Best powders for .32 S&W Long?

T

TruthTellers

New member
I'm getting into reloading for this cartridge. Plan to shoot with 50 grain round ball and 94 grain lead flat nose bullets. I have some Unique, but from other sources I've read, it's not the recommended powder for the small case. Other places I've read that for round ball loads a fast powder like Bullseye and Titegroup is recommend.

I don't have a meter, so each time I load powder into a case, it's been measured on a scale, thus eliminating overcharges.

With that info given, what powders would be best for me for .32 S&W Long? Primarily shooting this in a .32 H&R Mag chambered gun btw.
 
I was amazed to see H110 listed for a 100 grain bullet in the 32 S&W long load data! It seems to be the slowest powder mentioned and gives the same velocity as AA9 loads. It seems that AA2, HP-38 (231) and TiteGroup will give you "good" velocity with most bullets.
As stated my Speer #13 manual lists loads for a 100 grain JHP and up to 7 grains of H110. The difference in velocity from the H110 load to the HP-38 load is less than 100 fps and at more than double the powder charge it seems a bit much for the return.
 
I have used Unique, Universal, Bullseye with good results from a 6" I frame target gun to a 2.5" H&R - not talking Hammerli or Pardini accuracy, but decent enough for plinking
 
I use 1.7 grains of Bullseye as thrown by my Dillon powder measure on my 550b. The powder bar is turned all the way in (but it still throws 1.7 grains). I use that as my standard load with a cast Lee 93 grain round-nose bullet. I do not use any other powder than Bullseye in the .32 S&W Long due to difficulties with larger flakes on most other powders, small case capacity...and certainly not Unique in a Dillon measure.
 
Red Dot....especially for the ball load. Green Dot makes a good second.

Being as bulky as they are they will give you good case fill...enough that a double will be VERY evident. They will burn decently enough at the low pressures of a Long.

BE and 231 work good too but I like the bulk fill of RD, better burn characteristics, and easy consistent ignition for this pressure range.

Trail Boss is another good choice.
 
I have notes on HP-38, Bullseye, W-231, and Unique recipes for 60 gr JHP. They all work well for the lighter bullets. But I haven't loaded any .32 in over 20 years.
 
I strongly recommend you get a powder measure. You can get a Lee Perfect Powder Measure on Amazon for $22.11.

Alternately, get a set of Lee powder dippers, or make a dipper yourself. It will save you a LOT of time when reloading pistol cartridges.

I recommend a fine grain powder, like AA#2 or W231, but any fast pistol powder will do. You'll definitely want a fast powder for round ball.
 
I would load Bullseye.
HP38/W231 gets erratic in light loads, I do not think it would work well with a round ball and maybe not a bullet except at the top end for .32.
Titegroup is not as load and position insensitive as they advertise.
 
I run a lot of W231/HP-38, especially with 90-100 gr WCs

Unique is a frequent visitor, as well.

Red Dot, Green Dot, Herco, and a few other flake powders have been used from time to time.

I don't really use or like Titegroup, but it wouldn't be out of place here - particularly if paired with light bullets.

That being said... Crankylove (member here) and I messed with round balls in 2009 and 2010. We found that the best thing for launching round balls was a small rifle primer and NO powder. The powder actually negatively impacted performance with SP and SR primers, due to lack of ignition (or poor ignition) and seeming to act as a buffer and reduce the effectiveness of the pressure created by a primer alone.
And a word of advice for primer-only round balls: Since velocity is very low, ricochets are common and unpredictable. Be extra careful what you shoot at.
 
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