I have been playing around with two 32 rimfire firearms. One is a Stevens bicycle rifle in .32 short and a Smith and Wesson 1 and a half in .32 long.
First off, .32 rimfire in the pistol does not produce the velocities that are listed in most sources. Not a surprise but still not really documented. Think more like 600 fps not the 900 you would expect from a rifle.
Most often .32 long is listed as having a 90 gr. bullet but my box of Canuck .32 long is marked as having 80 gr. bullet and it does not shoot any faster in the pistol than their .32 short ammo.
Understand this data set is small and I am not in a rush to burn up this 5 dollar a round ammo. I have a box of .32 short Peters semismokeless ammo and a box of .32 Long Remington ammo. I will pull bullets and check their weight and report along with velocities from both firearms, .32 short only in the Stevens.
I have made new converted cases and now have more than 50 reloads. I have fired more than 100 reloads with half a dozen different projectiles and three different propellants, #3 and #4 ramsets and 2 to 3 grains of Green Dot.
I have pushed round balls up to 1400 fps from the rifle and 1000 fps from the pistol. I understand that is pointless for more than just knowledge and curiosity and for practical use I will keep loads much lower.
I have settled on converting .32 APC brass because I had a bunch and it requires the least effort except for .32 short Colt but that is hard to come by.
Pictures in the next post, I hope.
TEK