Yesterday's Weapons Forums

Not much info out there so I dived in from scratch. I went with the lightest bullet available = the 47 grain round ball from Hornady. Right now I'm testing with 2.0 grains of 700X. Since round balls aren't lubed & will lead the bore even at low velocity, I scored a container of water pump grease. I'll dip each bullet before loading & hopefully that will keep leading to a minimum.

I'm off to work in a few hours so no test results or chronograph data yet. Also the roads were too muddy to go out & shoot.

I'll take a gaggle of pics next time. SW

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Slava Ukraini!!

The original loads had 85 or 98 gr. lead bullets, much as the longer S&W Long used. I think you'd be okay using those. The powder charge will prob. be about the same too, as charges in the long version are mild and leave lots of empty space in the case when loaded. Both were originally loaded with black powder, hence the diff. in case length. More black powder, more oomph, but it doesn't work that way with smokeless of course so that's why the two have similar charges of the latter.

President McKinley's assassin used a .32 Short revolver with lethal effect, demonstrating their viability as a weapon.

I'm bidding on a S&W revolver in 32 long & will work loads up for that, too... if I get the bid. Just got in from work, but I hope to test fire this ammo tomorrow.

I'm working from memory here... was McKinley the one in whom Drs couldn't find the actual bullet? I recall reading a rudimentary metal detector was used in hopes of finding it, but since he was laying on a coil spring bed it didn't work out & he succumbed to the wound. I'll try some penetration shots into soft pine while I'm at it. SW

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Did a test fire with the load listed above. Seems a trifle warm so I'm backing off to 1.5 grains 700X.

Below left is a factory 38 Short Colt factory case - on the right is the 2.0/700X & 47 grain round ball. It not only felt a little hotter, you can see the primer has flattened slightly more than the factory round. Given the old S&W's age, there is no sense pushing things thus the lighter charge of powder.


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Full length sizing proceeds normally as does priming. 32 S&W long dies won't bell the cases - my Lee universal belling die is also too long. But I rummaged around on my messy reloading table & found a truncated cone 9mm bullet. Aha! Just the ticket! I sat it in the case, put that on the lip of the shell holder and gently pushed it against the bottom of the press. Go slowly! It's easy to split a case doing it like this... I have 1st hand knowledge that way.


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Here's the bullet I use. I went with .315" to get a good grip when the bullet is seated.


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I loaded each round by itself to avoid a double charge. Also because my loading blocks are way too big for this round. 1.5 grains doesn't amount to much & only a few flakes make a difference. Also the flake running the show!


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Seating proceeds normally. A 32 ACP seater die came with this Lee set. Seating the bullet removes the bell and the slightly oversized ball is snugly held in the case. Then comes lube. I do that when loading the gun. Dip each ball in lithium base water pump grease. Lube shown with finished ammo.


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Next time out, I'll take a chronograph and record stuff. Know well there is no room for sloppy powder measurements here! Measure each charge carefully! The standard reloading caveats and disclaimers apply. Your mileage may vary, etc & so forth.

Many of the old revolvers made for this cartridge were not especially strong - you want a hot rod, get a 38 Special or bigger. This is just going to be a fun plinker for me. I think this might even be cheeper to shoot than what people are actually spending on 22 rf!

Be safe!! SW

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...is this for that lemon squeezer...?

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....Naj puška govori!....
.............deplorable typical "bitter clinger"....

Yep! Shoots great!! SW

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Yes, you're likely right, the flattened primer would be okay in a newer revolver such as a S&W Model 31 or whatever. Wise to go easy with the older guns.

Re. greasing the ball. Does it get grease on the surface that is exposed to the powder, and if so, what would be the result of this, if any? You did not say, but perhaps you wipe away the side facing the propellant. For quite some time, I've wondered if there are any deleterious effects of bullet lube on powders, thinking specifically of bullets that have been coated with Lee's Liquid Alox. However the Lee compound is much harder than water pump grease.

Some of the bullets I size in a Lyman bullet press get soft lube (rather than hard, when I've used it) on the bases that seems to squirt from the sides of the sizing die to under the bullet. Oh, I've tediously wiped as much of it away as possible but it no doubt leaves a film. I've wondered about this condition, too. But haven't had any misfires, so maybe it's a moot point.

