32ACP/32 H&R Mag
- Thread starter drumbeat
- Start date
hammie said:
Yes, but that has no bearing on this topic, as the cartridge dimensions remain the same.
Jim Keenan said:
Gotta say you're wrong on this one.
Using a round of Precision Cartridge .38 Auto and a round of Georgia Arms .38 Super as test subjects, the rounds chambered freely (dropping in from gravity alone) in all the .38/.357 revolvers I could lay hands on without going upstairs: a S&W 19-5, 64-6, 627-3, and prewar .38/44 Heavy Duty.
good gawd. because the mag is harder to find you are gonna use the auto rounds in a mag rev? man, just go mail order some loading supplies, then, and roll your own H&R ammo, use lead bullets if you want, in the long run it will be cheaper than buying auto rounds that are not for the gun! The H&R round is probably not common anywhere anymore. If it were me I would trade it in for a .38 special or something or a .32 auto pistol before I would resign myself to that wrong ammo option! well I guess we know why gunshows have broken guns for sale, makers have lawyers to protect them and giant disclaimers stamped on the barrels, and some folks wander around with missing fingers or a dog to lead them, someone out there is persistently insisting on monkey business with guns, and think they know better than the makers.
Tom2 said:
Or, y'know, he could just order the ammo.
Tom2 said:
Will you explain to me how .32ACP is going to "break" a gun designed to fire the higher-pressure .32 H&R Magnum?
)Jim Watson
New member
If you can get it in. Yours would, mine wouldn't.
Jim Watson said:
Out of curiosity, I checked the rest of my .38/.357 wheelguns:
Both the Precision Cartridge .38 Auto and the GA .38 Super chambered in a S&W 10-8, 15-4, 12-2, PC640, 37, 27-2, and a prewar Military & Police. A nickel-cased reload chambered in everything but the prewar guns and an early postwar Military & Police. For that matter, none of the rounds would chamber readily in that '53-vintage postwar M&P.
What this experiment proved, I haven't a clue, but I don't need much of an excuse to go look at old Smiths.
seeker_two
New member
Why would anyone want to do this?....I can think of a few reasons....
1. You carry a .38Super as your CCW and a .38SPL/.357Mag as backup. You're in a fight where you lose your primary and are stuck with an empty revolver and a spare mag of .38Super. What now?
2. You reload both .357Mag and .38Super. You find a great deal on .38Super brass, but .357Mag is sparse and expensive. You want to work up a mild plinking load for both guns.
3. Your dear grandmother/great-aunt/nice older neighbor lady is concerned with the increase in crime in her neighborhood. She has a WWII-era H&R .32S&WLong that her husband left her before he died. She wants effective SD ammo. The stores in your area only sell .32ACP.
...and I'm sure there are more....
1. You carry a .38Super as your CCW and a .38SPL/.357Mag as backup. You're in a fight where you lose your primary and are stuck with an empty revolver and a spare mag of .38Super. What now?
2. You reload both .357Mag and .38Super. You find a great deal on .38Super brass, but .357Mag is sparse and expensive. You want to work up a mild plinking load for both guns.
3. Your dear grandmother/great-aunt/nice older neighbor lady is concerned with the increase in crime in her neighborhood. She has a WWII-era H&R .32S&WLong that her husband left her before he died. She wants effective SD ammo. The stores in your area only sell .32ACP.
...and I'm sure there are more....
4. Same reason that a dog licks himself?
Being logical and shooting have little in common, I've found.
I like versatility, and being able to shoot one more round never hurts. It's not likely to be the most accurate load, but it works ok.
I load my own ammo, and I'm not going to go out and invest in dies, brass, and such to load .32 acp for my .32 H&R mag, but if I found a box at a really good price, I might pick it up just to have on hand.
If nothing else, I'd use it up on small game and such.
Daryl
Tamara,
You know.... you're right. I had forgotten that the smith and wesson performance center made a run of .38 super revolvers. Then, thinking again, it would all depend on how the chambers were cut (and I don't know how they were cut). I'm not sure about this but I think that in one of their model iterations, S&W made their mdl 25's without a definite shoulder in the chambers and so you would have to use moon clips for positive ignition if you used rimless .45 ACP. I think they subsequentially changed back to cutting a shoulder.
