32 s&w die questions

[Gtek]

(32 S&W Long) Well I figured out all the internal timing ugly was a really sloppy cylinder pin and a way over cut hand. I do not believe this piece has had a box through it and no sign of disassemble. Made new pin and unbelievably found a brand new untouched hand. The bad?- cylinder pinned two at .3155" and three at .316", the new Lee mold inbound states .314" and probably going to be the one at first. What would be the best set of dies in your opinion to hunt down and lean into for hopefully minimal aggravation in seating a .314" or if needed another expander required. I have read through some and will be getting new brass for start. I see a lot online is out of stock but did not want to jump in bad from the get go. Thank you for your time!

[racepres]

Cast some and measure... changing the alloy, will change the diameter...a bit. If Not enough... Look up Beagleing the mold here..

[Mk42gunner]

My Lyman set for the various .32 handgun rounds has no problems with .314" boolits in the .32 S&W Long or the H&R Magnum. Haven't tried it with any of the others.

Robert

[Green Frog]

My custom built K-32 Smith has tight chambers and will only accept a .313" bullet, so I size my cast bullets to that size. They work fine in my several other 32 cal revolvers as well and can be loaded with the 32 S&W Long Die sets from Lyman and RCBS. I probably should size some to .314" for some of the other guns, but I'm basically lazy and so long as I get decent accuracy with the same size bullets in all of them... why make extra work for myself?

Froggie

[Larry Gibson]

Unless you are a world class shot and your revolver (you don't say what it is) is a fine match firearm I seriously doubt the .0005" difference in the throats will be noticeable. My Lee mould for the TL314-90-SWC drop them at .314 - .316 depending on alloy. Yours probably will be close to the same. If your revolver is a small "pocket" model then I'd simply lube them with a very light coat of LLA, let them thoroughly dry and load them "as cast".

I use Hornady New Dimension dies if not loading my 32 S&WLs on a Dillon SDB. What dies are available in today's market I don't know but saw a set of RCBS 32 S&W dies in a Phoenix Sportsman Wharehouse last week. So they are available.

[Gtek]

Thanks for the input so far gentleman, it is an IJ 55SA. I was leaning toward the Lee 3 Die carbide set but they seem to made of unobtanium at this time, everyone appears out of stock. The local gun shops around here have folded or eroded dramatically over the past twenty years. Everything on the walls and cases of the few remaining appear to focus on the support of Tupperware hand or shoulder, oh the double edge of all these gray hairs. I was probably going to start with the Lee 90 SWC and 2.2 of BE and see how that goes. I"ll keep scouting online and see what pops.

[El Bibliotecario]

What Larry Gibson said.

The late LTC 'Jeff' Cooper once remarked of the myriad of tweaks pistoleros applied to their weapons that given the human error factor, not one shootist in 500 was good enough to realize any improvement.

[Larry Gibson]

FYI

The 90 gr Lee TL SWC seated to the 2nd lube groove (OAL 1.219") over 2.4 gr of Bullseye runs a measured 13,200 psi. Seat it deeper to the 1st lube groove and the psi picks up to 14,700. As the deeper the seating depth in the diminutive 32 S&WL case the more critical to pressure it is, I suggest seating no deeper than to the 2nd lube groove and lightly crimp, if at all, there. I prefer to taper crimp or just straighten out the case mouth flare.

[Martin Luber]

Most sizing dies leave the case too small and that in turn swages the boolet during seating.

I use a Hornady 32h&r mag profile crimp die as a sizer for s&wL. Be sure you have a good crimp.

[Green Frog]

Most sizing dies leave the case too small and that in turn swages the boolet during seating.

I use a Hornady 32h&r mag profile crimp die as a sizer for s&wL. Be sure you have a good crimp.

I should have mentioned that I have found Lyman TC dies in general to have a tendency to overwork brass and make it a little small... at least the ones I have. 32 S&W L cases are pretty hard to wear out though, so I just use the M die to expand the neck and bell the case mouth, and although if you look for it, the case profile is noticeably wasp waisted, it doesn't seem to hurt anything.

Froggie

[Gtek]

All documented so far in the file. Thanks Fellas!

[NuJudge]

NOE makes a neat expander to fit the Lee Universal Expander die: https://noebulletmolds.com/site/product-category/expanders/expander-plug-pistol/
The make them in both rifle and pistol lengths. I find that if I use an expander about .002" over bullet diameter, the bullet will have very light neck tension.

[Old Caster]

All of my Bullseye friends that shot the Benelli 90 or 95 used a 32 die from LEE that was special ordered at .002 oversize and then we used homemade .314 expanders that went a little past where the base of the bullet sat. We used Saeco 100 grain full wadcutters so it went pretty deep but got excellent accuracy.