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Bullshop
11-21-2008, 06:06 PM
How about a show of hans from anyone that likes 32 cal revolvers, me, nme, me, !
Now how many have a dream of finding an afordable K-32? (dream on)
OK then how many can settle for a less expensive gun until that K frame comes your way.
Well that kinda the way it is for me with the 7.62 Nagant pistal. Affordable,yes durable, yes shootable,NO! Why not?
Well I can answer that in one word, triggerpull. Is at one word? Well who cares its too much.
For $70.00 for one of these little gems its worth trying to find some (cheap) way to get these little guns to act more like a refined sporter.
Well we finally got to it and the results are perty good.
First to address the ammo issue. Remember my emphasis is always on cheap. First those cylender throats are outa here. An 8mm boolit at .325" drops right through. Barrel slugs a plesent .314". Remember the correct case length will have the boolit in the case neck until it enters the forcing cone. The best I can come up with without ordering the right stuff available from starline is 32/20. 32/20 come up a tad short but will get the boolit close to the forcing cone without much of a gap there.
Using a Lee carb sizer for 30 carb dimentions the case about right for easy fit to the cylinder.
So with some suitable ammo how bout that trigger? Here is what we done to make a very nice single action and a decent double action pull.
are real simple to take apart and work on. We took out the triger and reduced the width of the sear to very nearly a point. As issued it is about .35" (guess). Reducing that much surface area helps but you still have a very powerful main spring to overcome.
The gap in the main spring can be reduced by about 1/3 and still get positive primer ignition. We used a small propain torch to heat the spring to red hot the close the gap by about 1/3. Reheat to red again then quench in oil to get the temper back. This results in a very nice single action pull and at least for half the stroke a nice double pull too.
At this point grouping capability went from not being able to hit a rabbit at 30' to being able to make head shots at the same range in single action.
Now as I said the double action pull is very nice for half it stroke, until the gizmo that pushes the cylender forward to engauge the forcing cone is engauged. At this point there is another spring that must be overcome.
It is contained in the cylender, accessed from the front. To get an even nicer double action pull this spring can be replaced with a lighter one. Its a coil spring and must closly fit the cylender bushing.
Now admitedly when I started out this little revolver would dependably ignite small rifle magnum primers. It will no longer do that but does dependably ignite small pistal primers. Staying withing safe pressures for the revolver small pistal primers are just fine.
This rather simple procedure has completely changed my view of these cheap, read inexpensive little guns. The more I use it now the greater my admiration grows for it.
Any of you folks that have them but were greatly dissapointed with them dont give up yet. Ist looking like they may be nice little pistals after all.
Until that K-32 comes along shoot that Nagant, you may just quit looking for the Smith.
BIC/BS

Bret4207
11-21-2008, 07:53 PM
Aw jeeze Dan, now I want one too! Is it loud like a 32-20 or 357?

Bullshop
11-21-2008, 10:05 PM
Well kinda, you know how Russians are. No offence ment Ivan!
Anyway hay Bret I thought you already had a K-32. Ah, hm, are you mocking me? No matter I really like the little Russian. Dont even mind at all when it falls outa my pocket when going down the road on a 4 wheler. Cant hardly make it any uglier, and cant hurt it. They may not make perty stuff but they sure make stout stuff.
BIC/BS

NoDakJak
11-22-2008, 06:18 AM
Great info! Should be of help to those of us who have been struggling with these little beasts. Mine appeared to be unissued when I recieved it. It has only made two trips to the range so far. It has one chamber that is seriously out of alignment and I need to mark it or even better plug it. I managed to buy a set of the Lee dies for this cartridge when they were available and am using 32.20 brass. Lyman 311008 has done the duty so far. Much experimantation remains ahead. They sure are ugly and clumsy but the price can't be beat. Neil

Bret4207
11-22-2008, 09:07 AM
Erzakly Dan, that K-32 isn't primo, but it's the only K32 I'm likely to have so I don;t want to take it out in the swamp. The Nagant at $89.99 though, ,that could fall in the mud and it would probably only make it nicer looking.

mooman76
11-22-2008, 11:31 AM
Bullshop, Funny you would post this. I've been thinking about this pistol recently wondering how I could get it to shoot better. I bought one a few years ago(well used) and did it have a sweet tigger put. Problem was when I took it out to shoot it wouldn't fire all the rounds and the more I tried to fire it the more it wouldn't fire. I bought a new hammer and mainspring which cured it but then it had a trigger pull from He!!. No longer fun to shoot and the groups were awful. I set it aside for awhile and kind of forgot about it and then at a recent gunshow a guy had them for cheap and they looked bran new. If they weren't they were totally refurished. He had one whith the 32 auto cyl. for a few bucks more so I got it and it didn't shoot any better than the original I bought.
I have heard of some people getting them and they shooting pretty desent and I like the idea of a 32. Something not full powered to shoot and play with but not as weak as a 22. Thanks allot for the input, I'll see what I can work with mine to get them to shoot better.

mooman76
11-22-2008, 02:13 PM
I was thinking of trying some RBs to see how they shoot.

Ricochet
11-22-2008, 03:16 PM
Mine shoot well enough with the oversized Group Buy soup cans, unsized and unchecked. My bores slug at .310", but those .315" soup cans go down it OK. I use reformed Starline .32-20 cases and seat to full cartridge overall length, most of the stubby boolit ogive is out of the case mouth. Having a bottle of Nitro 100 to use up, I've been loading with 3.0 grains of that. No data available, but it's in the ballpark of Red Dot loads for .32-20 and seems stout but reasonable in my Nagants.

I bought a 6 hole mould for the Lee 90 grain .32 semiwadcutter and will try those one of these days as well. They cast at .314", and are tumble lubed.

NoDakJak
11-23-2008, 04:18 PM
Ricochet: I'm glad to see that you are using the Nitro 100. I have almost two pounds of the evil measuring stuff to shoot up and I will try it in the Nagant. Neil