Have an excellent mechanical condition pre war K in 32-20. Would Win. 100 gr s.p. factory ammo (1290 ft/sec.) be OK, as I have some. Or would a 115 lead cowboy load be better, like Black Hills? Thanks Bob

Have an excellent mechanical condition pre war K in 32-20. Would Win. 100 gr s.p. factory ammo (1290 ft/sec.) be OK, as I have some. Or would a 115 lead cowboy load be better, like Black Hills? Thanks Bob

I have one in the 142xxx range and I was told that I could use modern ammo so long as the box did not say "High Velocity" anywhere. I usually buy ammo from a commerical loader who has an older Colt in 32-20 and loads it for low pressure.

The cowboy loads are generally low pressure. I use it in my Colt Army Special in .32-20. The colt is from around 1923.

yashua

IIRC, the High Velocity rifle only .32-20 load used an 80 grain jacketed bullet.

Skeeter Skelton wrote of using that round in a smokeless frame Single Action Army, but was against using it any smaller framed revolver. It was also only for 1892 Winchesters and 1894 Marlins, not the 1873 Winchesters.

__________________
John 3:16
WAR EAGLE!

In August of 1968 I had a serious social encounter with a young man who had an older S&W hand ejector in 32-20 that he was using rifle ammo in. Bang and flash was very impressive, the gun held together just fine for the first 6 shots, and 4 more after that. In the meantime myself and my partner proved conclusively that .30 Carbine rounds would go through 2 mail boxes and quite a bit further than that. The ballistics guy in the lab said that the old smith was just about to do a hand grenade impersonation when the BG dropped it. They would not even fire it with light loads for comparison purposes.

I had an older HE in 32-20, made in 1917...I only used the cowboy loads or my personal reloads of 115gr LRN over 2.5gr of Bullseye in it.