Until around 1875...all of the animals harvested, all of the people killed, all of the wars fought with handguns and rifles, were done almost exclusively with lead bullets. Because lead is so heavy for it’s size, only gold being naturally heavier...and depleted uranium being un-naturally heavier...both much to expensive and dangerous for the handloader to use. Even jacketed bullets are lead filled. We just can’t get away from it. Except for the modern all copper, lathe cut bullets for large game hunting...lead is it. But it is fine just as it is.

There are as many alloys of lead as there are those that produce their own bullets thru the use of molds. Wheel weights were and still are to some extent the best of the inexpensive sources of scrap lead. The only problem with W/weights today, some producers are replacing the expensive tin with other products to harden the lead. Some of these are not conducive to good bullet making. Some copper is used, a form of what looks like calcium, and others products that inhibit the molded slugs from properly filling out. If I am going to use wheel weights I always melt a bunch in a ladle and test it mix in a mold to see how it fills out the bullet cavities before I drop the stuff into my melting pot.

Mixing 10 lbs of wheel weights with a ½ lb of 95% tin makes for a very good and somewhat hard handgun bullet. Dropping the bullets from the mold into a large can of water further hardens them thru tempering...make sure your lead pot is all the way up and the mold hot...that way you get the best temper...and don’t believe all the baloney about frosty bullets being no good. Actually they are better, they hold on to the lube better.

Always let your newly formed bullets age for 24 hours before lubing, they set into their real hardness over that time period. BHN is the Brinell hardness scale for lead. The higher the number the harder the lead/alloy. A simple way to remember what velocities are good for what level BHN is this....

A10 or below on the scale keep the velocity 1000 fps or below...12 on the scale keep velocity below 1300 fps...15 will go to 1400 to 1500 fps without fouling 16 to 17 is good for 1650 plus fps. When you go to rifles and you want to go above 2000 fps then 20 on the BHN scale is the level needed...and 22 to 23 will allow up to 2600 fps....I have some handguns that will push cast bullets over 2000 fps...like the 454 FA and my fine 356 GNR Ruger S/A. And of course the short rifles like T/C Contenders will also.

For hunting bullets I use Magnum shot in any size...the cheapest size will do since we melt it, I add around 3/4 ths lb of 95% tin into 10 lbs of it, for the mix. And then they are water dropped. I have found that for heavy handgun velocities, this mix resists fouling and expands even out to long handgun range...100 to 150 yards for me. This mix is a little more expensive than using w/weights for the base metal, but I find it is very consistent in it’s ability to expand in flesh. And I use them only for hunting most of the time.

I have a number of 32-20 handguns. A S&W mod.16 which was originally 32 H&R magnum chambered but I reamed it out to 32-20 Imp. The S&W K-Frame can’t take the pressures of the Ruger S/As...but it’s no slouch in the power department. When you send a 120 grain Keith style 30 caliber cast bullet at 1350 fps that is a small but deadly round for sure. And with a 12-13 BHN and hunting alloy I get some expansion even in rabbits. Of course south western Jacks are not really rabbits...they are 7 to 10 lbs of hard tack, bailing wire, and small snow shoes...with a small jet engine, for a motion enhancer. These guys whistle up their own coyotes just to practice foot racing...and of course to embarrass the ’yote and diminish his ego. 22 magnum RF ammo should be the minimum for them...the 32-20 properly reloaded is excellent.

Coyotes under 100 yards with a lung or heart shot are in deep trouble. I once shot one coming in at about 60 yards...he suddenly stopped and realized the my whistle was much too sexy to be one of his girls. I hit him right under the chin with the above load...it went thru his neck spine and stopped in the back of his left lung. 70% of the bullet was still there. The damage was fairly intensive.

With dead soft lead and three grains of Bullseye, practice in doors is great. The 120 grain bullet does around 700 fps and expands in phone books, and stops in about four inches. It’s also an excellent and very quiet load out of a 20 inch levergun.