I've been with guys who, when they've poured a pinch of powder out to examine it, toss it away. When I asked one of them why, he said, "Oh, once you touch powder, it becomes contaminated from the oil on your skin and you shouldn't use it." Sounds like old women's tale BS to me, but who knows for sure.

Forgot about President McKinley. No, they didn't use a metal detector on him in an attempt to find the bullet. That was Pres. Garfield, also assassinated by bullet.

McKinley's assassin fired two .32 shorts, one was deflected by a metal button. The other hit the president in the belly. It penetrated his well-padded flesh, entered and exited his stomach, went through his colon, nicked a kidney and apparently embedded itself it his back muscles but the bullet was never found. Mrs. McKinley called off the autopsy before it was finished. McKinley's wound was never properly cleaned, so in a day before antibiotics, he got gangrene and died after about a week.

Garfield also died probably not as a direct result of the bullet wound, but doctors used dirty fingers and instruments to probe the wound. One doctor made a hole in his liver by probing in the wrong place. In those days, they hadn't quite made the connection between sepsis and clean operating conditions. Garfield lived for quite some time, many weeks, before he finally died. When that event finally did occur, his entire body was filled with pus from infection.

So when you see Doc Adams on "Gunsmoke" saving someone's life who has a belly wound, just remember that nearly everyone who got one in those days died.

By the way, McKinley was a two-term president, assassinated in the second term. His first vice president died, so when his second election came around he left it up to the party convention to nominate a new VP candidate. The Republican wheel in NY, Senator Platt, wanted to get rid of Theodore Roosevelt, out of active politics, so he engineered getting him the VP nomination in an effort to side-line him. Oops.

To lube, I dip the finished round into the water pump grease. There's no lube inside the case. In theory, acceleration of the bullet after firing will force lube between bullet and rifling thus reducing lead smear.

A little goes a long way with this - I just touch the bullet onto the grease. So far it seems to work. SW

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Good explanation. Sorta like greasing a lead ball in a BP revolver, which is done to prevent chain fires but also lubes the ball. I was worried about all those little flecks of powder stuck in water pump grease on the inside of the case! That would be smoky, wouldn't it?

Found my chronograph & out with 20 rounds of ammo for testing. As indicated above, I used 1.5 grains of 700X under the 47 grain .315" Hornady lead round ball.

W-W 32 Short Colt brass. Five shots went: ( in feet per second)

1 - 709
2 - 732
3 - 727
4 - 749
5 - 704

A bit much for variation there, but I attribute that to the difficulty of getting an exact weight on so little powder. The shots didn't feel nearly as hot a 2.0 grains of 700X. Easy extraction - no signs of primer flattening. I haven't crunched the numbers to find muzzle energy yet, but it won't amount to much.

As a non-scientific experiment, I fired a ball into a dry pine fence post @ 7 yards & got roughly 1/2 inch penetration.

Fired two groups - also @ 7 yards. Shot two handed using the pickup as a rest.


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Both groups would fit inside my palm = close enough for RR work. I think at distances slightly over arms length, this would be as good as the NAA 22LR revolver I carry. ( thank yew, Kaintuck! )

Then I just messed around with the remaining ammo. Actually smacked a couple pine cones @ 25 yards or more.

I've got a bid on a 32 Long revolver. I get that I'll get serious & order new brass. Find the 30 cal pilot for my Forster case trimmer & make decent cases.

I likes this revolver!!! SW

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Well, it sounds like your're having fun.

I'm one of those strange ducks who likes .32 revolvers, having had many over the years. .32 S&W Long, .32 H&R Mag., and .32-20 (.32 WCF). At present, the .32 in my battery is a Sturm, Ruger SP-101 in .32 H&R Mag.

I don't like the action in the SP-101, one of those hammer block safety rigs but you get used to it after a few shots.

My favorite .32 revolver that I regretfully let get away from me was a Smith & Wesson Model 16-4. They made these for about three years circa 1990-92 or something like that. In very small quantities I later discovered, especially the four inch barrel gun that I ordered. They had a full under-lug on the bbl. which I'd never before liked, but found that it made the gun easier to point. Funny, I never minded it on the Colt Python but when Smith started putting it on the 586, I rebelled. Stupid me; it was only an issue of what I had been used to on Smiths.

