New .32 Rimfire Ammo!

Well my brass tube showed up today so as soon as I get a couple hours of free time ill make up a dozen or so rounds and hopefully Ill let you guys know how they shoot this weekend
 
I've just been using a tubing cutter, same as the steel tube. Im interested to see how well I can form a rim on the brass tube
 
jeffreyguy said:
I've just been using a tubing cutter, same as the steel tube. Im interested to see how well I can form a rim on the brass tube
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OK, maybe I just need a smaller one - mine tends to crimp the cut a bit but a lot with this soft brass tubing. I'll bet forming the rim won't be too difficult as long as you're forming against a good base, the brass I've got seems pretty malleable. Will be interested to see how you make out.
 
I gave some "tube cartridges" a try using .27 cal Ramsets (powder dumped), some FFFg and a round ball, no flange on the tube (5/16" drawn brass from the hobby shop). In my particular revolver, I found that the headspace is so thin I had to thin my precious .32 Short Colt brass to a point where it was non-existent and the brass often non-reuseable, so this actually worked GREAT. The cylinder rotated perfectly and everything looks pretty good.

As I noted, and others have experienced, the norm is a little more rim thickness so this isn't typical; my Stevens Favorite for example swallows the .32 SC brass with the .27 and meat to spare, shells are easily reloadable (tight action I may add, no lever droop, no slop).



Fired case:





Firing pin had good contact on the .27 rim.

I'll be interested to see Jefferyguy's results with forming a rim. Looks promising alternative to .32 SC (or long colt!) brass.
 
I havent had a chance to try any of the brass tube yet, but I just loaded up about 40 of the steel rimmed cases and ill be doing a little shooting tomorrow so that will be fun
 
Also what kind of holster is that? I got mine from dixie but I like that one a little better. Id rather find a flap holster, but they sont seem to exist in this size
 
I have been contacting NavyArms every few years asking if there is an interest to get another production run of the 32 long rimfire. The first email I sent was in 2010 and I keep getting the same "maybe in the future" answer for the past 6 years.
CBC can do a run but it requires an order, what Canadian company would go through the expense and hassle to order the ammo then get the approval to import? How much demand is there really for this ammunition?
 
Holleyman said:
I have been contacting NavyArms every few years asking if there is an interest to get another production run of the 32 long rimfire. The first email I sent was in 2010 and I keep getting the same "maybe in the future" answer for the past 6 years.
CBC can do a run but it requires an order, what Canadian company would go through the expense and hassle to order the ammo then get the approval to import? How much demand is there really for this ammunition?
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I think you've answered your own question. If there was a real and substantial market for it, someone would produce it. Especially in the current market where you have incredible demand for .22/9mm/.223 etc etc consuming all the resources already, it likely drives up the cost for whatever is available (meaning risk to your shaeholders). Add to that, the general global market uncertainty, and most companies are not going to stick their neck out unless it is a sure thing.

Making functional ammo really ain't that difficult. The biggest hassle is finding donor cases (.32 Short Colt) but there are other ways around that, including this tubing idea; lathe work on .32 S&W (a little more work is all); turning your own adapters out of solid brass; HC Collections; etc. For the Favorites (and other rifles), you can convert to centerfire.

I'd buy it if it was on the shelf at a reasonable price. But in the meantime, this will do.
 
Well I finally had a chance to try out some brass tube and it definitely works better than the steel but I have to make a couple changes to my process. Firstly, the brass definitely has to be appealed, as im getting some stress cracks when im forming the rim, and I need a better method of holding them while im forming the rim. Other than that they worked great and fired fine with blanks. Ill have a shooting and reloading report next weekend when I head out the the farm. I put a picture of the brass ones on my photobucket but Im still not quite sure how to post a link on this phone.
 
Thanks for the update! As I say, for my revolver I haven't tried forming a rim myself yet but would also like to try.

To post pictures from photobucket look on the right hand side of the page when viewing your picture; I think it's the bottom link that displays of the 3/4 choices. Click on it it will show "copied"; just paste that link right into your post.
 
