30 & 32 cal rimfire diameter?

sportee

sportee

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Thinking of making some loads for an old 30 cal rimfire. Any suggestions on a common size bullet i could use? Also, am i correct to say that a 32 rimfire has a diameter of .315?
 
How are you planning on making loads for a rimfire ? Centrefire with a seperate primer I could understand.
The only 32 I have is a 32ACP in which I use .308 bullets. This probably does not help you though. I would suggest that if you can, I think it would be wise to get the correct barrel size by getting it slugged. Do you have any more information regarding the actual caliber & the actual gun ??
 
Most of the old .32 rimfires list .316" as bullet dia. but there probably is alot of variation, i size down some 165 gr. bullets meant for the 32/40.
 
As far as re-laoding the rimfire cases goes. You machine out the rear of the case and insert a .22 acorn blank off center or a .25 or .27 cal hilti load for a primer. (dont quote me on the method or try it based on what i say - i havent tried this yet but im told of a method that works well)

Anyways, the gun is an antique JM Marlin ### in .30 rimfire. Im trying to come up with some options for loading.

It is looking like a short .280 slug might work - any suggestions?
 
I shoot a variety of obsolete calibers which I load for. My suggestion is to slug the bore; it is quite common for dimensions to be different from the published values or to be different from the bullets made for them. I had a 40-82 with a bore that was .003" oversize and a 38-40 than was .009" oversize. Both guns were accurate with the correct bullets.
Second suggestion is to try and figure out the twist rate of the rifling; that will tell you the longest bullet you can stabilize. Use the Greenhill formula of 150 diameter squared over twist gives length.

cheers mooncoon
 
The .30 Rf looks like a .286" bullet, if all else fails you could paper patch any number of diff. cast or jacketed bullets up to that size, a short .270 bullet or possibly .264" could be paper patched up to .286 or so.
 
Peckerwoods got a good saying about Makeing RF

like trying to screw standing on a clothsline or something like that :D

anyway ive made 30 rf and i agree with Peckerwoods take on makeing it!
27 cal hilti caps and brass tubeing is how i did it!

I think Wizard had some great ideas on makeing 30 Rf includeing a Mold that cast 30 Rf Heeled bullets Pretty clever ideas PM him!
 
anyway ive made 30 rf and i agree with Peckerwoods take on makeing it!
27 cal hilti caps and brass tubeing is how i did it!
Click to expand...

where does a person find thin walled brass tube of this size? or did you make it?
 
sportee said:
where does a person find thin walled brass tube of this size? or did you make it?
Click to expand...

Hobby store they have tubeing in all difrent sizes.
its a complicated way of doing it Wizard had a much better way of doing it!

My probem was the brass tubeing would shoot down the barrel with the bullet some times. it would only go down the barrel say 1/2 inch and stop up cylinder rotation and was a nightmare to get out.

you CANT soder the hilti caps to the tubeing if ya try the hilti can go BOOM :eek:
Not that i tried that! I used Super glue but it didnt work all the time. JB weld was better. as its Epoxy.
 
I used solid brass and made them on the lathe;piece of cake although time consuming. If the recess for the hilti shell gets loose, use a bit of airplane glue. Also remember that the various rimfires are all or almost all healed bullets. My method is to swage the heal onto the slug.
I have posted this photo a couple of times before but maybe it will get the point accross; measure your chamber, measure the bore and measure the rifling, then make things that fit. I have never used one, but suspect a little unimat lathe would probably work for making shells and you will probably need a letter drill for the Hilti shell. Make the rim of the shell about .010 - .015 thin, then make the rim recess for the Hilti shell about the same shallow so that you are not wasting energy on the solid rim of your main cartridge.

cheers mooncoon

rimfires2.jpg
 
I have a good supply of .32 Long Rimfire and I'm thinking to convert it to .32 Short Rimfire. The way I figured, I don't have to trim the case - all I need is to reduce charge by 1/3rd and sit the bullet a little bit deeper.

However, my concern is taking the round apart. How should I take off the bullet without any safety implications? I also don't want to spill all my powder and ruin the primer material...
 
I think would be very unwise to try modifying the shells. The bullets are almost certainly crimped in place similar to a .22 and would be very difficult to remove. The priming compound also probably comes 1/2 way up the inside of the case similar to a .22. further if you were replacing a smokeless load into a shorter case, your pressures go up (for the same charge) because of the smaller volume for the gases to expand into, in the shorter case.

cheers Doug
 
"Reloading rimfire brass is akin to making love in a hammock standing up" -- Paul Rogan

:D

As for reloading with Hilti nail blanks, TheWizard is by far the best resource for that...he has done it for a few different calibers already with great success. I seem to remember Mooncoon making some pinfire shotgun cartridges a while back also...i think the pic is still in my "Antique Pics" thread
 
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