32 Hollowbase wadcutter

[Phatinjun]

Any body here cast 32 Hollowbase wadcutters and did you ever try them in a 32cal ML or shoot them out of a 8mm Mauser. Thanks for any thoughts. Kurt

[Larry Gibson]

32 caliber bullets, RN, SWC or WC, are going to be .312 - .316 in diameter. Thus they are way to small for the 8mm. However, they are excellent in .30 and .31 cal rifles when sized correctly. I've shot thousands of them over the years. Mostly loaded over 2.7 or 3.2 gr of Bullseye giving 800 - 900 fps depending on cartridge and barrel length.

I don't cast the HBWC but use Hornady and Speer swaged ones.

[Green Frog]

Larry,

I believe Hornady has discontinued their 32 HBWCs… at least they weren’t catalogued when I checked last. I for one was sorry to see them go!

I did buy a nice brass mould to cast them, but all the talk I heard about that time about blown skirts being left in the barrel to cause a bulge with the next shot scared me, and I haven’t used it yet. It has interchangeable pins, so I may use it to cast solids.

The only experience I have with loading hollow based bullets in rifles is with Minie Balls and black powder in my reproduction Zouave musket. The theory there is a slightly undersized bullet loads faster and the hollow base expands to fill the lands and grooves from the initial push of the powder ignition. There is a bullet style called the “ash can” that is essentially a great big HBWC and it works pretty well, so maybe a properly sized 32 cal version in a muzzle loader would be a good idea. Just spitballing here, I haven’t tried it.

Froggie

[Nobade]

I tried them in my 32 cal muzzleloaders. They're way too small, at .312" compared to the .320" rifle bore so I paper patched them to fit. They weren't too bad in the TC but worthless in the Dixie squirrel rifle. I suspect the rifling twist rate is too slow to get them to properly stabilize. They do, however, work quite well in my S&W model 16.

[Thin Man]

Green Frog, perhaps you could still use the HB boolits in a 30 or 31 caliber rifle by inverting it to assume the HP profile. Just a thought.

[Phatinjun]

Green Frog and Nobade you guys arte understanding where I am coming from. The hollow base is the key here much like the minie balls. My bore on this stubbed 8mm is like .318 and the twist being 9 1/2 to 9 3/4 should stabilize as you can imagine this old military barrel is not shiney w/crisp rifling much closer to sewer pipe. I have some 32cal Buffalo Ballets that I tried to push down the bbl and they are some where between .321 and .323 I had to actually pound it thru. Also 32cal round balls fit well but don't think they will shoot any good with this twist. I actually started this project in 2007 and am just getting back to it. Someone in the past sent me what I believe to be a HBWC and when I put that in the bbl it did not fall thru but pushed thru very easy telling me that that it has a chance of working I also have some of those excelerator sabot's that I believe were for 30cal and they take a 223 bullet I have some 69gn and some 75gn in 224 not sure how they may work but they are a little tighter than the HBWC but I am trying to get some of the HBWC. Not sure on the powder yet but I have some 209 Blackhorn and some 777 and small pistol powders. Thanks for your input and I hope this gives you a little more of my method to madness. Kurt

[Forrest r]

I cast mihec 32cal hbwc's and cramer 32cal wc's. Tried them in a 308w, they didn't do anything special @ 50yds and were flat out terrible @ 100yds. I used ladder tests with bullseye, unique & clays powder.

No love so I ended up selling both molds on this website.

[Larry Gibson]

I cast mihec 32cal hbwc's and cramer 32cal wc's. Tried them in a 308w, they didn't do anything special @ 50yds and were flat out terrible @ 100yds. I used ladder tests with bullseye, unique & clays powder.

No love so I ended up selling both molds on this website.

Ya got to keep them slow. not more than 800 fps. Yes they are terrible past 50 yards. That's why I almost exclusively use the TL314-90-SWC or the Hornady swaged equivalent. Hoever, at close range for use on small game and vermin the WC, even at lower velocity, gives excellent terminal results.

[Thumbcocker]

The Lee "soup can" without a gas check is hard to beat as a pinker in .30 cals.

[Green Frog]

The OP’s bore at .320”+ is waaaay to large for the 32 HBWC for pistols and revolvers which starts at .311-314”. You would have to practically turn the skirt inside out to reach groove diameter. If you want to shoot a HBWC in that rifle, I would suggest you order a custom HBWC bullet mould in about .316-318”, probably tending to the larger size. Then remember not to drive them very hard or you will face problems with blown skirts. This will be a relatively low speed, low pressure proposition.

Froggie

[Phatinjun]

This muzzleloader project is not that big of a deal to it being economically feasible to warrant a custom mold. I may be better off making a die to size the Ballets down to about .316-.318 and drive them low speed plus I have the excellerator sabot's to play with. I had no notion of anything past 50yards. Thanks for your input. Kurt

[Nobade]

So the way I understand it is you have built a muzzleloader using an 8mm cartridge rifle barrel? If so that's pretty interesting, and I have thought about doing the same thing from time to time. A somewhat fat 30 caliber bullet cast from pure lead should work quite well in that. The wadcutters probably are too short for the fast twist.

[bigdog454]

I found 32 cast to shoot pretty good out of a 30 carbine loaded to 32 S&W specs.
BD

[Phatinjun]

Nobade you are correct it is a 8mm Mauser bbl that was stubbed into a H&R Topper 88 410 bbl and lug. Then he took a piece of 1/2" steel electrical conduit and made it shroud the barrel put Lyman sights on it also a 209 primer plug. Then he Parkerized the whole thing and fit it to an old H&R Huntsman frame . Wish I new how to post pictures here from my phone. It's pretty cool looking very nice machine work. I also have a 32 H&R Magnum .303 Brit Enfield stubbed on a Marlin (H&R) 200 20ga it is pretty good shooter to about 60yrds I mostly used it late Jan Feb here in IL calling Coyotes out of the timber into the snow covered picked corn fields killed many at 30-60yrds. MUCH FUN @5* Kurt

[Nobade]

Nobade you are correct it is a 8mm Mauser bbl that was stubbed into a H&R Topper 88 410 bbl and lug. Then he took a piece of 1/2" steel electrical conduit and made it shroud the barrel put Lyman sights on it also a 209 primer plug. Then he Parkerized the whole thing and fit it to an old H&R Huntsman frame . Wish I new how to post pictures here from my phone. It's pretty cool looking very nice machine work. Kurt

Sounds like fun! Should be pretty useful when you get it up and running.