Probably for me, the best play calibers are the 32s. Especially the 32-20. With reasonable loading it is a small game round supreme. A number of bullets are excellent...but the two I like most, one jacketed and one cast. The jacketed is the XTP 85 grain jacketed, and the other is the Lee cast Keith at about 120 to 130 grains. Mine is 130 because I took the gas check out of the mold, giving the bullet more weight.

I find that the nickel brass that I get from MidwayUSA, is stronger then WW or standard Remington. Also the strongest of the 32-20 brass on the market is Starline cases. I've heavy loaded them ten to fifteen times...(around 20,000 to 25,000 psi loads) without losing cases to pressure. But be careful if you have a Marlin 32-20 rifle/carbine, of late manufacture, the chambers are over length and the brass needs to be fire formed...or it will stretch at the head and fail after a few loadings.

Keith speaks about his first real cartridge sixgun being a seven and half inch barreled Colt SA in 32-20. And from his writings I gather he was very fond of the cartridge. He though it was under powered for the large game hunting he did. He does state he took a number of deer and a small elk. He was a teenager then(around the first World War), and that was before the advent of Hercules 2400. So he must have used the powder of the early turn of the century. In my copy of his very first book, "Sixgun Cartridges and Loads" circa 1936, his load of the 30s mentioned is with Herc 2400. But his powder before 2400, he talks of using the old Ideal bullet mold...#311359 with a heavy charge of DuPont #80 powder. And he states that he used "moderately stiff charges of Bullseye"....he goes into detail about the three deer up to that time that he killed with the 32-20.

He wrote that his reloads for the 32-20 were far better than any factory 38 Special of the times. On page 20 he states:

"Although most authorities condemn this 32-20 for use in revolvers, I found it a very fine little cartridge when properly handloaded. It served me well, and altogether I still have a lot of respect for it.....Owing to the extreme thickness of the cylinder of the 32-20 in the S.A. Colt gun, it can easily and safely handloaded to at least 1500 feet with #2400 Hercules powder."

All of Keith’s writing life when he spoke of the 32-20, he always alluded to the fact that it was the perfect small game round...with the potential for taking larger game in an emergency. Like we have said so many times....there are much better calibers to take medium and large game than the 32s or 357/38s. But in a pinch.....like Keith, at a hundred yards he broke a doe’s neck....winter’s meat. By the way, to get 1500 fps from my Rugers with 2400(Herc) powder and 100/130 grain bullets...13 to 14 grains will do it.

Keith was always ready to harvest eating birds with his sixguns...Fools Grouse where he hunted. I've shot a number of birds with sixguns and some have been fairly large Quail...a few pheasants and a couple of turkeys. So I can say this with assurance. A heavy loaded handgun round can make mixed grill out of any bird you hope to eat. So if you think you may get a shot at a good sized eating bird...and you are packing heavy sixgun loads, it might be wise to carry a half dozen or so small game loads...with solid blunt bullets. That goes for small game also...like rabbits, and squirrel.

You sure can blow a squirrel in half with the wrong load. Also be aware, many states have laws against harvesting certain birds with handguns or rifles.

I can squeeze a 30+ caliber ball down into a 32-20 case over two grains of fast powder, and put a plug of lube over that and then squeeze a second ball on top of the first. The balls I use for this double ball load are number # 1/ 30 caliber/40 grain magnum chilled shot. They have 6% antimony and a good dry coating, plus the lube will allow velocities to 1000 fps without too much fouling. Shotguns get that velocity with out the extra lube. Out to fifty feet most times the balls will stay fairly close to each other...and are great on close range small game. A #0 ball is 32/33 caliber and 48 to 50 grains....that one can be squeezed into the case neck about half way over a grain and a half of Bullseye for an accurate indoor load...warning it may be low noise, but it is dangerous all the same.

Using a 100 grain to 130 grain cast blunt bullet of soft alloy over two grains of fast powder...working down till the bullet just clears the barrel every time...gives a 'Pop Load'. They Pop, not bang...and can't be heard at any real distance. The lowest I have been able to go in my Rugers is around 1 grain with a standard primer. The Ruger's bores are .308 not 311/312 like most 32 sixguns. But again inside a short distance these things are deadly on small vermin.

