recycling .32 rimfire cases

guninhand

guninhand

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I lucked into a box of Navy Arms .32 short rimfire and so far have 4 fired cases.Is it feasable to drill a hole in the base to take .22rf blanks and reuse them?
 
maybe .27 blacks is a better idea or white tip off of strike anywhere matches mixed into a paste and put into the rim then let the dry and fill with BP and a .311" round ball or a heel based bullet the ammo is most likely hooter then the stuff made in the early year. oh and match heads are corrosive so clean well with boiling water
 
antiqueguy said:
maybe .27 blacks is a better idea or white tip off of strike anywhere matches mixed into a paste and put into the rim then let the dry and fill with BP and a .311" round ball or a heel based bullet the ammo is most likely hooter then the stuff made in the early year. oh and match heads are corrosive so clean well with boiling water
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I've heard the match head paste does work but haven't tried it; but in my younger years I HAVE tried the old black tape trick with a match book & that caused a bang so - Guninhand, if you try it & it works, please post the update!
 
I successfully got match tips to ignite a .32RF case several times. It's time consuming but if you take your time and do it right, they do work. Use a Half moon Nail head to slip inside the rim and blow out the hammer marks in the rim using needle nose pliers.

Very dirty and corrosive though so Clean, Clean and then clean some more.
 
antiqueguy said:
white tip off of strike anywhere matches mixed into a paste and put into the rim then let the dry and fill with BP and a .311" round ball or a heel based bullet the ammo is most likely hooter then the stuff made in the early year. oh and match heads are corrosive so clean well with boiling water
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antiqueguy said:
ive done it to .22lr for a experiment
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I tried grinding down the tips from strike anywhere matches, but no success. How did you do it? Details!
 
tootall said:
I tried grinding down the tips from strike anywhere matches, but no success. How did you do it? Details!
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Cut the tips off strike anywheres, pulverise it "gently" and mix with filtered water into a runny paste.

Fill the empty Case a few mm above the rim of the case and stick it in a drill, spin it a little to force the paste into the rim.

Let it dry out for a day or two depending on humidity. Once the paste dries, Use a Straw or sharpended metal tube that is just slightly smaller than the casing to cookie cutter out the excess priming compound.

Reload the shell to specs and fire away :).
 
I read somewhere that they used ground glass mixed with the match heads back in the bad old days, to give the match head material something to abrade against.
 
If you google, you will find several pages of info on people using 27 caliber Hilti blanks for 32RF reloading. It does take some equipment to do though - a small milling machine, lathe, or a really good drill press and machining vise, plus the right cutting tools.

The .22 blank approach does work, but the blank has to be mounted off-center. This also means that each cartridge has to be lined up with the firing pin in your gun in order to fire. The .27 cal Hilti round doesn't have this shortcoming - it can be mounted in the center of the case and the rim will always be lined up with the firing pin.

Save the match-head thing for when SHTF and you are living quasi-stone-age. It isn't necessary if you have access to a decent hardware store.

BTW - your 32RF spent cases are worth gold - extremely hard to find anything that can even be modified to work in a 32RF. The last conversation I had with someone who was loading 32RF (using the .27 Hilti trick) he had to machine the cases out of brass stock from scratch.

Best Regards, Geraldo
 
I just use .32 short colt brass a cheap jobmate drill press a princess auto drill press vice and 2 blocks of wood with a hole drilled in between them to hold the cases
 
guninhand said:
I lucked into a box of Navy Arms .32 short rimfire and so far have 4 fired cases.Is it feasable to drill a hole in the base to take .22rf blanks and reuse them?
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Better to start with a .32 short colt case and drill IT out. The construction of the rimfire cases is not really strong enough to justify the effort. The centerfire cases have more meat to them to support the rimfire blank.

Reloading rimfire is best left as a theoretical exercise, along with reloading primers. Both can be done,and may be worth doing to say you have done, but there are a bunch of better ways to spend your time, with better returns.
Like, for instance, picking up pop bottles on the roadside, to make enough money to buy the stuff.

Cheers
Trev
 
Geraldo said:
BTW - your 32RF spent cases are worth gold - extremely hard to find anything that can even be modified to work in a 32RF.
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No, not so much, actually. As per above, the .32 colt cases are the same dimensions as the rimfire, but with a better build for adapting.

Cheers
Trev
 
trevj said:
Better to start with a .32 short colt case and drill IT out. The construction of the rimfire cases is not really strong enough to justify the effort. The centerfire cases have more meat to them to support the rimfire blank.

Reloading rimfire is best left as a theoretical exercise, along with reloading primers. Both can be done,and may be worth doing to say you have done, but there are a bunch of better ways to spend your time, with better returns.
Like, for instance, picking up pop bottles on the roadside, to make enough money to buy the stuff.

Cheers
Trev
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there may come a day when reloading primers and making powder is needed
 
"...drill a hole in the base to take .22rf blanks and reuse them?..." No drinkin' when yer shootin'. An empty case of any kind is not a chamber sleeve.
 
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