Shooting bears with 32’s

[shooting on a shoestring]

Because bear threads are fun and 32 threads are fun. Seems like a natural fit.

First up is this little boolit launcher from the 80’s. The 1880’s. It’s an early Smith and Wesson New Departure Safety Hammerless First Model. I found this one looking lonely and misunderstood in amongst some polymer wonder 9’s in a little shop in Rockdale, Texas a few years back. At first glance I saw the 3 digit serial number with a star beside it. The star told me it had been back to S&W for a refinish. Looks like it’s about ready for a second star. I wonder if S&W still puts stars on guns they refinish?

It was a fully functional piece. When I got it home I popped the hood and changed the oil, then it was ready for fun. Digging through my can of odd brass I found 12 R-P 32 S&W brass. Plenty enough. Not going to be a high round count plinker. That DA only trigger is a HEAVY one! Besides I have plenty of poppers that can plink.

Load was simple. I had plenty of 32 round balls cast for my little muzzle loader. They were 0.315” cast soft with just enough tin to be wrinkle free (side note, I wonder if I should add some tin to my diet?). The throats on the New Departure were roughly 0.313” so I ran the balls through a 0.314” sizer and tumble lubed with thinned LLA. I used 1.3 grains of Bullseye and a slight crimp over the ogive of the slightly flattened balls.

Today I was using that load on the couple of Central Texas Black Bears below. First bear was shot just 5 yards away! But the little boolits held together and gave me complete pass through on 4 out of 5 shots. The second bear was engaged from 20 yards with rested wrists (and the rest of me slept well too).

This doesn’t prove anything except it’s just dumb fun to shoot bears with a 32.288334288335

[rintinglen]

Be careful--they're dangerous if they're wounded. Might want to up that load a tenth.
In my view, this is plinking at its finest. A fun gun, a fun target, sounds like a danged good time to me. That snuggle bear better beware--he's liable to end up a rug.

[Old Caster]

When shooting Bullseye with a Pardini 32 ACP the rest of the competitors require me to say bang everytime I shoot so they know I am shooting. I think they might be jealous of my scores.

[shooting on a shoestring]

Old Caster, “…say bang…”
Ha!
I can understand.

Pardini. Nice.
I’m happy for you.
Doubt one would help me much though.
My front sights shake like a sewing machine needle these days.
Boolit fit, good trigger and all the proper techniques can’t out run shaky hands.
But the 32’s still make me happy. They’re just fun.

[MostlyLeverGuns]

And I thought a Marlin or Winchester 32 Special and a big black bear would show.

[corbinace]

Very nice tale told well. Thanks for sharing your fun times.

[Walks]

I have a S&W .32Short&Wimpy too. Beautiful Nickel with Real Pearl grips. Grandpa gave it to Grandma when He married Her in 1912.
Dad took both My Grandma's out to shoot every couple of years. Maternal Grandma had a .38S&W 5 shot H&R that she keep under the Cash register in the little Bar & Grill She ran in Hollywood in the 1930's & 1940's.
Both are fun, loading that little .32 is small work. A charge of 1.1grs Bullseye under a 75grs #311252.

I think of both of them when ever I load for those Revolvers.

[Three44s]

Few bears have been killed with “less”!

Three44s

[shooting on a shoestring]

Here’s another cutie.
Actually I have 2 of these pearl handled poppers. I think this Hand Ejector is from about 1914.
It’s in the more robust, greatly improved caliber of 32 Smith and Wesson Long.
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[FergusonTO35]

Mouseguns and silly targets are fun. On another forum we once had a postal match to see who could hit the broad side of a barn with a derringer. The guy who won actually managed to put both barrels on an image of a barn printed on copy paper. Most of us were lucky to get one.

The sheer volume of words that have been written on the topic of shooting big bears with handguns could fill the Vatican library. When I was a kid it seemed like Outdoor Life/Sports Afield/Field & Stream etc. tried to outdo each other on who could print more about a problem that such a miniscule number of outdoors people will ever face.

[shooting on a shoestring]

Today there were a couple of brown bears here in Central Texas.
Good thing I brought some more horsepower.
The 32 S&W and the 32SWL worked fine for the little black bears, but I’ve heard the brown ones are tougher.
Had my 32 H&R Magnum Single Six.

It’s from the original run. I’ve only had it a couple of years but it’s turned out to be a real sweetie. It was in pretty rough shape when I bought it from a Lubbock gun shop. It was on consignment from some old cowboy. The action was full of West Texas dirt. One stock was broken. Barrel was leaded badly. Grip frame chipped up.

Altamont solved broken grip panel. A good cleaning did it lots of good. I reamed the chamber exits and finished them with a flexihone. Cleaned up the forcing cone with a touch from an 11 degree Brownell tool. The result was a great shooting little 32.

The load is 3 grains of Bullseye driving an Accurate 88 grain wadcutter.
Took both brown bears without any fuss.

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[rintinglen]

Good thing you brought the big gun. I really like that grip, I'll have to hit up Altamont and see what they have in stock.

[Bigslug]

Technically speaking, THIS would be a .32:

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:kidding:

[rintinglen]

^^^No, that would be a 98.

[Bigslug]

And this would be .32 Long:

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[shooting on a shoestring]

Bahahaha!
Yep. You’re right!

Matter of fact I have one done up as 8mm’06.
It gets jacketed bullets at 0.323” and boolits at 0.325”.
I love a good rifle in 32.

I should drag it out and shoot some bears with it.

[Bigslug]

The more I think on this. . .bears are scary. Choose your .32's carefully:

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And really, if we're lighting up the Snuggle Fabric Softener mascot, isn't he worthy of an entire belt?:lol:

I like that Single Six BTW!

