I have been trying to reload the wife's 32. Have starline brass, hornandy 85 gr hxt bullets, and hodgdons lil'gun with wspm primers. Used 10 grain powder and got extremly flat primers. Have droped 1gr at a time down to 7 gr. getting better. How low can I go. This is in a 432pd 2 inch barrel.

Been reloading 95 LSWC w/ Win small pistol primers over 3.0gn of Win231 for the wife. Shoot them thru S&W 632 Proport 3", Taurus M327 3" & Ruger Single Six. Very accurate. Very pleasant. Economical. No need for the high pressure stuff for plinking or practice, not to mention brass life is generally not too good w/ this cartridge. Save the high power ammo for the targets intended (small game, pests, bad guys etc...). The wife will thank you later.

I was wondering about brass life of the 32 H&R. I bought up 100 rounds of older Federal personal protection ammo a couple of years ago. These came in the old silver and blue boxes. I shot them all and they all shot just fine, but when I got to looking at them later to use for reloads, half of the spent cases were split.

I haven't started reloading this round yet, but plan to. What is the projected brass life on 32 H&R?

Ive had excellent results with the hornady xtp 85 gn, behind 11 gns of H110. One inch groups at 25 yds out of my m-16 and just under 1300 fps.

I load 32 H&R for a S&W 16-4 with very light loads using Trail Boss powder and lead bullets.

THE EARLY FEDERAL BRASS WILL CRACK AFTER ONE FIRING, I HAD A BUNCH DO THAT, BUT NEVER HAD A PROBLEM WITH STARLINE BRASS. I LOAD A 90 GRAIN CAST BULLET WITH 8.5 GRAINS OF ACCURATE NUMBER 9.

My everyday load in the 32 maggie is a 100 gr cast slug & 3 grs of WST, very similar to 231 in burning rate but not exactly. I save the heavy loads for my Blackhawk 327 maggie.

Dick

3.5gr Win 231 pushing a 100gr Rainier plated RNFP bullet in a mod 16-4, 6" bbl. Accurate mild load.
Kevin

so anybody use lil'gun. This is the first pistol I have loaded for. Just don't think the primers should be so flattened that they look like a 22 shell and kick alot more than the blackhills ammo that I have been shooting.

How is the extraction? I rely on sticky extraction more than primer condition for indication of high pressure. Per the Hodgdon data, you should be 13.7K Cup for 10.5 grains. I load my 32 H&R to 20K psi for my hard cast lead loads and my primers look just fine (using CCI 500 primers). Fired cases just fall out of my single six. Flat primers by themselves don't necessarily indicate high pressure.

The shells fall out when you open the cylinder. No presure sings other than the primers and recoil.

32 H&R is notorious for flattening primers in safe loads.I was told by an ammunition manufacturer and a pistol smith that the pressure curve in 32 is odd and the primers almost always flatten.I have had cases fired in my Ruger that were sooty from low pressure and dropped easily from the chambers that had flattened primers.

Thanks for all the replies!

I load a Hornady 90 HBWC with 2.6 grains of bullseye in starline .32 H&R brass for my TiScan 332.

It feels hot enough in that little featherweight gun! My book says I can go to at least 2.9 grains IIRC. No split cases, three loadings so far. Seems like primers look a little flat. I know .32H&R isnt a high pressure round (around 20,000 psi max, similar to .45acp) but I get the impression it beats up primers more than average.

With the titanium cylinder I've heard extraction issues are quite different from steel cylinders.