Obligatory (but short) History

How I got started with the 32-20

Shooting the Cartridge

The 32-20 is a delightful cartridge to shoot. The 32-20 is ideal for small game (rabbit and squirrel) handgun hunting. I already knew that the .22LR is great for small game if it is shot from a good rifle. Before long, I could hit just about anything I could see with my Marlin 39A with a Williams peepsight. But, by then it was no longer very challenging. Handgun hunting brought back the challenge. However, I found from bitter experience that I could not count on a .22LR to cleanly take small game if it was fired from a 4” or 6” handgun barrel (this was back before the “hypervelocity” .22LR’s). On the other hand, a 32-20 with a flat-nosed, soft-lead bullet at about 850 to 900fps from a handgun is absolutely perfect for anchoring small game. I know that others have taken deer with the cartridge, but I won't go there.

I started loading the 32-20 in order to save money. I did not know at the time that it is one of the hardest cartridges there is for a beginner to handload. The 32-20, along with its bigger brothers, has an extremely thin “slopeshouldered” brass case that will buckle at the slightest excuse (see picture at left). However, the 32-20 has by far the thinnest and weakest case of the three, which makes it the hardest to reload. Once buckled, wrinkled or torn, the case cannot be salvaged. That is one of the things that makes reloading the 32-20 a challenge, even for people who have been handloading newer and stronger cases for quite a while. In addition, the 32-20 seems to be much more temperamental when shot through a handgun than when it is shot from a rifle. You have to work to attain accuracy with the 32-20 in a handgun. You won’t just luck into it. But, if you can master the 32-20, you can handload anything.

Preparing the Cases

Even more than other cartridges, the preparation of the case is the key to accuracy in the 32-20. Prepared correctly, it is easy to find accuracy. Carelessly prepared, it will never be accurate and you will probably lose a lot of cases to buckling, bulging, or tearing.

The first step in reloading anything is to obtain cases. Shooting factory loads or buying virgin cases are the most commonly used methods with the 32-20. Neither method is cheap, but it is extremely rare to find once-fired 32-20 brass on a table at a gun show. If you do, check them first, regardless of the price. I have found old brass a few times that was last shot with black powder, and each time, the brass was rotten. It looked OK, but when shoved into a sizing die, the case came apart in brittle pieces. I understand that this was actually caused by mercuric primers, but BP and mercuric primers went together for a lot of years. The best way to tell is to smell the mouth of the fired case. The smell of black powder is distinctive and it is a warning to stay away unless you are absolutely sure that recent (non-mercuric) primers were used in it. In addition, the rims of really old cases were thicker than they are now and often will not fit in a modern shellholder.

The most commonly available cases today are Remington, Winchester, and Starline. They are all different from each other, so it is best to stay with one headstamp. Remington has the longest cases. Winchester cases are shorter. Starline cases are even shorter. The neck of Remington and Winchester cases is extremely thin, weak, and easy to buckle, fold, or tear. The neck of Starline cases is a little thicker and the case sides near the base are a lot thicker. That makes the neck less likely to buckle, but it also makes the volume of Starline cases less than the others. Make sure that you reduce maximum loads meant for a Remington or Winchester case if you change over to a Starline case.

If the cases have been fired, vibrate them clean. This step may be optional, but it makes all of the remaining steps easier. Then resize and decap the cases. Even if the cases are brand new, resize them. The brass is so thin that any case which has been handled very much will be out of round. If the mouth of the case is badly “D” shaped (this is common when a case is dropped on concrete), it will buckle if you try to resize it directly. Stick a small Phillips head screwdriver in the mouth of the case, put the tip in the primer hole (from the inside) and rotate the screwdriver to get the mouth close to round. Then it can be resized without buckling.

