Alloy for .32 S&W Long?

[Lance Boyle]

OK, I am totally new to this cartridge.

I recently picked up a 1969/70 ish S&W 31-1. The cylinder throats run nearly .315”

It is a dandy little gun that makes me giggle. Except beyond 15 yards.

I’ll explain,...in my haste and rush I hurried up and bought “any” bullet I could find just to gear up and have something to shoot not yet having the gun in state to measure the throats. They were pretty cheap relatively but the quality sucks.

I bought Cast Performance 32/95 gr RNFP. They’re prelubed with some dry lube. They were sold as hard cast (I know, I know) but the box says heat treated. They run all over the map in size, 0.312 to 0.3145 often on the same bullet. These are obviously as cast dry lubed, complete with wrinkles and bases that may be beveled or simply rounded from poor mold fill out depending on which bullet you examine. With a 2.4 load of W231 and a light crimp they hold 2-3” at 15 but jump out at 25 yards.

Yea, I expected so much pulling the trigger early. I might try running them through a 0.314 sizer, my largest in that approx size.

Anyways with the background covered I want to buy a mold in the 98-110 grain range that will throw X alloy at 0.315”.

I hardly want to use linotype or Lyman #2 as I suspect that is wasteful of tin. I am guessing a 20-30 to 1 alloy should be plenty. Am I on the right track? what do you suggest? I am not loading this for self defense or anything, it’s a pleasant popgun to make me giggle. 800 ish fps is fine as long as the accuracy is nice too.

I’d have bought some Hornady swaged HBWCs had they still existed to test things out.

thanks in advance!

[GBertolet]

You want a softer alloy for that revolver. Wheelweights or softer. Undersized linotype, and heat treated bullets are a disaster, in oversized cylinder throats. Try coating your existing bullets with Lee Liquid alox. It will increase the diameter of your bullets slightly, helping to seal them from the hot gas, while passing through the cylinder throats. If you are planning to buy a mold, consider a custom one from Accurate molds. They will make one in any diameter and weight that you wish. And they are not that terribly expensive, considering.

With the proper bullet and powder charge, you can make that little revolver shoot incredibly well.

[Jim22]

Yep, you need the right size boolits. I would get a mould the right size. Cast some up and try them. If e boolits come out .315 to .316" you wont need to size them. Wheel weights or 50% WW and 50% lead. Tumble lube should do fine.

Jim

[Lance Boyle]

I have an alloy for my .38-55 high wall, it is 20 to 1 iirc. I will double check.

Might be 30:1 but I still have an unopened bag from Rotometals to verify. I could share “stock” with that gun and spec a mold to cast with that if those make sense.

I have used Tom at Accurate molds, in fact he made my fat .38-55 mold to fit my Taylor Arms Uberti High Wall’s deep grooves. Talk about fit issues! I needed a fat bullet and had just enough room to chamber it.

[smkummer]

I would not heat treat bullets and ask here if anyone has the lee 93 grain RN that cast a bit oversize. In my colt revolvers, .312-314 works wonderful as my barrel diameter is .311-.312. If your throats are .315, most .314 lead bullets should work wonderful.

[Green Frog]

The 32 S&W Long is a very forgiving round to load for as long as you take a few basic steps. I have gone through a lot of bullet moulds... old Ideal/Lyman, Lee, NOE, and MP and any of them can be made to shoot. Look for a bullet between 95 and 105 grains weight, lube with any means you wish including a lube press, pan lube, tumble lube or powder coat, and size to .313 or .314 and load them up. Alloy I've used most recently has been COWWs + 2% tin... but this round is pretty tolerant of different alloys though. Moderate loads of Bullseye, HP38/231, Trail Boss, etc etc will likely all work well for you.

I've recently picked up a couple of moulds to play with, but if I were looking for one easy to use mould, I'd probably get the Lee TL SWC bullet. Even better is the now discontinued Ideal/Lyman 313445. There is also a discontinued Lyman 313631 that works well. NOE and MP have also made a bunch of neat designs, and although I have no experience with them, I hear Accurate Moulds are good as well. Of course there is also a long time favorite from RCBS that I haven't used, but many shooters seem to like. There's an embarrassment of riches when it comes to 32 cal pistol moulds these days.

Froggie

[Larry Gibson]

Actually, a 40-1 alloy makes excellent 32 S&WL bullets.

[dondiego]

Yes, soft and big!

[deltaenterprizes]

I use COWW with a small amount of tin to aid fill out.
I also use swaged pure lead with LEE Alox with the dies that I made for my Hert rd 9 ton press.

[Lance Boyle]

I ordered 15 pounds of 40:1 last night from Rotometals. Too bad they didn’t have one of their holiday discounts to take a moderate discount. That should give me 1000 cast.

I also ordered a 98 grain Keith style mold. I almost went for the popular 311008 bullet. Basically flipped a coin. Was also looking at a Browning model 53 in .32-20 but the shop is playing games not pricing it so I walked away. Now no need to see if I can get a bullet suitable for both.

Thank you for your experience and advice.