I have this pistol and know that my dad got it back around the mid 1950s. I have seen a few post about the expensive ammo price for this pistol around $40 a box. I do not think I will be buying any. I will just keep the pistol as a family heir loom piece. I have about 25 of these bullets and they are stamped on the end with (R - P). Does that indicate that this ammo could be used in a rifle or pistol?

R-P is "Remington-Peters," adopted as a Remington cartridge headstamp in the early 1960s, and used for all calibers. There is a rifle-only .32-20 round which has not been made in many years. Those used lighter jacketed hollow-point bullets. Any .32-20 cartridges having lead bullets are safe for revolver use. Reloading is the best way to go for .32-20 revolver and/or rifle owners. As you point out, .32-20 ammo is not easily found and is expensive. It's available from internet sources, but shipping cost can be a killer if you only want a box or two.

Post some pictures of your revolver and a SN, and you will learn all about it. Both Colt and S&W quit selling .32-20 revolvers before WWII, so yours is older than that..32-20 is the same as .32 Winchester and .32 WCF. If yours has the barrel stamped .32 W.C.F., it would date from between the mid-teens to the early 1920s.

Don't quit so easily.....find some.... it is out there.

sometimes quite cheaply too

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Paul
S&WCA #2726

Yes. I haunt the gun shows looking for .32-20 ammo (and a few other cartridges). Sometimes you find some bargains, but I don't see good deals on .32-20 very often.
Olin still makes it, but as stated, it is pretty expensive. I was in a gun shop in the SW last year and saw two boxes behind the counter, along with some .218 Bee. I asked about them and the guy quoted me $90/box!!! Needless to say, I said "no thank you."

Here's what the current stuff looks like:

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Jack
SWCA #2475, SWHF #318

Flucas,

I say if you can find 32-20 for $40/box BUY IT! The stuff JP@AK showed sells for $50/box (OTD if you are a vendor) around the gun shows here. I shoot it through my 4" and 6" S&W's and it's incredibly accurate with the 6". So-so in the 4".

$90/box is crazy!

In the picture that Paul posted, that box of Super-X on the right side is the one that is for strong rifles only. It is the HV stuff with the 80 grain jacketed HP bullet and is not for revolvers or Win 1873 rifles.

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Tom
1560

While I've become a fan of the caliber, its not the easiest to own. If you look long and hard, every so often you stumble upon some. Kind of like a blind hog eventually finding an acorn. At an OGCA meet a while back I found (and bought) a box of 2000 RP bullets. And I've found a few bags of 100 unprimed virgin brass. At one Dayton, OH show I found a guy with a pile of .32-20 stuff. He wouldn't price it to me and kept wanting me to make him an offer. I've got more sense. But he realized I was about to walk along, so he said "hows about $45 for the log?" Sold! It was well over $100 worth of stuff. My reluctance resulted in a big score.

But even if you reload, be aware its a difficult round to load. I probably have more crumpled cases than all the other stuff combined over the last 50 years. But I've discovered I can't slip the finger started bullet in the case and let go. I've got to steady and keep it aligned as far up as possible. My loads are super light, 3.0 gr of Bullseye. Its a fun load to shoot and doesn't put any stress on the guns.

I've never seen any of the 80 grain rifle only ammo. I guess I'd buy it if I saw it, just to own it. I'm guessing my Mirakou/Browning is as strong as any .32-20 ever made in the past.

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Dick Burg

I've never had the least problem in reloading the .32-20. As easy as loading .38 Special. I'm still on the same 100 Starline brass cases I bought about 3 years ago. I use Lee dies, maybe that's the difference.

This is one of those calibers that you MUST reload to own. I have a couple of 32-20s and they are a hoot to shoot but I can't afford a buck a round. That's insane. I buy 115 grain lead round nose flat point bullets and drop 4 grains of Unique in the cases (which are fairly readily available) and away I go. Even in my ancient S&W made before tempered cylinders this load doesn't seem to cause any problems. I could go much hotter in the Colt but why?

My 32 WCFs...

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No life story has happy end.

Your Colt wouldn't have been called an Army Special in 1934. The name changed from Army Special to Official Police in 1927. My 1912 Army Special in .32-20:

I have a 6" Colt PPS made in 1918 and a 4" S&W 1902 no change (1902) I load Trail Boss. The charge varies with the changes in components. The best loads have the powder 1/16" below the base of the bullet (cast or jacket) and never compress Trail Boss. Ivan

My standard load is a 100 grain lead bullet and 3.5 grains of Bullseye.

