I have my Dad's 2" .32 Rossi revolver that I shoot ocassionally. It's fun and I probably can't ever get rid of it because it was his. What is the stoutest load that is reasonable to shoot in this modern revolver long term? I would also like to know what an equivilent +P load would be for ocassional use? I would prefer to use Bulleye, Unique or Red Dot since I already have them in stock. Thanks!

I have been reloading .32 Long for several years. It is one of my favorites. I have one of the stainless .22 Rossi revolvers that was a copy of the S&W Model 63. It is a little rough around the edges, but the accuracy is astonishing.

For any .32 Long, I would not exceed the maximum load as recommended in any of the loading data as published by the powder manufacturers; many of the guns around for this cartridge are of advanced age and the reloading data (and factory loads) reflect this. One of my .32 S&W's is an heirloom; I have fired it a good bit but no longer do so....I have a shooter for that.

There may be room to step it up a little in individual guns, but my thinking on this is if more power is needed it would be far better to achieve this in a larger caliber.

Loads in the 2g arena means .2 over is a 10% increase in powder.

Who sells .32 long +P ammunition?

Load your gun with .32 ACP hollowpoint ammo from one of the major manufacturers. The .32 ACP ammo will fire and extract just fine from your .32 Long revolver.

I am using 2.9 gr Bullseye under a 90 gr lead swc. This is a load from Alliant according to my notes.

This is a modern loading not to be used in break tops.

The link below will take you to the public area of my Sky drive. There are 3 PDF files with .32 S&W long data, one is scanned from Speer No 9 and the other 2 are files that where publicly posted by Speer on their website. Select the file and then select the download option from the menu on the left to view or save the file.

32 long data Speer.PDF - Windows Live

The data for the file "32 long data Speer" was scanned in from Speer No 9 and is for solid frame post WWII revolvers only. I've used this data with Magtech 98gr LRN bullets on top of Unique. The velocities where a little higher out of my Colt 4" Police Positive Special than listed with a 3.2gr load running 868 fps and 3.5grs load running 986 fps. I consider this would be top end for a .32 S&W long. Small adjustment in powder charge makes a lot of difference in these small cases.

Good information. I like Steve's 60 grain load at 1000 fps from Speer. I have an RCBS automatic powder dispenser now so it weighs and displays every charge so I feel al lot better about hitting the mark on loading a small volume case. Thanks again!

I haven't figured out how to get into Steves data yet, but you might want to go back and take another look at that 60 grain load again. It might be 6.0 grains of whatever powder mentioned.

The .32 long suffers from lowballitus, just like some other old pocket calibers. When SAAMI set their pressure limits they took into consideration all the old top breaks and cheap import that were chambered for the cartridges, and set them a little lower than most good quality, solid framed revolvers could tolerate. Factory ammo and loading data that is SAAMI compliant will be based on these lower pressures so you will have to find data that was either made before SAAMI or specifically states that it is over their limits.

As far as I know their is no +P .32 long data, although, technically anything over current pressures would be "+P". If you want to experiment in this area, be very careful, as someone mentioned it doesn't take much of an increase to exceed safe pressures in those little cases.

I hand load for a 31-1 and several Colts in 32 S&W Long. I cast a 95 grain round nose and load it over 2.5 grains of bullseye for a good all round plinker.