So, if you see one of those Model 16-4's out there at a decent price, snap it up. The Ruger SP-101 in the same cartridge isn't half the gun that the Smith is and their original cost was about the same, way back when. Granted, the SP-101 is a smaller gun but quality isn't limited by size.

Smith has made some other .32 H&R Mags and later the .327 Federal Mag, which I've never advanced to. Unless I'm mistaken, these later guns were all on smaller frames. But the .327 Federal Mag. is following in the footsteps of most other .32 revolvers in terms of lack of acceptance by the US gun-buying public. Smith & Wesson catalogs quite a few revolvers, but try to buy one. I think most of their production is given over to various automatics these days. The revolvers are very expensive and infrequently available. Last time I checked online re. availability, one of the few models you could get was their .327 Federal Mag. Only because they are (were?) such slow sellers. Today's slow sellers are tomorrow's collector's items, but I'm not gonna shell out $900 to find out.

Post script: I just looked at the Smith & Wesson site and the Model 632 in .327 Federal Mag. is now filed in their archive, meaning it's out of production. Already on its way to being collectible.

I've looked at the .327 Federal Mag ammo on shelves (one of the few available at times during this Great Famine that we are experiencing). Ouch, it's expensive. And with relatively few guns having been made for it, destined to extinction sooner than later. .32 H&R Mag is still around but getting scarcer. I think Starline is the only company now that makes brass for reloaders for it; Federal quit supplying it. I've got my share stored away.

I looked the "Lemon Squeezer" over closely, and a lot of thought went into the design. It's a very practical carry gun - except for the caliber. Scaled up slightly, it would do well as a .380 - possibly a 32 auto with +P ammo.

But as you mention, people gots to have their plastic 9mms.

But this model is bringing 200+ at auction! Not sure what's up with that. I've still got the bid on an older 32 S&W long. I'd like to get one just for fun. and it IS fun! Cheep to shoot and a joy to shoot. And steel! I just can't buy into the plastic gun craze. SW

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In another thread, I mentioned a recent trip to the range where most riflemen had firearms with black plastic/polymer stocks. Even the bolt guns. I had an M1 Rifle, another guy had an SKS, and way down the line I saw one bolt action with a wooden stock. I prefer wood.

I do have two rifles with black plastic furniture, both AR's, one in .308W, the other in .223. The rest have wood. I suppose if I were going to spend a lot of time out in the wet, stalking deer and elk, I'd want something with a plastic stock and stainless steel works.

The only two little guns I have are the Ruger SP-101 in .32 H&R Mag., which is stainless steel, and I confess to owning a Glock 19 that is small (their mid-size). Both have done duty as carry weapons. I can't fault the Glock; it has worked well through a few thousand rounds, nearly all reloads which the company proscribes and which advice I ignore. They also inveigh against cast bullets and I've fired about a hundred through it with no leading or other problems. I like the feel of the gun in my rather large hand.

The Glock was purchased after my having owned a couple of Ruger automatics, P-85 and P-94, I think they were, but both poor in my opinion. Too big and clunky, not suitable as carry guns at least in my own case.

I watched "The First 48" last night - a murder investigation program. It's mostly blacks killing blacks over drugs, but two older Cuban men were murdered by another older Cuban man who used... a pair of cheep 32 S&W revolvers. ( some kind of neighborhood squabble gone bad)

No word on the brand - I didn't recognize them. Possibly bottom end S American types. But they did the deal all at once. Which indicates it's not the size of the gun - it's the resolve to get in close and use it to good effect.

My two EBRs have plastic stocks, of course, but I've no handguns which contain it. My carry guns are either an H&K P7 or a S&W Model 15 2" 38 Special - both made of steel. SW

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i think the 22cal is the choice of those that make a living getting up close and personal in ending a targets existence with prejudice ,

Found the boolets! A 500 box o' Hornady 90 grain swaged SWC. Just the ticket for 32 S&W long! Same powder charge I'm using... way cheep to shoot! SW

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