DWalt- Says Army Special right on the barrel. The name change to Official Police occurred on the 38 caliber guns but the 32-20s remained Army Specials until at least 1934 and maybe longer. The consensus amongst the Colt guys is that they had a lot of 32-20 barrels stamped Army Special in inventory they had to use up.

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No life story has happy end.

Very strange, SP. (1) I have never read anything anywhere about the Army Special name being used after the changeover, in any caliber. (2) Your revolver has the old-style black hard rubber grips. Those were replaced by checkered wood with medallion in 1923. (3) I also have an Official Police in .32-20 dated from the SN as being from 1931. And it is clearly stamped as Official Police on the barrel.

One difference between the AS and the OP frames is the topstrap. The AS has a rounded topstrap. The OP has what I'd call a beveled topstrap, i.e. two flat sloped areas leading up to the sight channel. My 1912 AS has the rounded topstrap. My 1931 OP has the beveled topstrap. Which does yours have?
This is my 1931 OP in .32-20. Note the wooden grips, which are original to the revolver:

Very nice caliber. You can buy the components and load your own for about $.12-$.15 each. That sure beats $1 retail.

Those are not original stocks. I put them on when I bought it. They are in fact modern reproductions of the early style.

The serial is 589112 making it a 1934 gun. I don't recall the source but I have read that Colt was using up 32-20 barrels until 1934 or 35 so the AS in 32-20 technically continued until that time although the AS supposedly became the OP in 1927. I guess the 32-20 was a slow seller and they had a lot of barrels marked Army Special to use up. I have seen posts on other forums from owners of such guns who were confused by the AS stamping on guns made in the 1930s. No shortage of them, apparently.

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No life story has happy end.

I agree with rburg. Reloading the 32-20 is not a "slam and bam 'em operation". Those thin necks crumple easily.

SP, Check this, and enter your SN: Colt Firearm Serial Number Lookup - Year of Manufacture

Could yours have been from 1927??? I don't understand how there could be a 1927 in your SN range. Does yours have the rounded topstrap?

Just a quick diversion back to original topic here... I'm in contact with a fellow on the "Castboolits" forum about reloading the 32-20. he is mentioning some promising loads using LSWC cast bullets and Green Dot™ powder. As others have mentioned, the largest concern in loading the 32-20 is dealing with that thin walled tapered neck... too easy to crimp or crush.

I've mentioned before that in Skeeter's last public appearance we spoke about the 32-20 (an acknowledged favorite of his) and he surprised me by encouraging me to consider the then-new 32 H&R Mag instead. I've got a M&P 32-20 (as well as a Uberti SAA) but I find myself gravitating toward the straight walled versions of the 32 pistol round. My experience only, YMMV.

Froggie

Do a search for 32-20 cowboy action ammo. You can find some at a reasonable price. Best to start handloading as this will be very cheap to make. And fun. Lead cowboy bullets are available.

I have been loading .32-20 for a good many years without ever crushing a case or having any other problems. Well, one. Case life does not seem great. Short case splits appearing in the body area after 4 or 5 loadings is fairly common. And case length trimming is needed about every loading. As I said earlier, I use Lee dies, and maybe there is something about their design that does not promote case neck crushing. My standard load is 3.5 grains of Bullseye with a 105 grain Missouri Bullet Co, lead bullet. About 1000 ft/sec MV.

#4456xx is from 1920, 5054xx is from 1924, 5900xx is from 1934
The 1934 has the flat beveled side on the top strap, the other two are the rounded sides. The 1934 also has wood grips with a silver medallion (I've always questioned their originality) and the other two have the black plastic.
For reloading I use the Ranier 100 grn plated bullet just because I'm not a fan of lead. I use a couple of different loads because I also shoot them in Win 1892 rifles and thus will go a little hotter than I would want to use in the pistols. I probably have crushed a few pieces of brass in 32-20 but it is much easier than 25-20. A few more mess-ups and pinched fingers in 25-20.

There are several examples of Colt high SN revolvers in .32-20 having AS-marked barrels and black hard rubber stocks. No one seems to know exactly what happened at Colt during this period, but even though it does not seem to make a lot of sense, it may well have been a case of Colt using up a small inventory of early AS barrels and even earlier AS rubber stocks to build new revolvers on the newly modified OP (beveled topstrap) frame. Possibly the barrels and stocks were found in an isolated warehouse corner much later. Whether such revolvers are Army Specials or OPs is a matter for further debate, but my feeling is that if it has the OP frame, it should be considered an OP, no matter what's stamped on the barrel or what type of stocks it has.