.32 rimfire questions and discusion

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Just got my second antique today but I can stop anytime I want:D
This one is the polar opposite of my first long cylinder .44 S&W DA.
It is a Stevens Favorite in .32 rimfire. It is a neat little takedown single shot that seems like a blue collar small game rifle. It is in pretty good shape and the wood is very nice for what was at the time a very inexpensive gun.

Now .32 rim is not going to be as easy to come by but it is doable. It even came with some neat but fiddly looking cases for making use of .22 shells.

The rifle is very light and handy. If it shoots OK it will make a great backpack/motorcycle small game rifle especially with the ability to take down.
If it was not such a weird cal it would make some kid a great first rifle. There are repros available though.

I would really appreciate any info on .32 rimfire? Also since I already have 1 gun in it are there any other antiques that are .32 rimfire?
I believe it is also called .32 LC or Long Colt. Are there SAA's in it?

If you have any guns in .32 please feel free to post them! Any comments on the cartridge or guns would be great as I know next to nothing about them and am quite interested?

Pics of the Stevens coming soon.
 
I believe that you will find that 32lc is centerfire round.
The rimfire was made in long and short.
There where many guns made in this caliber.
Marlin for one made the LA model92 in center fire and rimfire.
you changed the firing pin.
There is /was one of these for sale on the EE couple of weeks
ago that I looked at, poor but cheap, thou the fellow only had the one firing
pin.
Stevens made their single shot pistols also in 32 rim as I am sure s-w did.
I don't think that colt used this in the saa , thou they had pocket pistols
in 32.
I have a 25 rim and a 32 rim in the stevens favorite's
At one time had many of these.
Marshall
 
.32 rimfire is getting real tough to find in my area of Ont. Went to a gunshow a week ago and bought 5 rounds at 2 bucks each......that seemed better than 125$ asking price for a full box of 50 CIL. I recently bought some of the reloadable rounds from C-H in France but haven't had any luc.....any good luck with them. Not sure about the Dixie reloadable brass but the C-H stuff is very fragile and the rim breaks off very easily. Nuf sed.
 
It came with some of the dixie reloadable brass and about 30 rounds of ammo. I will be happy if it shoots to point of aim. I don't see myself shooting it often but it such a nice looking and handy little rifle. If I can take some small game with it I it would be well worth the 2$ a shot or the fiddling with the dixie brass.

What was the .32 good for? It does not seem like much of an improvement over .22LR.
.22 for rabbits and .32 for jack rabbits?
 
Unsub said:
It came with some of the dixie reloadable brass and about 30 rounds of ammo. I will be happy if it shoots to point of aim. I don't see myself shooting it often but it such a nice looking and handy little rifle. If I can take some small game with it I it would be well worth the 2$ a shot or the fiddling with the dixie brass.

What was the .32 good for? It does not seem like much of an improvement over .22LR.
.22 for rabbits and .32 for jack rabbits?
Click to expand...

Got Pics :)

32 RF BP load is like a 22 Short maby abit more powerfull.
Not a knock down round.
I have a couple full boxes of minty 32 RF domion factory ammo its getting very hard to find tho.

Use the Dixie cases cause with a single shot you can just use a Round ball as you dont gota worry about Recoil affecting the other rounds like in a Revolver pushing the balls outa the cases with each shot.
I adapted some 32 CF cases to use 27 Cal hilti caps which are bigger in Dia so they dont need to be offset in SOME Antique Rim fire guns to go off.
Depends how far the Fireing pin comes down into the 32 RF case.
27 Cal hilti caps can come quite hot tho.
Use the yellow ones i emptyed all the podwer out considering a hilti cap can drive a 2 inch nail into solid concreat id be dumping the powder if useing any in Antique loads.

Mooncoon was doing this stuff to!
Im sure he has other ideas for you.
 
I have loaded and shot a number of rimfires from .25 to .57 caliber. I am under the impression that 32 rimfire shells might have been cheaper than center fire shells back around 1900 and have heard stories of them being used for killing deer and treed cougars at close range.
If you are using hilti shells or 22 blanks, the blank shell should sit about .010" proud of the main rim to ensure that you are not loosing firing pin energy on the 32 shell rim. I sometimes just use hilti shells and sometimes add a bit of black powder under the slug. The biggest nuisance is that the rimfires are usually heeled bullets which making loading awkward. I made up a swage to put the heel on the slugs that I was using

cheers mooncoon

rimfires2.jpg
 
dingus said:
Got Pics :)

32 RF BP load is like a 22 Short maby abit more powerfull.
Not a knock down round.
I have a couple full boxes of minty 32 RF domion factory ammo its getting very hard to find tho.

Use the Dixie cases cause with a single shot you can just use a Round ball as you dont gota worry about Recoil affecting the other rounds like in a Revolver pushing the balls outa the cases with each shot.
I adapted some 32 CF cases to use 27 Cal hilti caps which are bigger in Dia so they dont need to be offset in SOME Antique Rim fire guns to go off.
Depends how far the Fireing pin comes down into the 32 RF case.
27 Cal hilti caps can come quite hot tho.
Use the yellow ones i emptyed all the podwer out considering a hilti cap can drive a 2 inch nail into solid concreat id be dumping the powder if useing any in Antique loads.

Mooncoon was doing this stuff to!
Im sure he has other ideas for you.
Click to expand...
Tell me more of this adapting 32CF cases thing! KD
 
dixda said:
Tell me more of this adapting 32CF cases thing! KD
Click to expand...