Since the 32-20 uses steel dies (because it is a tapered case and carbide sizers are not available), it should be lubricated before sizing. I have had minor problems with the cases sticking slightly without lubrication, primarily when they were not cleaned first. Experimenting with several lubricants on the market, all of them (every single one) caused dimples or full buckles in the front, tapered portion of the case, no matter how thin they were applied. The dies also had to be taken apart fairly often in order to clean out the excess lubricant that collected inside the die each time a case was resized. This is less of a problem today since newer dies have a small hole that bleeds most excess lube away. Plain old (thin) WD-40 worked much better for me, but even that occasionally caused dimples with the older dies. What I do now, and what has been very successful, is to wipe each case with a rag that has been lightly sprayed with WD-40 just before placing the case in the die. It takes very little lubrication. And, no, I have never had a problem with it killing primers. I think the WD-40/misfire fear is way overblown.

I shoot the 32-20 in several different guns and the chambers do vary, particularly the neck length. If you notice, the neck lengths of factory ammo are always longer than any chamber they are fired in and what any resizing die sizes them back to. When guns from different manufacturers are used, it can be a problem to chamber a case in one that was fired in another – even when the case was resized full length. The problem is small, but irritating, so I shortened the bottom of the 32-20 resizing die by 0.075” with a grinder (see picture at right). A sized case now closely matches the case dimensions that come from the factory. There have been absolutely no problems with loading any case fired in any gun when sized this way. No longer are there a few snug ones to irritate me. There has been no reduction in accuracy or of case life since I did this. The cases still usually crack at the neck before they crack in the transition.

The next step is to expand and bell the neck. The expander plug should be 0.002” to 0.003” smaller than the bullet you will be using. Since there is a wide range of barrel groove diameters with the 32-20, slug the barrel. Then match the bullet and the neck expander to the barrel. If the neck expanding piece occasionally catches on the edge of the case mouth, ruining it, take the neck expanding piece out of the die and put more of a taper on the front of it. A drill motor and file is all that is needed.

Reloading books say not to flare the neck of any case any more than necessary. This is not an idle warning. Play with the die setting until the flare is so small that you can barely see it, but a bullet will seat without cocking or shaving any lead. You will know if the flare is enough. If not, the case will buckle while seating the bullet. Or, the bullets will tilt slightly while seating. This is when the case will stretch or bulge more on one side than the other. In either case, increase the amount of flare. If it is flared too much, the case will buckle at the crimping stage. Decrease the amount of flare.

Once you find the right setting, use locking rings to keep it there even if your dies do not originally come with locking rings (like Lee). Once this is done, inspect the neck of each case. Throw out any with nicks, cracks, wrinkles, or any other imperfection. If you don’t, the case will probably buckle at the bullet seating stage, losing not only the case, but also a bullet, powder and a primer.

If you have not done so by now, this is where the cases must be trimmed to equal lengths. If this is not done, there will be little or no crimp on the shorter cases and the neck on the longer cases will buckle or bulge. If you are having problems with poor accuracy or neck buckling, the very first place to check is the case length. Here is the reason. The Starline 32-20 cases I own are about 1/32” shorter than Winchester cases. In turn, the Winchester cases are about 1/32” shorter than Remington cases (see picture at the left -- new, untrimmed Starline brass, Winchester, and Remington factory loads).

Loading the Cases

Once this is done, prime the cases. Different powders and guns may require different types of primers. I have used standard small pistol, magnum small pistol, and standard small rifle primers at different times with different powders in different guns. Some people say that this is impossible or dangerous, but they have obviously not tried it themselves. All of the primers fit and all of them work. A rifle primer is flush with the bottom of the rim and a handgun primer is very slightly low. I have not found any properly seated primer that is high (dangerous). Just match the primer with the powder. Any more, I usually don’t use anything other than standard small pistol primers. They work with any powder I use. Even in higher pressure rifle loads, I have never had a problem with a soft or weak primer. If you do, just go to a primer with a harder cup (CCI is usually harder) rather than a Magnum or rifle primer.

