I am finally beginning to get some time to do some shooting. Last winter, I asked Tom at Accurate Moulds to modify one of his 32-20 existing designs. The result was #31-112M, a 115 grain plain base bullet.
The rifle I used today was an original Winchester Model 53 made in 1929, chambered in 32 W.C.F. (32-20). When chambering a round, the front driving band around the bullet made contact with the rifling just before the lever was fully closed, resulting in a snug fit and a bit more resistance during the final few degrees of closing the lever. The bullets were what I call 'soft cast', pure clip on wheel weights, air cooled. Here is a photo of the rifle ...
The Accurate PB 115 grain bullet sat on top of 9.5 grains of 5744, and averaged 1,239 fps with an E.S. of 17 fps. At 100 yards, the four-shot group with the Accurate mould #31-112M was 1 & 7/8". To compare, I fired a four shot group with the venerable Lyman 3110048 bullet and got a 4 & 1/2" group at 100 yards. Since I use the 32-20 for mostly Woodchucks down in the bean field, and most of my shots are offhand at 50 yards, I was mainly interested in how it would do at 50 yards. I only had five rounds left. The white bullseye was 2" in diameter and way too big for 50 yards. Although I could line the sights up perfectly in windage with the centre of the bullseye, the vertical was a lot harder trying to cut through the centre of the bullseye with the top of the front sight; I was never exactly sure whether I was cutting through the exact centre. The result was a slightly vertically elongated five-shot group at 50 yards of 1 & 3/16" vertical x 5/8" horizontal. I think the 5/8" is more indicative of the group size if I were to use a finer bullseye (or cut through the exact bottom of the bullseye instead of cutting through the centre of the bullseye). Anyway, here is a photo of the target ...
My 32-20 is a 50 yards hunting rifle and I am very pleased with this bullet for that purpose. I have tried a lot of bullets but this is the best I've found so far. I also tried a 3-shot group at 50 yards with a 100 grain Remington JSP bullet and got a group of 1 & 1/8" spread horizontally. Not sure what is going on there; I would have expected better than that.
The rifle I used today was an original Winchester Model 53 made in 1929, chambered in 32 W.C.F. (32-20). When chambering a round, the front driving band around the bullet made contact with the rifling just before the lever was fully closed, resulting in a snug fit and a bit more resistance during the final few degrees of closing the lever. The bullets were what I call 'soft cast', pure clip on wheel weights, air cooled. Here is a photo of the rifle ...
The Accurate PB 115 grain bullet sat on top of 9.5 grains of 5744, and averaged 1,239 fps with an E.S. of 17 fps. At 100 yards, the four-shot group with the Accurate mould #31-112M was 1 & 7/8". To compare, I fired a four shot group with the venerable Lyman 3110048 bullet and got a 4 & 1/2" group at 100 yards. Since I use the 32-20 for mostly Woodchucks down in the bean field, and most of my shots are offhand at 50 yards, I was mainly interested in how it would do at 50 yards. I only had five rounds left. The white bullseye was 2" in diameter and way too big for 50 yards. Although I could line the sights up perfectly in windage with the centre of the bullseye, the vertical was a lot harder trying to cut through the centre of the bullseye with the top of the front sight; I was never exactly sure whether I was cutting through the exact centre. The result was a slightly vertically elongated five-shot group at 50 yards of 1 & 3/16" vertical x 5/8" horizontal. I think the 5/8" is more indicative of the group size if I were to use a finer bullseye (or cut through the exact bottom of the bullseye instead of cutting through the centre of the bullseye). Anyway, here is a photo of the target ...
My 32-20 is a 50 yards hunting rifle and I am very pleased with this bullet for that purpose. I have tried a lot of bullets but this is the best I've found so far. I also tried a 3-shot group at 50 yards with a 100 grain Remington JSP bullet and got a group of 1 & 1/8" spread horizontally. Not sure what is going on there; I would have expected better than that.
