.32 S&W reload for old H&R

M

Magick

Inactive
CAUTION: The following post includes loading data beyond or not covered by currently published maximums for this cartridge. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. Neither the writer, The Firing Line, nor the staff of TFL assumes any liability for any damage or injury resulting from the use of this information.


I spent months researching black powder loads for old H&R-style revolvers. I had a box of S&W smokeless powder shells that I couldn’t shoot. When I pulled the bullets, I found that the “preferred” load, 8 or 9 grains of Fffg almost completely filled the case, leaving only enough room to barely seat the .310 ball I replaced the bullets with. I didn’t have a set of dies and didn’t feel like spending the money so I didn’t reuse the pulled bullets. Not only that, some of the graybeards said that you should use a felt wad under a ball plus a dab of bore butter or similar. But, no room. What I did was buy new brass for S&W Long. This took the powder, wad, and ball and left room for the lubricant. I got the idea from the 7.62x38 Nagant cartridge, where the bullet is recessed in the case. I haven’t fired these yet, but I think the net effect will be less cleaning since the longer case will cover more of the inside of the cylinder. Balls were seated with a 1/4 inch dowel and a rawhide hammer. These are not for distance, but for short-range plinking.
 
I've got an old H&R in 32 S&W too, so this is interesting. I thought though, that I'd be able to shoot smokeless.

Anyways, I'm surprised your 32 S&W cylinder will also chamber 32 S&W Long. I don't know much about the caliber so maybe this is common knowledge.
 
Anyways, I'm surprised your 32 S&W cylinder will also chamber 32 S&W Long. I don't know much about the caliber so maybe this is common knowledge.
Click to expand...

The "trim to length" of the .32 S&W Long brass is 0.920. The OAL of the .32 S&W loaded cartridge is 0.920. So the .32 S&W Long's brass should fit the chamber of the .32 S&W.
 
You don't have to use a lubed wad under the ball, you could smear the lube over the ball like with a black powder revolver.

I like the idea of using round balls for these old black powder era top break revolvers. A 000 buck pellet in a .38 S&W would not be a bad small game/pest control load and would be very cheap to shoot.
 
Potential danger!

Dyl and Mike38,

I believe what he is describing is narrowing the .32 S&W Long brass, giving it a slight shoulder to the length of a 32 S&W case so it chambers, but has part of the case length is in the throat of the chamber.


WARNING! POTENTIAL HIGH PRESSURE SITUATION!

Magick,

If I am right about the above, you may be in serious danger of excess pressure because the portion of the case that is in the chamber throat will be unable to expand to an inside diameter as large as the projectile diameter, much less the groove diameter of the rifling. This means it will be swaging the ball down to a narrower-than-caliber diameter during firing. You may get away with that with a soft lead ball, but with a hard bullet, especially a jacketed one, it could prove fatal to the gun and perhaps would with a bullet that has some bearing surface.

Personally, I wouldn't do this because a ball that is narrower than the throat and groove diameter of the bore will tend to be gas cut which will lead to terrible inaccuracy and severe bore leading. All in all, it strikes me as a how-to-try-to-blow-up-my-gun-for-no-potential-benefit sort of experiment.

Also PLEASE READ THIS STICKY REQUIREMENT for posting unpublished loads in this forum. I am posting the required warning for you, in this instance, but please use cut and past to copy it into your posts in the future.
 
Now that Nick mentions that, it may not be a bad idea to trim the .32 S&W Long brass down a bit. Not to .32 S&W lengths, but something that's not getting squeezed by the throat.
 
.32 S&W BP load

Absolutely nothing was done to the case. They fit in the cylinder smoothly as-is. The cases were not crimped since A) I don’t have the dies and B) the balls are a snug, but not tight fit. I’m glad to hear that I don’t need the wad. I now have two sets of cartridges - 32 S&W loaded with BP and a ball and 32 S&W Long with the same load, but the ball seated all the way inside the case. I’ll have to test-fire the latter with a string in the trigger and then look at the cases.
 
Case is .92x32. Cylinder is 1.22, bored 32 all the way through. Throat is .32 narrowing to .304. Given that the bearing surface of the ball is smaller than a bullet, I don’t see how a pressure problem could arise.
 
Missing information detail

I am thinking your revolver must be chambered for .32 S&W Long, which you didn't mention. Dyl and I drew the same inference from your first post that the gun was chambered in .32 S&W. Hence the confusion. H&R made plenty of revolvers chambered for the Long.
 
If it is, that’s a pleasant surprise. Since so many of them were plain .32 S&W, I assumed this was also. There are no markings indicating chambering - only dates, which I used to determine that it probably took a BP load. So now I have a whole new area to read up on. Thanks!
 
Well, BP loading in .32 S&S long seems to come down to “fill the case up to where the bullet compresses it .10 inches”. So the 8 gr load I used should be well within the safe zone.
The reason I assumed the pistol I have was .32 S&W (short) is that it’s a break-top. All the pistols using the long cartridge that I ever saw were solid frame. After doing some more research, I see that I was wrong.
 
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