If you take number 1 buckshot balls and load them over 1.5 grains of Bullseye in 32 S&W special cases you get 4666 rounds to the pound. And you have one of the finest fun rounds to work with. Certainly it’s a winter indoors round....a box filled with newspapers or old telephone books will do it every time as a back stop. It will also take the place of standard 22 rimfires at short range...since the #1/30 caliber buck shot ball is 40 grains...also the #0 buck shot is 32 caliber and 48 grains and can be used, giving better accuracy in some guns. Buy magnum shot and they have a coating on them plus 6% antimony, that will allow you to push them to 800fps or so without lube. Though a little dab is sometimes needed in some guns. These loads taught my girls how to shoot. We even took quail with them at close range. And when fired up into trees you don’t have to worry about them going the distance of a 22 RF.

What ever we say for the 32 S&W special certainly will be about the same in 32 mag cases. This ball load generates about 4000 to 5000 psi.....I say that because I couldn’t get a good reading on the Oehler M43, but it was somewhere around that. Very mild.

Using the same load under a 100 grain swaged Hornady bulk bullet I’m getting 650 fps and around 8200 psi. This Hornady 32 caliber SWC comes to a flat point almost and will blow right thru small varmints out to 25 yards.....My daughter was putting bird seed out for the birds this winter, and spilled some on the ground but didn’t pick it up thinking the birds would clean it out. The desert rats came in to feed and this little load took a few of them before they got wise and realized less of their brothers were running away then were going to the seed. 1.8 grains of Bullseye under this bullet goes 720 fps and around 10,000psi out of my S&W K-Frame mod. 16-4 . I have two cylinders for this gun...I rechambered one of them to 32-20....with it’s six inch barrel and the 32 mag cylinder, which is the original chambering, it is down right accurate. And hits harder than any 22 RF out of a handgun. 2.5 grains of Unique bulks up better, and give about the same velocity as the Bullseye load. For a great load with a little more spit but the same no level of recoil...2.5 grains of HP38. And this is a one hole grouping load out to 25 yards. This would be the berries for centerfire target contests. Remember the 32 S&W special is the Internationally recognized target caliber and round. Some very expensive autoloaders are chambered in Europe for the round. It’s accuracy ability is legendary.

With the 100 grain jacketed bullets like the Plinker by Speer and Hornady’s XTP...2.9 grains of WW231 gives 801 fps and 11500 psi....the Plinker hits about 15 fps faster then the 801fps of the XTP, because of the less bearing space on the Plinker. Speer’s Varminter...a 110 grain jacketed H.P. was made for faster velocities....and shouldn’t be used below 1000 fps. There is an XTP 85 grain JHP...with 3.5 grains in special cases not the mag it goes 1100 fps...in the mag cases it drops to around 1040 fps. But it opens even at these modest velocities...In the mag cases and handguns 5 grains of Universal Clays will push it 1250 fps and 6 grains of HS6 the same...7.5 grains of HS7 will brake 1300 fps. All these loads are running 21,000 psi. My S&W is on the K-Frame that also is chambered in 357 magnum so pressure here is not an issue...neither is it in my Ruger 32 mag/101.

In strong S&W frames and Ruger’s 101, I have a cast Keith bullet, Lee put the mold out several years ago, that I push to 1400 fps. It was originally a 120 grain gas checked design, but I removed the gascheck ridge and now it drops around 125 grains. Sound familiar...sure it’s around the same as some 125 grain/357 mag loads. But in the Budlite category this bullet around 800 fps and made very soft is deadly on small game like rabbits. But not on our southwestern Jack Rabbit...these guys can carry off a lot of lead. I once skinned out a jack that I had shot to cook for my dog...he liked chewy meat....this critter had two 22 RF bullets under the skin.... Checking their trail thru his body, they had gone thru ribs and his lungs. The scar tissue was very plain...but he survived. I shot him with a 32-20 round and a cast 125 grain Keith at around 1550 fps. I have one of the original Buckeye Ruger SA’s in 32 magnum/32-20 calibers. This gun is a steel safe it is so strong.... I talk about it and it’s loads in the Mega-Mag series.

