Handloading 32 S&W (Short) with Black Powder

[bedbugbilly]

Thank you Larry - that info helps a lot as I was going to be flying by the seat of my pants!

[hporter]

My main question is about the tooling necessary to produce these rounds. .32 S&W dies seem to be very difficult to find and I have heard about loading with a combination of .32 S&W Long and 32 ACP dies.

Dave,

I load for a .32 S&W Iver Johnson 2 pin safety revolver. I use the Lee 32 Short die set. My dies came with a .32 acp bullet seating die, but the rest are marked .32 S&W.

Funny enough, I just finished loading a box of 50 of these so the topic is fresh on my mind.

I have loaded both smokeless and BP for this revolver. The BP loads were with bullets lubed with SPG. The lube may not matter very much, because shooting 2 cylinders full of BP rounds will start to bind up my revolver. I always use SPG for my 45 Colt and 44-40 revolver loads, but my little revolver starts to gum up fast regardless of the lube. Your lemon squeezer may work better with BP though.

I run mine on a Dillon 650, just because I am set up for it. The Lee .32 short dies will work with the powder actuated drop. The expander plug in the .32 short powder die is longer of course than the one on the Lee .32 S&W Long dies. In fact I had them both out an hour ago to compare, I wish I would have taken a photo.

The Lee micro disk set for their powder measures works well with Bullseye. The smallest disk opening on the micro disk (.12) drops 1.1 grain of Bullseye with my lot of powder. I have shot a couple hundred of these through my Iver Johnson with no apparent ill effect. That doesn't mean you should, I am just relating my experience.

I have also used the Lee regular disks to drop Swiss FFFG. My notes on my ammo box said the .40 disk dropped 5.7 grains of Swiss FFFG, but I would double check that. That gave me a compressed load with my cast 75 grain bullets. I could never find a reasonably priced Lyman/Ideal 311252, so I had Tom at Accurate Molds make me a 75 grain bullet. It has shot well for me. It has a tiny lube groove, which may add to my binding issues. I just never thought I would need much BP lube with such a short barrel.

I wish you luck on your adventure. It is a lot of fun to shoot these little guys.

Regards,

Harold