Shooting .32 S&W Long Wadcutters out of .32 S&W (short) Revolver

Jim Watson said:
Good thing we are talking revolvers and no clips involved.

OK, FF, have you yet tried to stick a .32 SWL wadcutter or empty case in your Saturday Night Specials?
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Jim, an eminently logical suggestion. The problem is I don't have my hands on either of them yet. The Victor was received at my FFL today, the Young America was only shipped today. Combining them to save on fees. Here in Kaliforniastan, even C&R firearms have to go through an FFL.

I also don't have any wadcutters or empty cases in .32 S&W or .32 S&W Long yet. The only .32 I have is ACP, which even I am not crazy enough (yet) to try.

.32 S&W Long is widely available online for $0.55 and up. The only place I find .32 S&W is on Gunbroker, and its going for about a buck fiddy a pop. I think I will take a chance and order some .32 S&W Long wadcutters. If they don't fit, I guess I'll have have to buy another gun in .32 Long. And so the collection grows. :D Then I'll have to get into handloading so I can feed the Shorts (I'm sorrry. I meant to say .32 S&W's. Please don't ban me).
 
I like to say clips, grips, 45 Longs and 32 shorts just to jack the nomenclature police. Most others do the same.
 
I don't know why, but saying .32 (or .38) Short for .32 S&W (or .38 S&W) annoys me whereas .45 Long Colt does not.
Possibly because ".32 Short" does not identify the cartridge properly or even closely. A real .32 Short might be a .32 Rimfire Short or a .32 Short Colt.

Kind of like the western movie character in the general store:
"Give me a box of .44s."
.44 WHAT? .44 Henry, .44 S&W, .44 Russian, .44 Colt, .44 Winchester?
 
I wrote it .32 S&W (short) in the thread title cuz I knew I wouldn't be able to please all the people all the time.

I should be able to pick up my ancient "Saturday Night Specials" next week. I oredered a box of black powder blanks and a box of lead round nose off Gunjoker, both in .32 S&W (short). Assuming it looks to be mechanically sound, I expect to try a few of the blanks in the Young America and leave it at that for now, because I am pretty sure it is a black powder model. With the Victor, assuming timing and lock up look good, I am going to try the blanks first. Assuming they don't blow up the gun, I will try the LRN in it. Assuming (i) the LRN in .32 S&W didn't blow it up, (ii) the Victor cylinder is bored through, which I am guessing it is, and (iii) I still have the same nubmer of fingers after shooting the .32 S&W LRN through it as I did before, I plan to order some .32 S&W Long wadcutters and give them a try in the Victor. This may take a while, but I will keep you informed. :cool:
 
"Kind of like the western movie character in the general store:
"Give me a box of .44s."
.44 WHAT? .44 Henry, .44 S&W, .44 Russian, .44 Colt, .44 Winchester?"

That would be a box of 5-in-1 blanks...
 
But I think the choices in 9mm dwarf those of the 44 family. There are even multiple different 9mm Supers and of course 9mm Browning and 9mm Browning Short.
 
I discovered all this last year, actually two years ago I think with my Young America. Yes, you need chambers that are bored straight thru to do this and I would avoid shooting a .32 wadcutter 98gr in all top break .32 Shorts simply because the latch mechanism was designed for the lower recoil of a lighter bullet and I'm sure would get destroyed quickly from a heavy wadcutter. A solid frame would have no issue, the problem there is very few .32 S&W shorts were made in a solid frame for smokeless powder.

The H&R Y. America is a rare case where the chambers were bored thru and is a solid frame.

I know of no others, however if there was enough interest one could ream the chambers of any other solid frame .32 Short to accept .32 SW Long.
 
You could. There was a guy on the S&W board who reamed his .44 Russian to take .44 Special loaded short. Simplified his brass inventory and if you look, the Special is right about the same velocity as Russian, therefore likely about the same pressure.
 
TruthTellers said:
I discovered all this last year, actually two years ago I think with my Young America. Yes, you need chambers that are bored straight thru to do this and I would avoid shooting a .32 wadcutter 98gr in all top break .32 Shorts simply because the latch mechanism was designed for the lower recoil of a lighter bullet and I'm sure would get destroyed quickly from a heavy wadcutter. A solid frame would have no issue, the problem there is very few .32 S&W shorts were made in a solid frame for smokeless powder.

The H&R Y. America is a rare case where the chambers were bored thru and is a solid frame.

I know of no others, however if there was enough interest one could ream the chambers of any other solid frame .32 Short to accept .32 SW Long.
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Thanks, Truthteller. I think the Victor is one other that wil fit the bill. I have one wiating at my FFL and will let you know once I can confirm. Most sources list the Victor as kind of a budget Harrington and Richardson line, which is kind of a scary thought. The good thing is that they were not produced until around 1915 so all were made for smokeless poweder, unlike the Young America where soem were black powder and some were smokeless. I have a YA waiting at my FFL as well, but unfortunately I beleive it is a black powder version.
 
FoundFather said:
Thanks, Truthteller. I think the Victor is one other that wil fit the bill. I have one wiating at my FFL and will let you know once I can confirm. Most sources list the Victor as kind of a budget Harrington and Richardson line, which is kind of a scary thought. The good thing is that they were not produced until around 1915 so all were made for smokeless poweder, unlike the Young America where soem were black powder and some were smokeless. I have a YA waiting at my FFL as well, but unfortunately I beleive it is a black powder version.
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Idk much about the Victor, know of them, but I believe they were all .32 SW Long as they are built on a larger frame. The .32 Y. America is itself built on a larger frame than the .22 Short model Y. America, so why H&R would build a .32 short S&W on an even larger frame is curious if that is indeed the case.

