recycling .32 rimfire cases

cory moffat said:
After coming up with no .32 short colt to be found I cane across this.

Starline has listed .327 Federal Mag Brass. Looks like a perfect fit besides needing to be trimmed to the proper length
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no its not the diameter of the .32 colt case is .318" the .327 magnum is .337" your looking for .32 colt not .32 new colt police witch is really just a .32 S&W
 
You are right. I am just surfing and found a web page and the info given is incorrect. Can not trust anything on the internet. Got to check check and Re check. I Emailed Rusty wood to hopefully get some idea on the availability of .32 short colt brass.
They have it listed but marked as on order. Hopefully it is still being made.
 
cory moffat said:
You are right. I am just surfing and found a web page and the info given is incorrect. Can not trust anything on the internet. Got to check check and Re check. I Emailed Rusty wood to hopefully get some idea on the availability of .32 short colt brass.
They have it listed but marked as on order. Hopefully it is still being made.
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right now unlikely .32 short colt is being made cals like .223,.308,7.62x39,9mm,.45 acp,12ga are in high demand right now most company's
 
I bought the colt 32 brass and shells ,off the EE about three weeks ago. 150 rounds,and about 100 new cases! I got very lucky!! I can tell you that the 32 colt (shorts) are just a bet shorter than the 32 (long) rim fire. But should work fine. Same ID as as the rim fire.
But does someone make a press or kit of some sort to make new rim fire casing? I would be very interested in that. I've not been able to find a step by step or a video on it yet. Or I'd be trying to make them..
To be able to make your own casing....that would open up a new beginning, for alot of old rim fire guns.
 
quinnbrian said:
I bought the colt 32 brass and shells ,off the EE about three weeks ago. 150 rounds,and about 100 new cases! I got very lucky!! I can tell you that the 32 colt (shorts) are just a bet shorter than the 32 (long) rim fire. But should work fine. Same ID as as the rim fire.
But does someone make a press or kit of some sort to make new rim fire casing? I would be very interested in that. I've not been able to find a step by step or a video on it yet. Or I'd be trying to make them..
To be able to make your own casing....that would open up a new beginning, for alot of old rim fire guns.
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ive been making my own from .32 short colt for 2 years now a 17/64" drill bit and a 21/64" bit work wonders http://32rimfire.########.ca/ I don't use the smokeless blanks unless they are the brown ones all others get uncrimped and the crimps cut off the are seated in the case filled with bp and a round ball is seated with my tumb
 
How do you go about uncrimping them and then cutting off the crimp?
The other day I was opening some green ramset 27 cal greens on top of a hockey puck. Pressing down with my awl to open them to pour out the charge. Pressed a little hard on one and he awl went a little far. BANG it went. Had my face shield on and my thin gloved fingers well away from the charge being worked on. No big deal just suprising!

Forgot to mention that was 1 out of 100 that I messed up in about 20 min.

I was thinking of putting the awl in my drill press set the depth. Then press that way.
 
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cory moffat said:
How do you go about uncrimping them and then cutting off the crimp?
The other day I was opening some green ramset 27 cal greens on top of a hockey puck. Pressing down with my awl to open them to pour out the charge. Pressed a little hard on one and he awl went a little far. BANG it went. Had my face shield on and my thin gloved fingers well away from the charge being worked on. No big deal just suprising!

Forgot to mention that was 1 out of 100 that I messed up in about 20 min.
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That's a stellar rate, if you managed to screw up 100 in just 20 minutes. Productivity like that is usually carried out by the likes of the executives at Nortel.

:)


quinnbrian, you need to do some reading on deep drawing dies, consecutive forming dies, and in general, the tool and die work required for making cartridge cases or other thin walled extruded metal forms.
The short version is, if it was easy, everyone would be doing it!

Then do some reading on the safety processes used to avoid blowing the roof off the places that install the compound into primers. It takes more than a tub full of strike anywhere matches, to be in that game.

Cheers
Trev
 
Trevj, I have looking/ watch some videos on deep drawing dies. And understand the process,just would have thought that someone, over the years would have come up with something ( in a kit ) that would have made life easier for someone to make rim fire shell casing.
With as many old rimfire pistols and rifle around.
 
cory moffat said:
How do you go about uncrimping them and then cutting off the crimp?
The other day I was opening some green ramset 27 cal greens on top of a hockey puck. Pressing down with my awl to open them to pour out the charge. Pressed a little hard on one and he awl went a little far. BANG it went. Had my face shield on and my thin gloved fingers well away from the charge being worked on. No big deal just suprising!