I was just trying to figure out why I kept having rounds not going off on the first hammer strike every time and I had my magnetic screwdriver stick to one if the spent blank cases. It seems that theyre just brass plated steel. Ive never even heard of steel rimfire rounds. Can anyone else confirm this with theirs? I ended up just shimming the mainspring with a piece of cotter pin as a temporary solution. Does anyone know how to re arch and temper the spring or where to get a new one?
 
jeffreyguy said:
I was just trying to figure out why I kept having rounds not going off on the first hammer strike every time and I had my magnetic screwdriver stick to one if the spent blank cases. It seems that theyre just brass plated steel. Ive never even heard of steel rimfire rounds. Can anyone else confirm this with theirs? I ended up just shimming the mainspring with a piece of cotter pin as a temporary solution. Does anyone know how to re arch and temper the spring or where to get a new one?
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Funny because I was just playing around with mine. My Stevens Favorite has always had a hard time with the Ramsets, but my revolver usually sets em off first try. I assumed this was because they weren't copper - but sure 'nuff I just tried grabbing some with a magnet and they are brass plated steel. Interesting.

Can't help on the re-arching but chances are IF it is because of a weak spring (and not a headspacing matter, meaning that the rim is slightly too far away from the firing pin to get a good bite) then it might just need a new mainspring. I find that is often the case with the Stevens Favorites, steel/brass cases notwithstanding. If you can't source a new one (unlikely for most/all of the old .32 revolvers) then you can get different blank springs from Wolff (gunsprings.com), or otherwise repurpose one from something else. Shimming the hammer as you suggest, might work just as well as anything.

On another note: How are you finding getting a boolit or ball in there (the brass tubing)? I can get a ball to stay in the mouth but not well. A heeled boolit I managed to seat in there but it wasn't happy about it. I was worried about airspace with BP for this reason so I loaded with smokeless (carefully researched). Works fine. I'm wondering about reaming the mouth somehow, not having much luck trying to bell it; it seems thicker than cartridge brass?
 
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[h=3]info@navyarms.com[/h]
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to me
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No we have no plans on importing anymore of the .32 rimfire short or long.

With regrets,
Navy Arms
 
jeffreyguy said:
I was just trying to figure out why I kept having rounds not going off on the first hammer strike every time and I had my magnetic screwdriver stick to one if the spent blank cases. It seems that theyre just brass plated steel. Ive never even heard of steel rimfire rounds. Can anyone else confirm this with theirs? I ended up just shimming the mainspring with a piece of cotter pin as a temporary solution. Does anyone know how to re arch and temper the spring or where to get a new one?
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Just an update on mine, been experiencing this lately and in my case it seems to be related to either the ball not being seated firmly enough. Firmly seating both seems to resolve it; logically it shouldn't matter but what was happening in my case was that upon the firing pin striking the rim, the RB was dislodged from the case mouth (before I got the case mouths on the thicker tubing figured out); and that in every case was a non-ignition condition. Seating the ball firmly & re-trying the same case resulted in it firing. So I think that the force of the firing pin was taken up by the ball moving... no better explanation than that, yet.
 
I finally got a chance to do some more shooting today, and Im still having the intermittent firing issue, so Ill have to look into seating the ball more firmly. On another note, I have to firmly suggest that the ramset blanks are NOT] to be used as the propellant charge due to the incredible variations in powder. I have had some "mouse farts" and many which seemed much more powerful than should be used in guns of this age. When I boufht this gun I noticed that it had one chamber with a wall that was a little thinner than the rest, but I thought it wouldnt be a problem. Today I was shooting, and the fifth round was way louder than it should have been and it kicked harder than usual. Then I tried to move the hammer to half #### so I could pull out the cylinder, and it wouldnt go. Turns out the wall of that one thin chamber had ruptured and locked itself against the frame. Luckily for me it was a clean split with no shrapnel. The body of the gun seems ok, I jut need to locate a new cylinder I can fit to it. No harm done, but the moral of the story is to never use smokeless powder in guns that weren't designed for it unless you can precisely control your load.

Ps the cases I made from tube and colt brass work beautifully
 
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