Years ago when my middle daughter was still a gangly girl, she had a little cat that was no bigger than a good sized kitten. We had a bull/male cat that kept coming around to eat her food and take her favors. That’s part of a cat’s life. But this bully would also beat her up...and I got tired of my daughter’s tears and having to sew up the little cats rips and tares. One day while in the garage, which was turned into my workshop, my daughter came running in to inform me that bullhead was in the desert across from us....heading for our back yard. I grabbed a 32-20 case that was primed...dropped a few grains of Bullseye in it...and pushed a #4 ball down on top...(32 caliber shot). Slipped it into my Marlin 32-20....

When I spotted the male he was calling the kitten..at 25 to 30 yards I hit him in the ‘middle of the brown’, as our British cousins used to say in Africa. He took off like a scalded cat. I figured it would raise a large welt and he would never return. Well he never returned all right, while walking the desert a few days later I found his body. A large amount of what looked like dried lung material was hanging out of his right side.....my...my, deadly little load. I started experimenting and loading a lot of different ball loads after that....

Brother Jim Taylor gave me a bunch of information on the 32-20 several years ago..he like me...finds it an intriguing round, loaded right it will do far more than usually written about. From mice loads to deer loads from a rifle...it can do it all.

One of the things Jim sent was the info from the 1939 Ideal reloading manual...

These are from rifle length barrels...but as you can see the 32-20 was no slouch when it came to power. But the modern reloading manuals of the 1970s and 80s and 90s dropped the power loadings....The various manuals are worried about old guns. But with today’s modern Brownings and Marlins, the rifles are plenty strong...and the Ruger handguns along with modern Colt clones are also extremely strong. EMF still markets a 32-20 colt clone with a 7.5 inch barrel and it is a beauty...

These rifle loads were put together with CCI rifle primers (thank Jim Taylor for the info). They were fired in a Marlin 1894 CL .32-20.

3.8 grns Bullseye

95 grn cast 1270 fps...5/8" grp @ 25 yrds..

#3118 (120 grn cast) 1116 fps 3/4" grp @25 yrds

1.5 grains of Bullseye

95 gr Cast 861 fps

#3118 cast 748 fps ½ inch @ 25 yrds all were five shot groups...

4.8 grains 3031

Lee 95 cast...420 fps

#3118/120 grn cast- 432 fps 7/8" @ 50 feet

2.5 grains 2400

Lee 95 grn cast 491 fps 3/4' grp @ 50 feet

120 grain NEI Keith Cast 488 fps ½ inch grp @ 25 yrds..(1909 Winchester)

120 gr NEI Keith...579 fps... ½ inch at 25 yrds. (1909 Winchester)

Out of a rifle, small deer and animals of that size, are harvestable with the 32-20 and the right bullets. I have taken small south eastern whitetail with the 32-20 on a number of occasions. Also I have killed a number of rather large and tough feral dogs. When the right bullet is used, this little caliber is exceedingly deadly..in handguns like the Ruger S/As and the Colt Clones small game and varmints are easily dispatched.

This is one of those rounds that has slipped away from the shooting public, that should never have been allowed to go. There is a resurgence with the coming back of the 32 H&R magnum, many folks are writing me and asking can the various 32 H&R magnum chambered handguns be rechambered to 32-20. Some can...the Ruger 101, the S&W mod. 16s, any of the large frame single actions, Ruger’s new 32 H&R mag Single Action SSR cylinder is too short to rechamber, too bad! Though the gun is plenty strong enough...I have converted a number of Ruger 30 Carbine S/As, they are excellent...and there was a limited run of Rugers in 32-20 and second cylinders in 32 H&R...

One of the things I have found with the Marlin 32-20 rifles, of yesterday and today...the chambers are cut to the old 32-21 specs which means you need to fire form new brass in the Marlins...and then set your dies, so not to set the shoulder back. One of the games Marlin played in the 19^th century against Winchester was to bring out rounds that were 1 mm longer than Winchester’s ammo so that Winchester ammo would fire in Marlins but Marlin ammo would not chamber in Winchesters...our measurements on two new Marlin chambers show them to be overly long....also WW 32-20 cases are the pits....Remington nickel cases are much-much better, and Starline is absolutely the strongest.

I have loaded Remington nickel and Starline brass over 15 times each with heavy loads in my handguns without any problems and the brass is still going...

Again this is a fine little round and with the right loads, the right bullets, and the right powders and cases....it is much better today than it ever was...