.32 Wadcutter Brass

AJ

AJ

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I police up all the brass in my area when I have finished for the day. I sort it all out at home. Yesterday I came across a case I had never seen before. The head stamp is G.F.L. .32 WAD CUT, is this something new? Or have I been deprived in learning?
 
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News to me. I had not heard of .32 wadcutter brass until now. Most revolvers have what some might call oversized chambers. I suppose some of the European-made target semi-autos have much tighter match chambers so maybe someone decided to make and mark the brass with that in mind?
 
When I see a pistol ammo with wad cutter loadings I think “target” and “light charge.” In another thread recently discussion centered around European 32 wad cutters and the fact that they were actually hotter than American round nose rounds! Of course this is of little interest if you are looking at once fired brass, but I thought it interesting nonetheless. My guess was that the Euro wad cutter ammo had to cycle the semi auto target guns they favor over there, while we generally connect wad cutters with revolvers (with the Model 52 S&W being the exception.). I’ve only gotten a little over a hundred rounds of 32 WC Euro brass, but the only problem I’ve encountered so far was that some had very tight primer pockets. I’d grab all I could get.

Froggie
 
I bought six boxes of the Fiocchi factory .32 S&W Long wadcutter ammo to kick off my maiden voyage with with the mid-80’s Walther GSP I snagged from Gunbroker a couple years ago. That’s the brass, GFL headstamp. Not sure why some says Fiocchi and some says GFL. But it shoots irrationally well!
 
Sevens said:
I bought six boxes of the Fiocchi factory .32 S&W Long wadcutter ammo to kick off my maiden voyage with with the mid-80’s Walther GSP I snagged from Gunbroker a couple years ago. That’s the brass, GFL headstamp. Not sure why some says Fiocchi and some says GFL. But it shoots irrationally well!
Click to expand...

"Irrationally well" ? Out of that pistol it should. I have a Walther OSP in .22 Short. Like yours it shoots "irrationally well", I kick my self for turning down a .32 GSP upper when offered it.
 
32WC

I have never seen brass marked 'wadcutter' but I do load my own, wad cutter and SWC. Hornady stopped offering their 32 WC bullets some years ago but I was lucky enough to pick up 3 ea 400 round boxes. Then I discovered Missouri Bullets had them and offered coated as well. Got a couple M at the time. Not sure if they still offer them or not. :)
 
38 Special wadcutter cases (often identified by a ring about midway on the case) has less internal taper so as not to compress the long HPWC bullets. Perhaps it's the same for the 32 wadcutter cases.
 
J. R. WEEMS said:
I have never seen brass marked 'wadcutter' but I do load my own, wad cutter and SWC. Hornady stopped offering their 32 WC bullets some years ago but I was lucky enough to pick up 3 ea 400 round boxes. Then I discovered Missouri Bullets had them and offered coated as well. Got a couple M at the time. Not sure if they still offer them or not. :)
Click to expand...

The case has .32 WAD CUT in the headstamp. When I first noticed it I was thinking it was a .38 S&W case or something like it, until I saw the headstamp.
 
Sevens said:
I bought six boxes of the Fiocchi factory .32 S&W Long wadcutter ammo to kick off my maiden voyage with with the mid-80’s Walther GSP I snagged from Gunbroker a couple years ago. That’s the brass, GFL headstamp. Not sure why some says Fiocchi and some says GFL. But it shoots irrationally well!
Click to expand...

Hey! That's not a S&W! I'm still in lust. Those guns were expensive when I was toying with Bullseye back in the Eighties and Nineties. I can't imagine what one would cost today. A friend of mine back then "backed into" one of these in a combination gun in 22 LR and 32 S&W LWC. I got my PPC gun about the same time and if I had thought about it I could have had that Walther about the same time instead. I probably would have sold it by then, but I would have had fun while I had it! :rolleyes:

Froggie
 
Well if you can feed a GSP, I don’t think they are too expensive. Lots of Euro guns are being imported so they are quite regularly on Gunbroker. This one in the picture is a fairly old pistol but it runs perfectly and yes, extremely accurate.

I the guess the .32 is still a popular target round in Europe and even though it seems counter intuitive, Pardini makes a similar pistol in .32 ACP!

Funny note about my pistol... because the magazine is not housed inside the grip, that alone makes it a prohibited “assault pistol” in Cook County, IL and also the entire State of New York.

Pffft. 83 grain soft lead wadcutter at 700 fps, 5-rounds capacity... a real weapon of choice for a terrorist I guess.
 
The CIP list of cartridges includes the .32 wadcutter.

It is different from the .32 S&W Long because the cartridge and chamber dimensions are different due to the bullets, (you can't fire every .32 S&W Long loading in a .32 Wadcutter chamber). Case dimensions are the same so you can reload them interchangeably.
 
Back to the topic of this thread (as I tearfully pull myself away from Seven’s gorgeous W... not S&W) I’m wondering whether there is any source for swaged HBWC bullets to reload for 32 WCs. I bought one of the last boxes of Hornadys in close out on Vendors’ Row at Camp Perry many years ago, but haven’t shot many of them... why bother to develop a load for a bullet I won’t be able to keep getting? :(

On the subject of target guns in 32 ACP, David Sams told me he had rebuilt several of the European guns, converting them from 32 WC to ACP. It seems counterintuitive to me, but he said they were highly competitive, and he was building them for the US Military teams. You can get 32 ACP ammo around here a lot more easily (in normal times) than 32 WCs. ;)

Froggie

PS I’ve got most of a box of 32 ACP ball ammo... maybe I could do a real accuracy test for this in a 32 revolver... my tight chambered K-32. HMMM
 
The Euro guns have slower twist barrels which work fine for 25M ISU shooting . Like the 38 special for 50yds a faster twist barrel is the ticket . Believe it or not the 32acp is easier to work with & obtain match level accuracy . 32 S&W is IMHO a labor of love or at least for those who exhibit masochistic tendencies . Bullet is the key with the H&N , Lapua & Speer ( bumped up to .314" ) being the favorites . Charges are miniscule & exact metering necessary to keep uniformity . Usual target handgun powders including VVN-310 , BE , W231 / WST . Dave Wilson over on the Bullseye-L forum has done a bunch of work with both 32 cartridges & I'd review his work if looking for serious accuracy .
 
Some of the comments above triggered my OCD to take a second look at the .32 WC specs.

There is another difference; The CIP max. pressure for the .32 S&W Long is 1000bar (about 14,500psi), while the max. for the .32 WC is 1550bar (about 22,480psi).
 
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