I found a 32 CF case that fit a 32 RF gun i had.
i drilled out the back of the 32 CF.
Two steped hole so a hilti cap 27 cal would press in flush with the rim just like dixie does but dead center not off set.
then just loaded em up.
Sometimes the fireing pin being off Center would not strike the dead center 27 cal hiltis edge.
But the 27 Cals are better than the 22 Cal ones or 22 Acorn caps they Have to be off center.
There was a 32 RF blank type round used to fire them bird dummys for training dogs but i gave up looking for them.

Its a pain in the butt to make Rf ammo other than the Dixie cases seem about the best.
my 32 CF made into RF cases did work tho. i think it was a stevens rifle 32 RF i was makeing them for.
Finding 27 Cal RF hilts try Home depo ect
 
It even came with some .32 cal balls for use with the Dixie cases.

Now that I dug out a .22 shell to compare it with the .32 is quite a bit bigger.
I could not see it having a lot of velocity though. I bet it was a pretty good small game round "back in the day". It would also be very good for not damaging a pelt.

I am going to have to keep an eye out for a .32 rim derringer or early single shot S&W.
 
I make my cases from solid stock, but certainly would not turn down a modified centerfire case if I had some lying around. The advantage of the Hilti shells is that being larger in diameter, they are more likely to be struck by the firing pin/blade even when placed in the center of the shell. As I said earlier, you want the rim to be sitting above the main cartridge rim, otherwise the pin/blade is striking both the main rim and the primer rim and using up energy and not dependably firing the primer. That might mean thinning the rim on the main shell from .065 to about .055 thick.
To use a center placed .22 blank as a primer, you can also make a new firing pin, in some cases and file the pin hole into an oval to accomodate the new pin. I did that recently with a #4 rolling block that I sleeved from .32 rimfire to .22 rimfire.

cheers mooncoon
 
The Dixie cases have an offset copper piece with a little acorn on it on the face of the brass case. When you stick the case in the chamber I am assuming you want the firing pin to hit the "acorn" and then it looks like the acorn sends the force of the firing pin to the .22 primer. My question is when you load the dixie case should the "acorn" be towards the bottom of the chamber? I guess I could fire the gun on an empty case and see where the firing pin hits.

Am I crazy for thinking fiddling around with obsolete shells is fun?
 
Firing pins vary in location depending on the make and model of gun. On a Peabody and on a Spencer, they are on the right side. On Remington #4 they are on the bottom and on many revolvers they are on the top

cheers mooncoon
 
On Favorites the firing pin is at the bottom. I'd imagine that if you could find a breechblock for a 22 Favorite the placement would be such that a 22RF "primer" could be centered in the .32 adapter---no offset. Careful measurement would tell but I don't have a 22 to measure.
 
Thanks guys for all the help. This place and the people here are an invaluable resource.
I am sure that without it I would never have had the guts or the right info to get involved in antiques.
 
Some more questions here......

I have recently found a Stevens favorite in 32 Long (rf). I would love to shoot it but can not find ammo locally. I have read over this thread and looked into the dixie site. So basically, if I am reading this right, you take the 32 brass, put a 22 short blank in as a primer and fill with bp then top off with a 32 cal ball?????

That would be great if this does work fairly well. Can you use a bp sub (777 or pyrodex)???? bp is kind of hard to come by now as well and I am trying to save what I have for my old flintlock.....Any somkeless powder work as well??? probably way to hot I am thinking.

Also I do not have any 32l rf, if someone out there has one and could give me the dimensions of the shell that would be much appriciated. COAL, brass OAL, and diameters(rim and case), actual bullet diameter?????

Sorry for so many questions, I am very new to the antiques side of shooting and collecting, Matt
 
I wouldn't even bother farting around spending the kind of coin that the reloadable 32 cases are worth.

Find a decent 22 barrel at the next gunshow, and get it fitted to the action. Find an extractor and breech, too. Last time I bought the whole bunch (lots of parts to choose from, available, too) there was about $40 worth, including the barrel.

It isn't an antique unless the bore is over 8.3 mm/33 caliber. For a rifle, anyway.

Go easy on the high velocity 22 loads, too, as they shoot the action loose in pretty short order. The two action screws take all the load, and there isn't much to them. The screws are not supported right up to the action walls (they span a short gap on either side of the breech block) and this allows a bit more flex than is really good.

Not that I'd tell you how to spend YOUR money! :D But if it were mine, I'd rather be paying $2-$3 for 50 rounds, rather than peeing away my coins on powerload blanks and all the dickin' around entailed therein.

Cheers
Trev
 
sisiphunter said:
Some more questions here......

I have recently found a Stevens favorite in 32 Long (rf). I would love to shoot it but can not find ammo locally. I have read over this thread and looked into the dixie site. So basically, if I am reading this right, you take the 32 brass, put a 22 short blank in as a primer and fill with bp then top off with a 32 cal ball?????

That would be great if this does work fairly well. Can you use a bp sub (777 or pyrodex)???? bp is kind of hard to come by now as well and I am trying to save what I have for my old flintlock.....Any somkeless powder work as well??? probably way to hot I am thinking.

Also I do not have any 32l rf, if someone out there has one and could give me the dimensions of the shell that would be much appriciated. COAL, brass OAL, and diameters(rim and case), actual bullet diameter?????

Sorry for so many questions, I am very new to the antiques side of shooting and collecting, Matt
Click to expand...

lots of cartridge info here( from the collecting antique sticky up top )
http://members.shaw.ca/cstein0/heads.htm
 
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