Smilin' Mack's 32/40 factory

[earlmck]

Friend George called the other night, said he'd been to a gun show in Pendleton and had acquired a Savage 1899 in 32/40. He'd found one box of shells at the gunshow but they wanted $80 for them and he thought that sounded awful steep.

I assured him we could do better, so ordered up some 32/40 dies (of the Lee persuasion). They arrived yesterday, so I had to see how they'd do reworking some WW 32 Special cases. Also tried some R-P 30/30's. Here's the result:

3240from32spcl.jpg

The two loaded rounds in the center are made from 30/30 cases while the outside loaded rounds are from 32 Special. Empty 32 Special cases were the parent material, so to speak.

The Lee neck expander is such a nice gradual taper that making the cases from 30/30's seemed to add no extra effort and they turned out fully as nicely formed as those from the 32 Special cases, other than it took me a few tries to get the lube cut down to where I didn't get wrinkles. Also found I needed to go in several stages, easing the case in a half inch or so, then backing out and re-smearing lube around. I did note with a bit of disappointment that these Lee dies are not really well polished, especially in the neck area (I think you can tell that from the picture). But when old George shows up here next time (he lives some distance away, over toward the Idaho border) we should have some shootin' ammo to allow us to try out his new baby.

I used 20.5 grains if IMR 4198 with the 170 flat nose and the 165 grain FTX bullets. Old Lyman manual suggestion...

[AJMD429]

I just LOVE projects like that. Sounds fun...!

[ollogger]

nice job Earl! I know id be anxious in shooting that old 99


ollogger

[Ben_Rumson]

Aint hand loading a kick !

[Sixgun]

Earl,
That's all I have been doing to make ammo for the 32-40 for many years.......run a 30-30 case in a 32-40 FLS. They do come up a bit short but I just seat the bullet where it should be for max OAL and use a Lee FCD that Lee made for me.

I have done a fair amount of testing the short brass vs. long brass and never could find a difference in accuracy. I use the RCBS bullet with a gas check and 18-20 grains of 5744.

With 6.5 grains of Unique the velocity is right around 1000 and will poke beer cans out to 200 meters------6

[gamekeeper]

Please let us know how they perform in that old 1899.....

[Mainehunter]

How about some picks of the old girl?

Mainehunter :

[earlmck]

Earl,
That's all I have been doing to make ammo for the 32-40 for many years.......run a 30-30 case in a 32-40 FLS. They do come up a bit short but I just seat the bullet where it should be for max OAL and use a Lee FCD that Lee made for me.

I have done a fair amount of testing the short brass vs. long brass and never could find a difference in accuracy. I use the RCBS bullet with a gas check and 18-20 grains of 5744.

With 6.5 grains of Unique the velocity is right around 1000 and will poke beer cans out to 200 meters------6

Turns out that my 30/30 FC die will crimp these slightly short (about .1") 32/40 cases if needed. I'll have to wait for George and his gun to show up so we can try these for final fit before putting in much of a crimp. And if he gets disgusted with his rifle and runs off and leaves it behind I might invest in a .32 mold. Meanwhile we'll muddle along with some jacketed bullets I bought for the 32 Special with the pitted bore that is going to get rebored into something "one of these days".

How about some picks of the old girl?

I'll try for some pics when the rifle and its owner show up for a visit. Meanwhile, we are ready here.