When my oldest daughter was small she had a neat little cat. For some reason this little feline female never grew very big. There was a bull headed male that used to come and eat her food, take her favors and unfortunately practice the equivalent of cat domestic violence on her. One day after seeing my daughters tears once too often while I stitched up some rips in the little cat's hide once again...I spotted this bullhead scouting our back yard. And calling the little female. I had a Marlin 32-20 leveraction that I later gave to Jim Taylor's daughter...it was an original circa the 1900s...I slipped one of these grain and a half or so powered loads into the chamber and at fifty feet...hit him in the middle of the brown as our English counterparts would say.

He took off like a scalded cat (pun intended). Several days later I found his body under a brush pile. He was about ten pounds. The bullet went into the near side lung, low and into the the top of the heart. I was very surprised at it's penetration. In later tests I found it would go thru 2 to 3 inches of pine. So they may be low in noise but still deadly at close range on small critters. Out of my rechambered Ruger three inch barreled 101/32 mag to 32-20, it is a little louder, but still has some sting to it with the short barrel.

The XTP 32 caliber jacketed hollow point expands very well even at low velocity. It also expands violently at high velocity. I have a S&W L-Frame that was originally chambered in 32 H&R magnum. I rechambered it to 32-20. I loaded the XTP over a good dose of H4227...the little bullet was doing about 1800 fps out of the six inch barrel. I shot it into the bottom, (long ways) of a gallon plastic jug filled with water. I was a good 30 feet from it. At the crack of the gun, I was literally covered with ‘blowback’ water...lots of it. I had water running off the S&W, me and the chronograph. Lucky it was a very hot AZ day, and my sense of humor is easily tickled. I have blown up much vermin with this load. Desert rats seem to disappear into their component parts like amino acids and atoms of hydrogen and oxygen...with a fine red mist floating away on the morning breeze.

One rabbit’s head completely disappeared, while the rest of him didn't move. His total body just sat there like nothing happened...it was nearly macabre. I feed coyotes with rabbits. I've even been known to hang a rabbit in a bush...so it appears hung up...run a string 20 yards to another bush...blow on my squealer and pull the string to make the rabbits body dance. Coyotes are ever fascinated, and go on a driving run to this ploy...thinking it's live free lunch.

The 32-20 was considered a police caliber up until the 38 Special took over. I have a 32-20 Colt double action revolver, that is marked on the back strap that it once belonged to the Orange County Sheriff's Department. (That's Orange Co. New York) It was carried as a duty revolver during the 1930s.

When I was a youngster, there were two commercial style loads for the 32-20. One was for handguns and the other was for rifles...the rifle ammo was clearly marked on the box..."FOR RIFLES ONLY". Naturally I used the rifle ammo in revolvers. My first 32-20 was a small S&W Hand Ejector. It had no problem with the so called 'hotter' ammo. One of the things I do remember about that little gun was the ear ringing noise. Not as bad as today’s 30 Carbine, or warm loaded 32-20s with slow pistol powders, but still uncomfortable.

My load for the 32-20 back then was a 22 LR case full of Bullseye under about a 100 grain cast bullet. Measuring Bullseye from a modern 22RF case gives a little under 4.5 grains. That's still not a bad load for small game. At 950 fps with a 130 grain cast bullet, and around 100 fps more with a 100 grain cast bullet, you have a no recoil type load. But yet with enough authority to knock over rabbits, squirrels, vermin and close shots on smaller varmints. I wouldn't use it on a coyote sized animal unless I had a direct head shot. Of course I'm the guy that doesn't even like to shoot coyotes with a 22 LR from a rifle.

Not that I don't believe they won't kill them...they will and have, more times than we could probably count. I'd just rather use an appropriate amount of power for any animal that size. But that's just my feeling, I have friends that can knock over coyotes and Javalina and such with dispatch using 22 rimfires every time.

Unlike the forty caliber chamberings, the 32s need longer barrels if you are going to hunt medium game. My Ruger 7 and 1/2 inch barrel with 13+ grains of Herc 2400 under the 130 gr./cast bullet gets 1500 fps....drops to just over 1100 fps out of my 3 and 1/2 inch Ruger 101. That's still 350 ft. lbs. of energy from the 101, but nothing near the same load generating 650 ft.lbs. from the Ruger SA. My six inch S&W is a good medium powered shooter with this load. With the barrel gap at a very minimum, the velocity is reaching over 1300 fps.