You know.... you're right. I had forgotten that the smith and wesson performance center made a run of .38 super revolvers. Then, thinking again, it would all depend on how the chambers were cut (and I don't know how they were cut). I'm not sure about this but I think that in one of their model iterations, S&W made their mdl 25's without a definite shoulder in the chambers and so you would have to use moon clips for positive ignition if you used rimless .45 ACP. I think they subsequentially changed back to cutting a shoulder.
Tamara, it may not hurt a mag revolver, but there are plenty of old top break revolvers out there and someone reading this stuff might get a wild hair and see what happens. Since all this is interesting but useless information to me, as I stick pretty much to the correct ammo, or acceptable correct subs like non mag 38 in a 357 at most, I am gonna forget I was ever on this thread, and let you all have at it, figuring out all what you can stuff in your guns that might not maybe hurt it, for no particularly good reason.
louiethelump
New member
I use 32 ACP in my 32 mag and solid frame 32 S&W revolvers because:
1) I have a lot of 32 ACP that I either traded into cheap or were partial boxes that my local gun dealer GAVE me as he could not sell it.
2) In the case of the 32 S&W; There is no defense ammo available for that caliber, and the 32 ACP has several fairly hot hollow point rounds available, that make low recoiling defense ammo for my wife to use that does not rattle her with recoil to where she is afraid of it like the same gun with 5 38 special hollow points does. This makes a comfortable 6 shot gun for her, that will shoot minute of possum or Raccoon, both of which we have plenty of nasty ones hanging about as we live in the woods. I use only fresh new ammo for this, and the old stuff become practice ammo.
3) I CHOOSE to............
I would not use it in a break top, but of course, since S&W, the makers of the best quality break tops has said not to shoot ANYTHING in any of their vintage break tops, I would not shoot any old break top AT ALL.
Just to stir the pot a little, have any of you used 38 S&W factory ammo in your 9mm revolver? (save me from your protests that it won't work, because it does and I have done it) Factory lead 38 S&W will go right into the 940 S&W chambers for 9mm and work like a light load. They are low pressure, soft lead bullets. and work just fine. Why do this? Again, many times a partial box of 38 S&W becomes available, and this is a good use for it. Why not? No moon clips required.
Louie
1) I have a lot of 32 ACP that I either traded into cheap or were partial boxes that my local gun dealer GAVE me as he could not sell it.
2) In the case of the 32 S&W; There is no defense ammo available for that caliber, and the 32 ACP has several fairly hot hollow point rounds available, that make low recoiling defense ammo for my wife to use that does not rattle her with recoil to where she is afraid of it like the same gun with 5 38 special hollow points does. This makes a comfortable 6 shot gun for her, that will shoot minute of possum or Raccoon, both of which we have plenty of nasty ones hanging about as we live in the woods. I use only fresh new ammo for this, and the old stuff become practice ammo.
3) I CHOOSE to............
I would not use it in a break top, but of course, since S&W, the makers of the best quality break tops has said not to shoot ANYTHING in any of their vintage break tops, I would not shoot any old break top AT ALL.
Just to stir the pot a little, have any of you used 38 S&W factory ammo in your 9mm revolver? (save me from your protests that it won't work, because it does and I have done it) Factory lead 38 S&W will go right into the 940 S&W chambers for 9mm and work like a light load. They are low pressure, soft lead bullets. and work just fine. Why do this? Again, many times a partial box of 38 S&W becomes available, and this is a good use for it. Why not? No moon clips required.
Louie
Miracle!
Well, I'm back to tell you that I tried it and I still have both eyes, all my fingers (and toes, too) and the gun didn't blow up. Actually, 32 ACP in my 9 1/2" Ruger 32H&R Magnum shot just fine. Recoil was not much more than a Single Six 22. Not real target level, but I was able to kill a few rocks and cans that tried to attack me. So, given that all the paranoid fools out there are buying up every scrap of ammo they can find and have driven the prices of what's left thru the roof, I at least I know I can plink away with 32 ACP in a 32 revolver.
Well, I'm back to tell you that I tried it and I still have both eyes, all my fingers (and toes, too) and the gun didn't blow up. Actually, 32 ACP in my 9 1/2" Ruger 32H&R Magnum shot just fine. Recoil was not much more than a Single Six 22. Not real target level, but I was able to kill a few rocks and cans that tried to attack me. So, given that all the paranoid fools out there are buying up every scrap of ammo they can find and have driven the prices of what's left thru the roof, I at least I know I can plink away with 32 ACP in a 32 revolver.