Speer has a 100 grain HP in the traditional shape can be loaded very well in the 32 mag. This is a strange cartridge for a modern magnum handgun round...in that it is loaded to only around 20,000 psi, and even the recommended loads in the loading books stay around that level. It is a shame...because in strong guns like the Ruger SSMs and 101s...in the large K-Frame S&W and the Taurus S&W look a like, the Colt clones by EMF/Uberti and some others, it comes alive with heavy handloading to real magnum pressure in the 30,000 psi plus levels. Skeeter Skelton once wrote an article on the little Ruger single action 32 Mag/SSM. His loads were way up in the 1400 fps levels, and they were accurate. And this Speer bullet could be the one of choice for those level loads.

But for light loads I was happier with the Plinker and the XTP series, they expanded well. I consider the so called mag loading level of 20,000 psi really lite loads for the cartridge. And with 10 grains of 296 and 1100 fps, or the same with H110....or with five grains of Unique for the same velocity...this is a fun load. About what a 38 Special gives with a 158 round nose commercial load. With flatnosed cast bullets these loadings will touch 1200 fps and over 300 ft.lbs of muzzle energy, little recoil, and they will punch deep in small game. Their flesh displacement is much higher than the 38 roundnose.

The 32-20 in a handgun is really a fine and versatile cartridge...from the light loads of the 32 special to the heavy loads of the rifle...this caliber handgun will do it all. I have a 30 Carbine Ruger single action in the hands of Milt Morrison now...he is rechambering the carbine cylinder to 32-20. Plus he is doing a few other good things to the gun. I have a 32Mag/32-20 (2 cylinders) EMF Uberti Colt clone which is plenty strong. I have the Ruger Buckeye also in 32Mag/32-20 which like the converted Ruger carbine SA is beyond strong...the Ruger 101 with a three inch barrel has been punched out to 32-20 also...and last but not least is the K-Frame S&W mod.16-4 punched out to 32-20 with the second cylinder in 32 mag. I keep the pressure in the S&W and the Ruger 101 down to 25,000 to 30,000 psi. But the SAs take what they can take. But with the Budlite loads they all function well.

Now I can drive the 85 grain XTP bullet out of the Rugers so fast it is almost unbelievable. And at 2000 fps it is going faster than it can stand the pleasure of the trip. It doesn’t just disintegrate, it explodes on contact. I write about it in the Mega-Mag series....but at around 1000 fps it makes a nice small game load that won’t tear up a lot of meat yet expand....when you start getting it up to 1200 and higher it starts to really rip and tear so you don’t want to use it on small eating game. It’s good on fox at close range because it rips up inside...at over 1200. HS7 about 8 to 8.5 grains will send it at 1200 plus fps with superb accuracy. With 6 grains of Unique it’s the same.

I like 4.5 grains of Bullseye under cast bullets in the 32-20 for fun and small game loads. I started with this load when I was in my single years. I used an empty 22 RF cartridge soldered to a nail, and it dropped about 4.5 grains. I used it behind a 100 grain bullet cast from a little bronze mold of the time. This load gives various 100 to 110 grain cast bullets around 1100 fps. Accuracy is usually very good. And with over 1550 rounds to a pound of powder it’s cheap to load and shoot. That’s 9/10ths of a penny for powder, a penny+ for primer, and with scrap lead...less than a 1/4 cent for the bullet...so it’s around 2 1/2 cents a shot. And it’s a powerful small game round...I’ve shot feral dogs with it out to 50 yards...placement is the important thing. And when I was a kid I nailed a big chicken hawk with this load out of a 4 inch barreled S&W hand ejector...which is about the size of S&W’s small 38 frame today.

Hawks plagued my Grandfather’s upstate New York farm and surrounding community in those days...there was always a 25 cents bounty on them....I’d shoot one collect from my Grandfather, then go to as many other farms as possible...could rack up six bits or more on one hawk on a good day, the locals knew I went to everyone I could, they were just happy to get rid of the things. Paid for powder and such. If I remember well Bullseye was $1.50 a pound. Primers were 15 cents a flat..lead and lube was scrounge materials.

