Quote:
Originally Posted by Boulder350
. . . The end of the barrel is about .318 . . .
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The bullet used in 32 S&W and 32 Long is only .312", and I believe the bullet used in the 320 Revolving Rifle and 32/44 Target was a .317". If you have a .318 bore, it is big for standard 32 calibers??? Did you measure land or groove dimension in the barrel? I just measured a 32 S&W DA and a 32 Long HE 1903 and got exactly .312" groove and .308" land dimensions, much smaller than .317" in your barrel. A standard .312" bullet used in either of those calibers would rattle down the barrel and not even engage the rifling. How tight is the cartridge in the chamber? The case length for a 32 Long is .93" which is only 1/32" shorter than 32/44 Target brass.
It would certainly be possible that experimentation was done for the 32 Long round, which was introduced in 1903 to see if it could have been used as a target round for the later model SS pistols, but who knows for sure why these barrels were altered?
Can you take a measurement of the chamber for us? Use a micrometer or just slide a wire into the chamber until you feel the step and measure length. Also, check the chamber diameter while you are at it. It would also be interesting if anyone else with a 32 S&W single shot barrel could do the same to compare.