The 32-20 in handguns is very “finicky” about its powder (both type and amount). Do not assume that the gun is inaccurate if it is inaccurate with one load. Experiment with other loads first. Rifles are much more forgiving when it comes to loads. There are many recommendations for the type of powder and amounts to use in magazines and reloading books. I will not try to repeat them all here. I highly recommend the “Pet Loads” book by Ken Waters, a reprint of his magazine articles for Handloader magazine. It is not cheap, but it is worth every penny. It has an article for rifle loads and another one for handgun loads. They are different.

The next step is seating the bullet. The 32-20 generally uses a 0.312”/0.314” lead bullet or a 0.310”/0.311” jacketed bullet (this is usually undersized, but as long as it is jacketed, accuracy is not a problem). Choose what matches the cylinder throat and/or groove diameters. My older guns usually work with 0.314", but newer ones require 0.312" or smaller. There is a wide variety available from about 77 grains to 115 grains. Just make sure that you use flat-nosed ones with a crimping groove if they will be used in lever action rifles. The flat nose is to protect the primers, of course. The crimp is because the neck of the 32-20 is VERY thin and will not grip the bullet tight enough to keep it in place against the magazine spring. The bullet will slip down into the case (usually after firing a few rounds), raising pressure. You MUST crimp a 32-20 used in a lever action. Since the groove diameter of 32-20’s varies a lot, you should slug the barrel and buy a bullet that matches. A lead bullet should be 0.001” or 0.002” larger in diameter. Jacketed bullets made for the 32-20 are usually 0.001” to 0.002” smaller in diameter, but are still accurate. I have shot a few 0.308” jacketed bullets in 32-20’s and the accuracy was adequate – not nearly as bad as you would expect, but not as good as better fitting bullets.

I also make it easy to tell the difference between my handloads (see picture at left) at a glance by using a different bullet in each type of load. I shoot several types of 95gr to 100gr RN or SWC lead bullets at about 850fps (3.0gr of Red Dot or Bullseye) in the Colt PPS at relatively low pressure. I use 100gr Hornady XTP jacketed hollowpoint bullets at 1,150fps (6.0gr of SR4756) in my rechambered S&W NewModel 16 and a Uberti/Cimarron “Lightning” at medium pressure. The smaller sized Lightning (also called the Model P Jr.) frame is about an 80% scale model of the Colt SAA. The full sized Colt SAA frame in 32-20 (which is also available) is too heavy and it balances poorly, in my opinion. Although the Cimmaron balances better, its sights are poor. I am sure that a gunsmith could add a windage adjustable rear sight or a target sight, but I am not ready to do that yet. The S&W NewModel 16 was rechambered to 32-20 because I wanted that caliber in a modern DA revolver with target sights. It worked. It is one of my most accurate handguns. And, I use 100gr Remington half-jacketed softpoint bullets at close to 1,700fps (12.0gr of 2400) in my Marlin 1894CL rifle at high pressure. Each box is marked with what is inside, but even if they are separated from their boxes, I can tell what is in them by looking at the bullet. Mistakenly shooting a rifle load in the Colt PPS would almost certainly destroy it and would probably seriously bend my S&W or Uberti.

I tried for several years to seat the bullet and roll crimp it in place at the same time. All too often, the case would buckle, bulge, or would not crimp at all. I don’t do that anymore. Now I set the bullet without crimping. Some firearms do not need crimping, such as the Contender and single shot rifles. Revolvers and especially lever actions do need crimping. Without a crimp, a lever-action load will push the bullet back into the case and a heavy revolver load may recoil enough to walk the bullet forward. The neck of most 32-20 cases is too thin to provide enough neck tension to hold the bullet firmly in a lever action.

I bought a 32-20 Lee Factory Crimp die shortly after it came out to crimp the bullet after it is seated. It is the solution to all 32-20 crimping problems. This die does not push down on the case as do all other crimping dies. The die presses against the shellholder and crimps the case radially. The end result is that that it is easy to get a strong crimp and buckles during crimping are history. Anybody who reloads the 32-20, 38-40, or 44-40 really needs this die. You are just making things hard for yourself without it.