I have a copy of Bill Goforth's book on H&R, so I'll take a peak in it and see what he says about the Victor, but my guess is the cost cutting H&R made was reduction in machined surfaces like flutes on the cylinder or use of a round barrel over octagonal, not cheaper, softer metal and QC cutting.

If you are reloading these wadcutters, my suggestion is to use Unique for the powder charge, for some reason Bullseye is unpleasently heavy in recoil when I shoot it in the Young America.

Another thing to keep an eye on during shooting is the cylinder base pin walking out and jumping over the spring loaded retaining latch. I'm sure there are better ways to retain the pin, perhaps a stronger spring could be made, but stock springs are too weak and as such I have avoided the solid frame H&R's since I got the Young America.
 
Again, thanks for the info Truthteller. Their were appretnly two models of the Victor, a six shot large frame which is chambered in .32 S&W Long and a five shot medium frame chambered in .32 S&W. The five shot is supossed to be the same size as the Young America .32 S&W. Like I say, I have one of each waiting for me at the FFL so I will soon be able to confirm or deny that.

In the meantime, here is a photo from the seller of the Victor I bought with a tape measure:

Victor .32 S&W.jpg

Pretty small, huh?
 

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FoundFather said:
Again, thanks for the info Truthteller. Their were appretnly two models of the Victor, a six shot large frame which is chambered in .32 S&W Long and a five shot medium frame chambered in .32 S&W. The five shot is supossed to be the same size as the Young America .32 S&W. Like I say, I have one of each waiting for me at the FFL so I will soon be able to confirm or deny that.

In the meantime, here is a photo from the seller of the Victor I bought with a tape measure:

View attachment 115432

Pretty small, huh?
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I looked at Bill Goforth's book and as to the Victor being a "budget" revolver my guess on cost reductions was correct, Goforth states that the cylinders not being fluted and the barrels being round helped lower the costs, but the frame and lockwork is all the same as the Young America and American DA.

There were apparently three frame sizes for the Victor, the small and medium frames of the Young America and the large frame of the American DA.

So, since these are basically the same revolvers as the Y. America and American DA that means yours will be just like my Y. America in it will chamber .32 S&W Long cases.

When you get to shooting it, I would suggest shooting in single action because when doing a DA pull the cylinder pins tends to walk out more and also I would check after every shot to make sure the cylinder pin is still being retained by the spring loaded latch. If it comes loose, your alignment will get thrown off and lock up the cylinder during indexing.

And I would definitely encourage you to get the .22 version. Apparently, according to Mr. Goforth, the Victor is able to shoot .22 LR, something that the Young America is not able to do.

Guess I'm gonna have to look into that further to confirm.
 
Thanks, again, TruthTeller.


I rescued my .32's form the FLL. Here is a pitcture:

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IMG_0236 .32's small file.jpg

The Victor is blued and the Young America is nickel. They appear to be identical in size and very similar overall, but for the unfluted cylinder and round barrel on the Victor vs. fluted cylinder and octagon barrel on Young America. They are both five shot .32 S&W's although the Young America is apparently made for black powder ad the Victor smokeless.

I guess I am finally going to have start reloading, at least for this caliber. I have a lot to learn about that.

Can anyone tell me the best currently-in-production die set for .32 S&W? What, if anything, do I need to make a .32 S&W Long die set work for .32 S&W? An extended shell holder?

It looks like a lot of dies currently on the market can do .32 S&W Long, .32 H&R Mag, and .327 Federal Mag, but it is not clear if you can do .32 S&W on these sets. Is it possible with some addition?

If I could find a Lee Classic Loader in .32 S&W, that would be my preferred route, but they don't seem to have made those for many years. If anyone could point me to one, that would be appreciated.
 
Generally no, you need a set of .32 S&W-specific dies.

The case lengths are too different.

You can resize the cases, but I don't believe that you can bell them, seat a bullet, or crimp the case.

An extended shell holder wouldn't work for one reason... the .32 S&W is a rimmed cartridge.
 
You can resize the cases, but I don't believe that you can bell them, seat a bullet, or crimp the case.
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Generally speaking, when the cases are straight, and the same other than length, with standard 3 die sets, dies for the shorter round can be adjusted or spaced (washers) in the press to work loading the longer round.

The reverse, however, is not a given. The sizer from the long round die set will probably do fine. The expander, and the seater might not. If the expander stem and the seating stem will adjust low enough they will work for the shorter round. Not all will. The long round seater die, with its built in crimp shoulder will NOT work for the shorter case, at all.

The difference in the cases of the .32s is about 0.315" THis is more than double (closer to 3x) the difference between .38SPl/.357 or .44Spl/.44 mag, and I don't know if the .32Long dies have enough adjustment in their stems to work reloading the short case. If they do, they will work, if they don't, then they won't. Sort cases are simply too short to reach the crimp shoulder of the seater die, so you cannot crimp shorts with a long seater die, you will have to use a different die for that.

An extended shell holder wouldn't work for one reason... the .32 S&W is a rimmed cartridge.
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This has me confused, and doesn't make sense, unless the extended shell holder you are referring to is drastically different from the RCBS ones I have, where rimmed or rimless makes no difference at all, and the extension is the bottom of the shellholder. My extended shell holder does not allow the case to go any further into a die that a regular one. It can't.
 
The Lee die set is for both long and short. It is even more so for carbide dies, in which a short carbide ring is the business end of the deal. Basically all sized brass come out are straight wall except near the head. Not exactly exact but within specs I suppose.

-TL

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
 
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