32-20 loads in a handgun

[HWooldridge]

I bought a Colt Army Special with 5" bbl. in .32-20. Seems like it will be a good tight shooter, with an outstanding bore.

I also currently own a Savage 23 bolt action in .32-20, and load 16 grs of Rel-7 under a 100 gr Speer j-word. It's hotter than a BP load and quite accurate - but I'm thinking it's too much of a good thing for the six-gun.

As much as I like black powder, I'd rather shoot smokeless in this old girl and am willing to carry some "revolver only" loads, as opposed to just using the rifle rounds. Anybody have a favorite load in a medium frame 32-20 that they can share? I have lots of 231 and 700X but no Bullseye or Unique.

TIA, HW

[Daver7]

I have a Smith & Wesson model 1902 with a 4 inch barrel in 32-20 I'm running a Lee TL314-90-SWC kin it with 2.5 gr of Trail Boss with no recoil at all thinking about bumping it up to 2.8 hoping for better accuracy. I'm also looking at HP38/231 3.2 to 3.5 for the same reason.

[Larry Gibson]

I've used 3.2 gr of both 231 and 700X in a 32-20 Colt SA 5 1/2" barrel with very good results under a commercial cast 311008 equivalent bullet.

[Outpost75]

I use 3.2 grains of Bullseye with #3118 or Accurate 32-105T in a 1922 Colt Police Positive Special.

[rintinglen]

313714
I use 4.5 - 5.0 grains of Unique with my 1926 Colt Army Special under the RCBS 32-98 SWC. The Smith only gets 4.5 grains, while the Colt gets either load. The 5.0 grain load is my pet load for my Browning M-53.