Forgot to mention that was 1 out of 100 that I messed up in about 20 min.

I was thinking of putting the awl in my drill press set the depth. Then press that way.
Click to expand...

I have a very thin set of little nippers that I use to grab a crimp and fold it back never set one off that way cutting the crimp off I set the case in a small piece of steel tubing that I have set at the right length to just take the bottom of the crimps off with a hack saw ive also used a small pipe cutter in the past
 
quinnbrian said:
Trevj, I have looking/ watch some videos on deep drawing dies. And understand the process,just would have thought that someone, over the years would have come up with something ( in a kit ) that would have made life easier for someone to make rim fire shell casing.
With as many old rimfire pistols and rifle around.
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Not enough for anybody to invest the time and money, apparently.

I can understand that too. Really, despite that there are a few guys around here that are busy playing with their Prescribed Antiques, the world population of dudes that would lay out $600 or $800 for a set of forming dies for rimfire cases in oddball sizes is not huge.

Better to spend your time and money developing a product with some mass market potential. Or, at least, some market potential. Really, the number of guys that would buy a kit like that (and I am being pretty conservative in my estimates of the cost) are pretty much countable on fingers and toes.

Better yet, spend your money, build them, and see how long it takes to break even, if ever.

I'm a big fan of .22 rimfire liners, when they can be got. Most of the rifles and handguns worth shooting on a regular basis, are worth relining to a cartridge that can be got on a regular basis.
The old, large caliber rimfire rifles and handguns, are mostly worth more as they are, than as shooters, IMO.

Had I an original Henry Rifle, as an example, do you think for a second, that I would let anyone near it with a homemade rimfire cartridge loaded up with strike anywhere match heads? Not a frikken' chance! YMMV, of course.

Cheers
Trev
 
Trevj, I would thinks that if someone spent that much time and effort on making a rimfire shell it would have to be of the commercial quality, or there would be know point to doing so.
I idea of drilling out a colt center fire and installing a blank used to fire concert nails into the ground, is not what I had in mind.
Maybe for a one shot, trial , but not for a produce run of medium to large scale.
What I trying to say,is that if someone made a commercial grade rim fire shell in any of these obsolete caliber, at a reasonable price, that (I think) alot of people would be very interested.
Anyways just another one of those project that will have to wait until fall.
Thanks, Brian
 
Well, that there is the problem, innit?

The last people to make a Rimfire cartridge commercially, went on to more profitable things some time back.

Navy Arms imported and sold quite a bit of it. It was made in Brazil, to order for Navy Arms. And that was the last of it.

Most of the world does not give enough of a damn about obsolete rimfire ammo to make it worth while. So the ammo makers stay away in droves.

Despite the apparent amount of interest around this forum, in .32 rimfire, it is pretty much only because of the two things coming together that we get so much traffic on it. The first is that the Canadian Prescribed Antique laws make these mostly crappy and cheap pistols available without paperwork to anyone without a PAL, and the second being that, well, there is essentially about 2/3 of the guys in the country that are interested, are here on the forum on a more or less regular basis. It's not a bunch of guys, all added together.

So, it's drill out the centerfire cases, buy the HC Concepts kit (where THEY drilled out the cases, or made them from scratch), or do without.

My bet is that we don't see any .32 rimfire ammo being made really soon, if ever. Even if it is made, it still has to be run through the process of getting it added to the list of legal to import ammo's. Then a distributor has to be convinced that the Canadian market is worth selling IN to (case in point, Aquila rimfire ammo, you see much of that on the shelves?). You are even less likely to see the other rimfire cals come back into production, IMO.
And before anyone trots out the new 17Super Magnum, the only reason IT exists at all, wa sthat the cartridge cases that it was based upon, were already in production, as power nailer cartridges.

Then of course, will come the almost inevitable backlash of consumers whingeing about the price, that it does not restore the shine to their corroded barrels, or any of the other things that dudes will whine about, with new ammo.
And, back to the generally old, clapped out, none too high quality to behgin with guns, would YOU advise a company to start up a new product line based on them as your market, if you were the company lawyer? Nuh uhh! No way Jose!

All while the makers are able to sell every bit of .22 rimfire ammo they can make, at premium prices.

So, nope, don't see it happening.

As to somebody tooling up to sell formed cases, you still need to prime them. You may be willing to try it, I don't need to, to know that it would cause me more headaches than benefits. Sell primed cases for old guns that you have no control over the loads used... too much liability exposure again, methinks. Guys have tried to get .22 rimfire cases, supplies are...limited, if they can be got at all.


Cheers
Trev
 
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