Settled on my 32-20 pet load for my vintage lever gun (photos)

Win 38-55

Win 38-55

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I have been trying a wide variety of powders and loads over the past couple years, to see which gave me the best accuracy with my Accurate Moulds 312112M plain base, cast bullet. Note: if you order this mould, crimping in the groove means that you will be levering the bullet into the lands, which puts too much strain on the levering mechanism for my money. I use a Lee Factory Crimp and set the bullet in just enough to not quite touch the lands, and crimp it there on the forward driving band. Powders ranged from Unique on the fast end to IMR 4198 on the slow end. Finally, I laid all the targets out on my pool table and made my selection ... 9.5 grains of 5744 with a small pistol primer, for a velocity of 1,230 fps and an E.S. of around 7 fps in 10 shots. At 25 yards, a 3-shot group is about 3/8" (which is the average range I deal with varmints). At 50 yards, a 5-shot group is roughly 1", and at 100 yards, the 5-shot groups are around 2 & 5/8".

Photo of my Winchester Model 53 made in 1929 in 32-20 caliber (32 W.C.F.) ....
Model-53-1000_zpslii9pcfs.jpg


50 yard target ....
32-50-yd-B_zpsd1vri5fw.jpg


100 yard target ....
32-100-yd-B_zpsvvabegni.jpg
 
Good lord almighty that's a beautiful Winchester 53! Cant get past that great stock. Looks like the load is shooting well also.

Ironically for me, earlier I was just pineing over a 32/20 marlin that I missed out on a while back. :(
 
I was fortunate enough to stumble upon this Model 53 at Accuracy Plus after a tip from a friend, several years back. It had just been brought in by an elderly gent who said it had once belonged to his uncle.
 
leveractionjunkie said:
Good lord almighty that's a beautiful Winchester 53! Cant get past that great stock. Looks like the load is shooting well also.

Ironically for me, earlier I was just pineing over a 32/20 marlin that I missed out on a while back. :(
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I'm not sure if all Marlin's 32-20's were thus; but mine has a .314 bore, a tad generous. If you get a Marlin; shoot me a PM, and I'll suggest what worked for me ( I'm not advanced / or patient enough to dial it in like Brother Winnie though...no offense :) )
32-20 is one of my favorite rounds. Such Panache'
Beautiful little carbine Win, and good shooting.
 
The Kurgan said:
Such a gorgeous rifle. Did you do any more load development? Curious to know if you ever used IMR4227. I have a tub of it.
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Thanks. I've still got it. It is one of my "long term" keepers. I've not seen the need to do any further load development, as I'm very happy with this load. I've used a fair bit of IMR 4227 in the past and found that IMR 4227 and 5744 have almost identical ballistics. The drawback with IMR 4227 is that for larger cases, such as the 45-70, or 45-60, and even the 38-55, it was extremely position sensitive. For example, I chronographed loads from my 45-60 with powder forward and powder back and found there was a 300 fps difference on average just due to powder position. For that reason, once I'd used up my IMR 4227 I never got any more, choosing instead to get a boat load of 5744 which I use for all my old cartridge calibers (except when I'm trying to use up other powders such as IMR 4198). I expect that the same load using IMR 4227 would give very similar results.
 
Win 38-55 said:
Thanks. I've still got it. It is one of my "long term" keepers. I've not seen the need to do any further load development, as I'm very happy with this load. I've used a fair bit of IMR 4227 in the past and found that IMR 4227 and 5744 have almost identical ballistics. The drawback with IMR 4227 is that for larger cases, such as the 45-70, or 45-60, and even the 38-55, it was extremely position sensitive. For example, I chronographed loads from my 45-60 with powder forward and powder back and found there was a 300 fps difference on average just due to powder position. For that reason, once I'd used up my IMR 4227 I never got any more, choosing instead to get a boat load of 5744 which I use for all my old cartridge calibers (except when I'm trying to use up other powders such as IMR 4198). I expect that the same load using IMR 4227 would give very similar results.
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That's a lovely 53 fer sure.:cool: I use 4759 in my larger cals along with 5744 & 4227. I always hold the powder charges in place with a pinch of lightly tamped dacron fiberfill which eliminates powder shift. Much better consistency.;)
 
SHELL SHUCKER said:
That's a lovely 53 fer sure.:cool: I use 4759 in my larger cals along with 5744 & 4227. I always hold the powder charges in place with a pinch of lightly tamped dacron fiberfill which eliminates powder shift. Much better consistency.;)
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4759 is a good powder. I've used that for quite a few of the old cartridges as well. I use a bit of single ply toilet paper, lightly rolled and folded, to take up the empty space in the case. It does give much better consistency.
 
Win 38-55 said:
4759 is a good powder. I've used that for quite a few of the old cartridges as well. I use a bit of single ply toilet paper, lightly rolled and folded, to take up the empty space in the case. It does give much better consistency.
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if it is o k by the management i would like to talk with you about the 32.20 cal...if you could cntact me coyoteshooter thanks
 
Thanks for posting. This is both interesting and encouraging. An ES of 17 fps - wow! On my last trip to the range with an 1889 Marlin with a pitted bore (32-20), I loaded 7.8 gr. of 5744 behind a 115 PB cast bullet, powder coated. This lighter load to keep pressures down for the older firearm. I used small rifle primers. While I got reasonable accuracy at 50 yds (chrono 1127 fps), there was quite a bit of unburned powder, making me think that this was not a good powder choice. Your post encourages me to try small pistol primers and a solid factory crimp to try to get complete ignition. I was also considering using magnum primers. Did you get unburned powder with the heavier load?
 
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