Miscellaneous Information about Pressure

There are 3 levels of pressure for 32-20's that you should be aware of. Tailor the pressure to the type of gun you are using. If you use a modern rifle or Contender load in an old BP gun or light duty revolver, it will ruin the gun and may injure yourself. If in doubt where your gun fits, start VERY low (much lower than the standard 10% reduction) and work up from there.

The lowest pressure level is for all original black powder rifles (regardless of the type of action), all BP handguns (including early double actions), and also light duty smokeless powder guns (like the Colt Police Positive Special). Many of the earliest guns were made from iron, not steel. Iron will stretch (and eventually fail) if the cartridges used in it are loaded to more than about 16,000 to 18,000psi. Even when the changeover to steel was made in the 1880’s and 1890’s, it was much weaker than the steel that is used today. Safe loads for these guns can be as little as 50% of the top loads listed for modern firearms using modern smokeless powder (ie: for rifle or Contender). Some people put the Spanish copies of S&W’s in this category, but I have no personal experience with them.

The middle pressure level is for smokeless powder versions of the original lever actions, modern Henry to Winchester 1873 clones (there are different opinions on whether this should be here or in the lowest pressure level, but I think it should be here), smokeless frame Colt SAA’s and heavier duty double action revolvers such as the Colt Army Special or Official Police models. The pressure rating for these is generally thought of as 20,000 to 25,000psi. From reading, I believe this is about the pressure range that the old “rifle only” cartridges were loaded to. Loaded to these pressures, the 32-20 is usually enjoyable to shoot and accurate. These can take about 70% of the top loads listed for modern firearms.

The top pressure level is for original, but smokeless frame single shot rifles, modern Browning, Winchester, or Marlin lever actions, and modern SAA’s or clones. Start at 90% of the load listed. The pressure range for these is generally thought of as approximately 30,000 to 35,000psi. These require jacketed bullets. The loads are not as enjoyable to shoot and the case life of most cases will be VERY short. At these pressures and trimming to length must be done after every shot. My feeling is that if you need this much power, you should move up to a larger caliber.

Keep in mind that I cannot measure pressures and the above is my best guess based on a library of reloading books. And like velocities, the manuals frequently show far different pressures for the same load. When in doubt, start VERY low and work up.

Although the first 32-20’s were loaded with black powder, I have not had very much luck with BP in this cartridge. The small diameter of the bore means that just about any fouling seriously reduces accuracy. BP works better for me in larger calibers. For those of you who have gotten the 32-20 to perform with BP (without cleaning the bore after every shot), my hat is off to you. I use smokeless powder, exclusively, for the 32-20 now.

Light loads of pistol or shotgun powders (such as Bullseye, Red Dot, or WW231) work OK in weak or old guns. However, it is possible to double or even triple charge the 32-20 with these loads. Be careful. With light loads, where the powder lays in the case when it is ignited will affect both its accuracy and velocity. These light loads are “position sensitive” which means that accuracy is sometimes (but not always) poor. This type of reload (with a low volume of powder) sometimes works better with a filler, to fill up the rest of the case. Because of the weight of old-time fillers (such as Cream-of-Wheat), you need to reduce the amount of powder or the pressure will increase. That is not good when shooting older guns.

I recently also tried plastic shot buffer as a filler since it is much lighter. That seems to work a little better (less pressure/velocity rise). There is definitely a small improvement in accuracy with filler. Not so much a smaller group, but fewer flyers. However, I question if the improvement is worth all the extra effort. You can get almost the same effect without much work by holding the gun the same way before each shot; ie. hold it vertically, bring it slowly down to level, aim, and fire. If you do use a filler of any kind, make sure that you use enough so that it is compressed during bullet seating to keep the powder in place against the primer. If you don’t, the powder and filler will mix with handling. The more handling, the more mixing. This will eventually mean a squib load, a hangfire, or even a misfire. I am experimenting with 2.8gr of the lightweight Trail Boss powder for light loads. It fills the case more than half full and is reasonably accurate. It may be the powder that solves this problem. More testing is needed before I know for sure.

