So I have been playing around with the idea of using 32 cal in my lee enfield and Ross rifle. I have read about using them for .303 British before but was wondering if anyone out there was using them for a reduced power load for plinking? Is there a reliable source for load data for 60,85 or 115 grain projectiles? Thanks in advance
32 cal projectiles to load for .303 British
- Thread starter Surplus1
- Start date
I reload for 32 acp. I found a few boxes of hornady 85 grain XTP but when I reload the 32 acp the case bulges out and it won't even go into the chamber. Another time I asked a gun shop to order me a couple of boxes of berrys 32 bullets, instead of round nose they were hollow base wadcutters. I don't have a 32 type revolver so I figured I'll just use them up in mark 4 lee enfield. I use 10 grains of unique or 231 and a tuft of polyester to hold the powder in place. Seems to do okay at close ranges.
Keep in mind that using cast lead bullets and pushing them out at much over 1500fps is a good way to ensure a leaded up bore.
With jacketed I guess that would not apply. If using something like Berry's plated you want to avoid too much muzzle velocity once again. Berry warns of excess muzzle velocity stripping away the plating.
The same bullets and loads for .303Brit would work with my Mosin too.
It would all require some slight massaging to get the most out of these loads but if you google for both ".308 small game loads" and "".30-06 small game loads" you'll get oodles of good returns for past threads here at CGN and other forums as well as some you tube videos. And just looking at a few of showed that there's lots of recipe's using faster handgun powders and good old standby powders such as Unique to do this. Too may to click on and link here. Just run the search with those terms yourself and see.
What's needed from that point is someone with a chrono to load up some and try them. Likely as not some testing will be required to find the best charge that produces a muzzle velocity that sort of works with the twist rate.
With jacketed I guess that would not apply. If using something like Berry's plated you want to avoid too much muzzle velocity once again. Berry warns of excess muzzle velocity stripping away the plating.
The same bullets and loads for .303Brit would work with my Mosin too.
It would all require some slight massaging to get the most out of these loads but if you google for both ".308 small game loads" and "".30-06 small game loads" you'll get oodles of good returns for past threads here at CGN and other forums as well as some you tube videos. And just looking at a few of showed that there's lots of recipe's using faster handgun powders and good old standby powders such as Unique to do this. Too may to click on and link here. Just run the search with those terms yourself and see.
What's needed from that point is someone with a chrono to load up some and try them. Likely as not some testing will be required to find the best charge that produces a muzzle velocity that sort of works with the twist rate.
I have found that 13 to 13.5gr of Trail Boss with 185gr cast bullet is a very accurate not to mention cheap load for my .303 I've used 150gr jacketed also with the same load with good results. The .310 bullets for the SKS fall inside the neck sized case, for me at least. Sorry, never tried the .32
I use .312 pistol bullets for fireforming my .303 British and plinking using Trail Boss, when firing 50 to 100 rounds they make the brass butt plate softer. 
At these lower chamber pressures the brass will not stretch and thin in the base web area and make perfect fireforming loads.
At these lower chamber pressures the brass will not stretch and thin in the base web area and make perfect fireforming loads.
We used to load .32ACP cast bullets in friends .303 in high school in South Africa. The bullets I think were 70gr (or 71 or 75...), we used a small pistol volume load of Somchem MP200 pistol powder (burn rate similar to Unique) and topped the case off with corn meal so the bullet would compress it and hold the powder flat against the base. Worked fine for up to 50m plinking. We never chronoed them, there was no heavy leading, so I assume velocity was well under 1500fps.
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A great inexpensive plinking load for 303's is a 00 Buck pellet, over 5gr of Trailboss. Normally you don't need to even resize brass. Just reprome, add powder, and seat the 00 buck shot so about half is inside the case neck.
These are very accurate out to 25yds, and cost less than 13 cents per shot.
These are very accurate out to 25yds, and cost less than 13 cents per shot.
The 00 buck "ice cream cone" load is a ton of fun in 303 Brit. I used 6 grains of Bullseye for mine with a little bit of toilet paper over the powder to keep the powder down on the primer and it shot great at 50 yards with an Enfield. Shot plastic water bottles all day long for between 10 to 15 cents a shot. It was like shooting .22.
Like Ed up above, I use 32 cal Hornady pistol bullets in my .303, but I could only find the 85gr ones. This means that very little of the bullet is seated in the neck, but they're quite accurate to 50yds.
Hornady XTP 85gr 32 cal #32050, 13.5gr TrailBoss.
Hornady XTP 85gr 32 cal #32050, 13.5gr TrailBoss.
