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.