Revisiting a light load for an old SAA

[Drew P]

My old SAA is a 32-20 and it’s a 1898 and thus isn’t rated for smokeless powder. The very next year however, they were rated for smokeless. So I have shot it with black powder but the corrosiveness and disgusting residues make me feel like I’m not preserving the piece like it should be. So after some research I’m thinking about using smokeless and making some light loads for it. Reasoning being that because metallurgy didn’t make huge jumps in the colt factory in a single year, and that by being a 32-20 it already has a lot more meat on its bones than the 45 cylinders, that it could probably handle smokeless just fine. What’s the lowest pressure smokeless for this application? Trailboss? Or should I be looking at black powder substitutes?

[Outpost75]

Pre-WW2 smokeless .32-20s were intended to perform acceptably from either rifles or revolvers.

Current W-W loads use WC230 (non-canister similar to 231).

Remington loads a non-canister flake powder similar to that used in their .22 LR ammunition.

Safe revolver loads for pre-1900 revolvers with modern powders are 3.0-3.2 grains of Bullseye, 3.5 grains of W231 or WST, or 4.0 grains of Unique with Accurate 31-105T or Lyman #311008 cast in soft 8-10 BHN alloy. Olin TiteGroup is highly suitable for the .32-20! RCBS Little Dandy Rotor #1 meters 3.2 grains of TiteGroup, closely approximating current factory lead loads.

My five-inch Colt Police Positive Special was made in 1924 and has a 0.005 cylinder gap. The pooled average of seven samples of factory .32-20 loads was 814 fps. This represents a sensible loading level when assembling revolver loads using fast-burning powders like Bullseye or TiteGroup. Current production 100-grain lead .32-20 ammo from Remington and Winchester ranged from 714-780 fps.

Hand loads not appreciably exceeding 850 fps with 100-115 grain lead bullets are safe maximums for black powder frame Colt SAs, the Police Positive Special, Army Special and pre-1918 S&W Model 1903 .32-20 Hand Ejectors. The faster-burning powders such as Bullseye, TiteGroup, 231, WST, 452AA and Red Dot will give better results at modest pressure and velocity levels than slower powders like Unique. Trail Boss is suitable in the same charge weight ranges as Bullseye, but in black powder frame Colt SAs loading Trail Boss in the .32-20 filling the case to the point of charge compression should be absolutely avoided, as this spikes pressure!

Table 1 – Factory .32-20 Ammunition in Rifle and Revolver
Ammunition Description___________Colt Police Positive 5”_____Savage Sporter 25”

WRA 100-grain lead
Red & yellow box 1950s_____________854, 33, 87_______________1263, 18, 53

W-W 100-grain lead
Rounded primer, yellow box, 1970s____800, 11, 31______________1241, 9, 22

W-W 100-grain lead
Flat primer, white box, 1990s_________778, 27, 69_______________1172, 18, 65

R-P 100-grain lead
Bridgeport, CT 1970s________________780, 24, 67_______________1181, 17, 52

R-P 100-grain lead
Lonoke, AR current production________716, 21, 55_______________1140, 12, 35

Table 2 – Group 1 Standard Pressure Loads for Rifle or Revolver

Bullet, Little Dandy#, Pdr. Chg.____Colt Police Positive 5”______Savage Sporter 25”

246760246761
Accurate 31-105T

RCBS LD#1, 3.2 grains TiteGroup_________858 fps, 22 Sd, 61 Es_______1133 fps, 30 Sd, 67 ES

RCBS LD#4, 3.2 grains Bullseye__________861 fps, 19 Sd, 47ES________1173 fps, 18 Sd, 54 ES

[Drew P]

WOW THANK YOU! that’s a lot of info! I really appreciate it! I can’t remember my bullet weight but I think it’s 105gr or so, it’s the Lee design. So if I’m understanding your info a fella could load red dot and run them up till they fly about 800fps?

I’d be trickling each charge on this because I’m not shooting it much and I really want to be accurately safe on charge wt.

[Outpost75]

WOW THANK YOU! that’s a lot of info! I really appreciate it! I can’t remember my bullet weight but I think it’s 105gr or so, it’s the Lee design. So if I’m understanding your info a fella could load red dot and run them up till they fly about 800fps?

I’d be trickling each charge on this because I’m not shooting it much and I really want to be accurately safe on charge wt.

800 fps is a good target.

To be prudent and on the safe side I would not want sample averages to substantially exceed around 850 fps with a 105-115-grain bullet if your gun is assembled to Mean Assembly Tolerance of 0.006" barrel-cylinder gap. Pre-1900 Colt SAs are commonly assembled to black powder tolerances. A friend's 1906 .32-20 SA has 0.012" cylinder gap and produces a full 50 fps lower velocity than my pre-1918 S&W Model 1903 Hand Ejector which as 0.006" cylinder gap, but both guns shoot well with Accurate 31-105T cast 1:30 tin-lead and sized .314" with 3 grains of any fast-burning pistol or shotgun powder we can sweep off the loading bench top.

Be aware that Red Dot is a bulky powder of large particle size which doesn't measure particularly well or easily in small charges. If you trickle and weigh each charge or have a measure which can meter it within +/- 0.1 grain Red Dot, Promo or 700X all will work fine, about 3 grains of any of these is good, RCBS Little Dandy Rotor #6 meters 3 grains of 700-X, the #7 does 3 grains of Red Dot or Promo.

[Drew P]

Agree. Red dot is always on my bench and I’m out of bullseye at the moment, mostly replaced it with red dot so just being hopeful.

[Alferd Packer]

Make sure you use soft lead bullets and no heavy for caliber bullets.