For medium pressure handgun loads, I have found that SR4756 (as recommended by Ken Waters) works well. It is consistent and accurate in short barrels. For unknown reasons, the old standby, Unique, does not work quite as well in short barrels, although I would not actually call it bad. It may work better with your gun. There is usually enough powder in these kind of loads so that there is little position sensitivity.

Larger amounts of slow burning rifle powder work well for high pressure loads in a Contender or modern rifles. IMR4227 and SR4759 are a couple of examples suggested by others. I use 2400 powder myself. The cases are close enough to full that there is no position sensitivity. Just make sure that you do not use these cartridges in an older or light duty firearm or you will seriously damage the gun. It is very difficult to get one load with smokeless powder that will work well in both a handgun and a rifle without handicapping one or the other.

Those mysterious rifle-only loads

There is a fair amount of misinformation and half-truths floating around about 32-20 factory cartridges. The first is about “rifle only” loads and is true. DON’T shoot them in handguns. Many years ago, I shot a few “rifle-only” high-pressure factory loads my father's Colt PPS. The PPS is probably the lightest frame handgun ever chambered for the 32-20. It took only one cylinder full of the high-pressure cartridges to bend the “crane” (some people call the same part the yoke) and lock up the gun. Luckily, a local gunsmith was able to fix it. I still have it, but it has never been quite the same. Later, I shot several cylinders full of the hot stuff from what (I think) was a smokeless-frame Colt SAA. It did not appear to hurt the gun, but it had the sharpest “CRACK” I have ever heard from a handgun. It also spouted a 3’ or 4’ long flame from the muzzle at dusk. That was before anybody had chrono's so I have no idea how fast the bullets were traveling. Back then nobody used ear protection, either. I believe that at least some of my present hearing loss came from shooting a half-box of 32-20 “rifle-only” loads in a handgun. As they say, “Kids, don't try this at home”.

So, the warning to not use high-velocity, high-pressure, “rifle-only” 32-20 loads in a BP firearm or a light duty handgun is true. However, you cannot easily buy those cartridges anymore. As near as I can tell, the last ones were made shortly prior to WWII. They are collectors items now and if you find a box somewhere (other than on a collectors table), you can sell them for enough to buy two or three of newer boxes of 32-20 ammunition. The ones that I used to have, had an 80gr round-nose, hollow-point bullet that was visually different from what is sold today. The “real” high-velocity, high-pressure rifle loads have a warning on the back of the box that says “Use ONLY in modern rifles” or “DO NOT use in revolvers or the 1873 Winchester rifle” or something similar. Believe it.

Modern 100gr half-jacketed “High Velocity” loads (right cartridge in picture) are NOT the same thing as the old “rifle-only” loads. They are considerably downloaded and say “safe in any rifle or handgun” on the back of the box. In fact, the latest “high-velocity” cartridges are actually downloaded from the ones that were manufactured in the late 1950's/early 1960's. The older cartridges gave nearly 900fps from a 5” handgun barrel. The newer ones are down to 800fps from the same gun. They are only barely faster (approximately 50 to 75fps) than the lead bullet standard velocity loads nowadays (far left in picture with a copper washed lead bullet).

Shooting modern factory cartridges in a modern gun is like shooting a .22LR. Not very satisfying. However, pushing the speed up makes it much more fun. I consider a handloaded 32-20 as a “grown-up” 22LR. There is enough recoil and noise so that it feels like a real gun, but there is never enough so that you get tired. Try it sometime.

Harry Owen at harryo@tconl.com