But the fun loads are around 1000 to 1100 fps. 8 grains of HS6 under the 85 grain XTP will give around 1200+fps....and no recoil. And even at this moderate velocity this little bullet expands very well on small game. 6 grains of Unique will do the same....I find the HS6 more accurate in all my guns except the S&W...Unique fits that one. These loads are running around 15000 psi. The standard bullet weight for the 32-20 is 100 to 115 grains, usually cast...I like a 1 in 20 mixture with 4.5 grains of Bullseye for a modest velocity and still some expansion. Back in the 70s, I hit a Raccoon that I caught in the chicken house with this load...right in the middle of the chest. He hissed/growled at me from his perch in the low rafters, then fell to the dirt floor, deader then a cold fish. All the feathered girls were fervently appreciative.

The 32-20 today on the market I like best is the Hartford old frame Colt look a Like with 7 and ½ inch barrel........................nice equipment!

Ruger still chambers it’s double action 101 Revolver in the H&R mag round. I have two of them. One rechambered to 32-20...the other I left in the H&R chambering. Both have the three inch barrels. The H&R cartridge case has something special about it....let me explain. When this cartridge first came out it was supposed to save the H&R company from going under...it was a good try but it didn’t work. I think because the commercial ammo was the pits...it wasn’t magnum power and the ammo was very inaccurate. Who ever made up the ammo for H&R had to work at making it inaccurate. In this case because it is short (compared to 32-20 and 38s and such) and 32 caliber, it’s straight sided and nearly the length of one of the most accurate cartridge in the world the...32 S&W Special (or Long if you prefer that designation)...it has the greatest potential for accuracy over 90% of all the other cartridge cases manufactured today.

I literally shot Hornady’s swaged bulk 32 target bullet (over 2 grains of Bullseye) with standard primers....until I was tired one day. I was at the range, sitting down and constantly putting them thru one hole in the target at 25 yards. I would shoot 100 of them...reload them right there and then do it again...then reload again. It was with the S&W L-Frame before I rechambered it to 32-20. At around 800 fps, it’s a fun plinking load also. We have a number of small critters in southern AZ...the Tree Huggers call them all kinds of fancy names...but they really are rats. They do what rats do....destructive...reproduce like crazy..bite people who think they are cute, like little kids that try to catch them. So I give them free lead. This little load is quiet, and does the business.

With 3.8 grains of Bullseye I get 1100 fps...and out to 50 yards it is still a fine target load. With 250 ft.lbs. of muzzle energy, a 95 grain soft cast bullet or bulk bullet is also a good little small game load. Blue Dot shines in my Ruger 101, Lyman’s 313631 a 100 grain Keith shaped bullet over 6.5 grains gives 1100 fps and about 270 ft.lbs. of muzzle energy. Excellent accuracy, a rabbit load supreme...if you have a quick memory then you have already realized that this load has more muzzle thump then the 158 grain 38 Special at 800 fps. (The 38/158/800 fps generates only 225 ft.lbs.)

In the longer cylinders of some of the sixguns chambered for this round, like the Taurus, and the S&W L-Frame..you can load the 311 caliber 7.62/39 SPBT bullet, (designed for the rifle cartridge)...I cut the noses flat and load over 8.5 grains of Herc 2400. Out of my S&W they go into 3/4ths of an inch at 25 yards. They won’t expand of course...purely a target load. There was a company a few years back, called Alberts Bullets...they produced a 156 grain swaged bulk .311 bullet. It was the only heavy lead bullet, over 130 or so grains, I could get to stabilize in the 32 H&R chambered sixguns..I don’t know what it is about that bullet...but it worked...4.5 grains of Unique went into less then 3/8ths of an inch! With 9/2400 it was doing 1050 fps, and went into less then two inches. That was a carry load for the Ruger 101s until I ran out of them...with 380 ft.lbs. of punch they were just the ticket for home defense. I even tried making my own mold to duplicate them...but have never been able to get stabilization...over 130/135 grains.

SR4756 with small rifle primers and jacketed 100 grain bullets were made for the 32 magnum. Going to 1200/1250 fps is no trick with 6 grains or so. Good accuracy and killing ability...350 ft.lbs. And the XTP bullet will expand. The 30 caliber Plinker was made for this round. I have used more of them than any other bullet except cast, on small game.