The Ol’man (Grandfather) had a cut down 25-35 Winchester mod.94 he used to teach my uncles how to hunt with, when they were young. I used that rifle with 7.5 grains of Bullseye under a 86 grain cast flatnosed bullet also on hawks and varmints and such. The little rifle’s barrel was short, probably around 14 inches and the stock around 12 inches...certainly would be against Federal Law today....but not back when he cut it back. I was most likely getting about 16 to 1700 fps back then. Peep sights and good eyes did the rest. Those two guns, the 25-35 Rifle and the little 32-20 S&W would go thru a pound plus of Bullseye easily over the summer. The Ol’Man got lead in 20 pound bars...it was a useful item for more than guns around a farm.

One of the absolutely great heavy bullets for the 32-20 is the Lyman 308440...my mold is the older 311440. It is a flat faced cylinder of a bullet...because of it’s shape it is a minimum length for a 150 grain 30 caliber bullet. Each gun is a law unto it’s self with this bullet. But usually playing with velocity will get you a load that will stabilize in the quicker twists of the 32-20 modern handguns...a little quicker than the old Winchester 1894's one turn in 20. The revolvers run 1 in 16 to 1 in 18.

The Ruger Buckeye 32-20 will stabilize this bullet at around 1200 plus fps. The flat face of this bullet punches when it hits....an excellent small game load. And it has taken a number of large feral dogs and small deer. I’ve loaded it in a Colt 32-20 SA since the early 1960s in Texas....over the years 10 to 11 grains of H2400 was my standby load. It is a warm load and only heavy guns should be used. This bullet was also the replacement bullet for the old Albert’s 156 grain swaged bullet with a dry coating. I loved that Alberts bullet, it would stabilize even in my 32 mags....where the 311440 won’t always. My supply is gone...and so is the company. And it is a shame....

These three cartridges are absolutely wonderful to play with, hunt with, and target practice with, they get very little respect from the handgunners today...but that is changing for the 32-20 because of the Cowboy Action Shooting game that is sweeping the country. The 32-20 is being rediscovered, and I couldn’t be happier.

I walked into a gun shop in downtown Richmond Virginia in 1968. The clerk knowing I was always interested in ‘different guns’......handed me a Ruger they just received it was the Single Action Black Hawk but in 30 carbine. I bought it immediately. I have had a number of them since...I still have that three screw with a very lower SN. That’s the one Milt is customizing for me. After all these years and good service it deserves the face lift.

I once rechambered a 30 carbine cylinder to 30/357 wildcat...described in Ackley’s book. I was pushing the afore mentioned 311440 bullet easily to 1800 fps from the 7.5 inch barrel..... I called it the 30/357 ‘Long Range’. And it was. I’ve rechambered the carbine cylinders to 32-20 before....

I got a message once on the talk board of John Taffin’s sixguns.com saying that the base of the carbine shell was too large and rechambering the Ruger 30 carb cylinder would give the 32-20 base too large an opening and cause case stretching at the shell base and rim...I guess the point was that it would allow primer pockets to open with heavy loads.....NO...if you own a 30 carbine Ruger you know the carbine case seats on the mouth of the case in the Ruger chambers...and sticks out about the thickness of the 32-20 rim or a little more at the base...it’s so close as to not be a problem. Rechambering is a snap and the case heads are not recessed when cut for the 32-20. With Starline 32-20 brass velocities are possible that exceed the old rifle velocities by hundreds of feet per second. I like the case better than the 30 Carbine case. Is it better than the 30 carbine? Of Course Not!

The Carbine case is a rifle case that contains rifle pressures in military loads from 50,000 to well over 55,000 psi in some special loads....even Starline 32-20 brass won’t get close to that without failing big time. Being obstensively a straight wall case with a slight taper...it reloads exceptionally well and accuracy can be absolutely mind boggling.....I put a cylinder full into a 25 yard 10 ring at 100 yards once with Federal 110 grain ammo from a circa 1970s 30 carbine Ruger...off the bench with sand bags. We were all surprised at it’s accuracy. Both the Federal and Winchester 30 Carbine commercial ammo in either the hollow point of soft nose are exceptional good. The nose shape for the Winchester and Federal for both the hollow point and softnose are the same configuration...they all take game about the same. And yes I have taken deer with both loads and handloads. Commercial ammo goes around 1450 fps from the 7.5 inch Rugers. My heavy reloads are the 311440 over 13 to 14 grains of 2400...yes it is hot...yes the cases will take it. No it doesn’t hurt my Ruger SA guns....I would NOT use my heavy loads in a 30 Carbine autoloader rifle...or the Marlin leveraction.