle all the boolits mentioned satisfactorily. However, some particular favorites are given below:
Win. LoWall: Ideal 3118, 11.0 gr SR-4759
Ballard: Ideal 3118, 6.0 gr Blue Dot
Savage 23: Ideal 311419, 14.0 gr Reloder 7
Bisley: Ideal 3118, 4.5 gr Unique (works in Army Spl as well)
Cimarron: Ideal 311316, 4.5 gr SR-4756 or 4.0 gr American Select
Of course, I had to attempt Elmer Keith's recommendation of the".32 Magnum load" which was the 115 gr bullet (I figured Ideal 3118) ahead of ten grains of 2400. I got up to 9 grains of 2400 in the Bisley, which did 2" at 25 yards, before I chickened out. The sound was not so much a loud noise as the sensation that someone had inserted a railroad spike in my ear and smacked it home with a baseball bat. I don't even use that load in rifles, now, but it really got out there quickly.
Mattern mentioned in his 1926 book Handloading Ammunition that the .32-20 had a funny habit of throwing one wide one out of five which would spoil an otherwise excellent group. I have often found this to be the case, although I generally don't need any help from a cartridge to spoil a group with a flyer. Generally a "good" group will run from slightly under 1" to 1-1/2" at 100 yards, with a flyer enlarging things to maybe 2-1/4" for rifles. With pistols, a "good" group for me is 2-1/2" or under at 25 yards; however I seem to do better at tin cans, knockover gongs and the like at 50 yards than I do at half the distance with paper. At least that's what it seems like, anyway.
I find that in many cases a good crimp on the boolit actually enhances .32 WCF accuracy, especially with SR-4759, which needs all the pressure it can get to burn completely. This is particularly noticeable in the Low Wall, and since I crimp for the revolvers anyway, I wind up crimping all the loads I shoot. I started with the Lee Factory Crimp die after I got tired of the slight bulge under the seating die crimp interfering with chambering in the Bisley, and am now experimenting with a C-H Taper Crimp die, which seems to iron the (potential) bulge that might develop below the crimp down even better than the Lee die does.
One of the drawbacks of this cartridge, at least from the perspective of one who stocked up on brass in the Old Days when it was semi-obsolete, is that each lot seems to be of a different length, and most of these lengths are slightly less than the nominal length of the shell. I loathe case trimming even at the best of times, so I generally adjust the dies up and down to fit the batch of cartridges I'm doing at the moment. If they fit in the cylinder of the temperamental Bisley, they'll fit in anything else I have. I don't feel the lack of carbide dies is much of a drawback; case life seems better than the .44-40 anyway. New manufacture cases may not have this length problem, but it'll be a while before I use up my supply, so others' comments on this issue are needed.
In the modern sense, the full loadings of the .32 WCF are neither fish nor fowl. They're pretty overpowered for small game, and underpowered for large. The hollow-point boolits are sort of overkill; the flat-points hit quite resoundingly, but the weight is kind of light for deep penetration. However, the late-nineteenth to twentieth-century woods loafer, fence line rider, or subsistence hunter could doubtless do quite well with this cartridge. The guy I bought the Savage from said it was owned by an "old deer poacher," and the thoroughly-worn outside and pristine bore inside would seem to give credence to the idea that this was the well-used tool of an expert.
Can't think of a better ending for this screed than the old paper-magazine bromide of the 1950's-1960's: "So if you got one of them old .32-20's collecting dust in your closet, get it out and try it! You might be pleasantly surprised!"