[shooting on a shoestring]

Bought this one in used Abilene.

To my surprise it wouldn’t chamber ammunition. Even factory took ALOT of pushing to get a couple of chambers to load. First used emory cloth on a dowel in a drill press to get enough to clearance to sort of work. Accuracy was abysmal.

I tried to buy a revolver cylinder chamber reamer but for a couple of years I couldn’t get any through Brownells nor Clymer. Pacific Tool and Gauge finally came through. Yesterday I reamed the chambers and removed material the length of each chamber. Today for the first time I was able to keep all the shots on paper.

These two bears were shot at 5 yards and 20 yards. Me standing, two hand hold. Load was the NOE 103 grain round flat nose 316103 cast 1% Sb and 2%Sn with 10.5 grains IMR 9450 with Rem 5&1/2. Plenty of pop and whop with the little bird’s head grip.

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Incidentally, these two pics were taken from back to back from the same IPad. I don’t have a clue why the first one is upside down and the second one is not. Nor do I know how to correct the orientation. Any clues?

[rintinglen]

290232
In the far reaches of the Northern Piedmont area of Virginia, where night time temperatures can dip into the low 60's, there are few more dangerous predators than the Great White Bears. Those few persons who must work in these desolate areas must constantly be leary and watchful for these powerful carnivores. They have no natural enemies, and consequently have no fear of mankind. Woe to the unfortunate who is caught without a powerful weapon close to hand.

Because of the need to keep ones weapons close at hand, most individuals choose a powerful handgun. Revolvers chambered for 32-20's, 32 H&R, 327 Federal Magnums, even occasionally 30 carbine have been suggested. But because of the excessive recoil of these large and powerful firearms, one must have the first shot count. I prefer the advantages of the slightly less powerful but easily controlled 32 ACP as exemplified by the Savage 1907 shown above. The probability of a stop is greater when one can unleash a virtual cloud of deep penetrating hard-nosed bullets, easily capable of driving deep into the vital tissues of one of these great carnivores.

[rockrat]

Imr 9450????

[shooting on a shoestring]

Rockrat, yep 9450. I bought it from Jeff Bartlett as a surplus powder that has kernels that look very similar to 4759 and a burn rate about like 2400. It’s great stuff. I find for most straight walled magnum cartridges a case full or slightly compressed gets near max velocity and wonderful accuracy. It’s a shame it didn’t get marketed as a canister powder.

[shooting on a shoestring]

Rintinglen….Wow! Glad you got out alive. Yeah I’ve kept my eye out for white bears but haven’t seen any on my range here in Texas. They look fearsome.

Very cool 1907 Savage. Yep looks like you chose wisely. It’s not always about the big high power 32s. The 32acp can certainly hold its own when it comes to penetration and that Savage can certainly put up a volley all by itself.

[Alferd Packer]

Thank you all for the .32 hunting news.
I too still love to shoot my .32 S&W"s.
I make six and eight inch high squirrel cutouts mounted on cardboard boxes in the basement.
Ammo is primer powered glue bullets.
I also like to use primer powered wax bullets as well outside to shoot the aluminum beverage cans.
The wax blows a big hole In the cans and makes them jump quite a bit when empty.
Way better than a .22 which hardly disturbs them passing thru unless you hit a rim on a can.
Keep shooting and reporting.
I love the news.
Sorry. no pics.
I don't know how.
Adios Amigos!
Oh yes, I purchased a big box of .32 S & W brass from Starline who had them in stock.
I am set now. Just to let you all know they had some.
in stock then.

[rintinglen]

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My 32-20's shall accompany on my next venture into the wild, the added power will be re-assuring should I encounter Ursus Horriblis.

[shooting on a shoestring]

How cool!
You have one for each hand!

That M&P looks good wearing a set of target stocks.
Is that a 5” barrel?

The Colt, what model is that? I’m a bit ignorant on the Colt DA’s. It seems like Colt had 3 frame sizes for 32-20?

I see your wadcutter. Not to pretty but pretty useful! The 32-20 just looks right with a round flat nose boolit.

Looks like you’ll be well armed on your waddle into the wild!

[sharps4590]

Gotta love the 32's. They're often underrated. My pick for close to 40 years has been the 32-20. I've long lusted for a nice S&W in 32 S&W long, just haven't found one at a price I'm willing to pay and, those days might be over. However, there is a gun show in town, today so....who knows, I am going armed....with cash!!!

[rintinglen]

That is an Army Special, dating from 1926, IIRC. Colt made 32-20s in the Police Positive and the larger Army Special/Official Police frames. The Colt is actually my favorite, due to the better sights. I have a Police Positive, but it is more or less a safe Queen.

[9.3X62AL]

I also have two D/A 32/20 WCF revolvers--both 5" barrels, one each Colt Army Special and S&W M&P. My go-to powder for the 32/20 revolver went out-of-print a few years a go (SR-4756), so I have adapted to using Herco in its place. SR-4756 data minus 5% in charge weight seems to be working well.

[shooting on a shoestring]

Oh oh.
Maybe I’m not a cool kid because I don’t have a 32-20 Colt.

I’ve got a 5” M&P that’s from the last year of production (1945) and it’s in great shape. But I couldn’t get any decent groups out of it until I put on a set of Pachmayr Presentation grips. Then magically the boolits all started jumping into pretty little groups.

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Then not long ago this big old Blackhawk with the flower on the top strap came to live at my house. It might have been unfired. Now it’s had 200 115 gr SWC’s run through it pushed by a case full of IMR 9450. Didn’t chronograph any…..yet. But I’m thinking they’re a good ways north of 1300 fps.

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