I want to try something different on pests and game up to the size of raccoons. This would be mostly for my backyard for up to 20 yards where subsonic Eley .22 Shorts (at 900 fps) are fine for noise level but a rifle with a supersonic crack is too much. I was thinking about a rifle chambered for either the S&W .32 Short or S&W .32 Long. I can have an existing single shot rifle barrel relined for this. I’ve shot lots of rabbits and squirrels with subsonic Eley .22 Shorts with no problems but skunks, possums, fox and raccoons require head shots. With a frontal area about twice that of a .22 rimfire, it seems a .32 caliber rifle with flat nosed bullets would have a lot more thump. It also seems there should not be a lot of noise since it would not take much pressure to get 800 to 900 fps out of 60 to 90 grain bullets from a rifle barrel, and I read that for the same velocity, smaller cartridges produce less muzzle blast than larger cartridges because the muzzle pressure is lower. Am I way off track here? Any opinions?
Maybe a 300 Blackout? I have an AR pistol chambered in that cartridge. NOE makes a nifty 247gr mold, plain base or GC. At 1000fps +/- it will let you shoot out to 100yds or a bit past. There are some fine designs in the 180-200gr range as well.
125gr jacketed spitzers at 2400fps are killing a lot of whitetail deer in the Southeast part of the country.
I used to make some very quite loads using 312 lead pistol bullets in about any 30 cal rifle with a 22 inch or longer barrel with a few grs of red dot.
The longer the barrel the less noise they make.
They are very accurate and quite.
Posts: 19721 | Location: wis | Registered: 21 April 2001
Depending on what rifles you have available. I made a low velocity load using an old Lyman mold for the 255 gr SWC that actually cast .459 bullets. This bullet with well used 45-70 brass out of my Siamese Mauser, using a dusting of Unique with Kleenex/toilet paper wad tamped down with a polished brass rod. It was a fun load, proved to be deadly on our Blue Ridge Squirrels. The noice was so low that the other squirrels looked around to see who passed gas. I'd bet that using a 444 Marlin, 405 Winchester could be used.
Jim
"Whensoever the General Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force." --Thomas Jefferson
Posts: 6173 | Location: Richmond, Virginia | Registered: 17 September 2000
Sounds like you are looking for a 320 Rook. It is the same as the 32 Colt. Difficult to find brass though. Maybe a 360 No.5 Rook would do. Brass is shortened .38 Special and has a nice 125gr heeled bullet. Super easy to load.
I think you have it about right. You just need to cook up a rifle for it.
quote:
Originally posted by IOWADON: I want to try something different on pests and game up to the size of raccoons. This would be mostly for my backyard for up to 20 yards where subsonic Eley .22 Shorts (at 900 fps) are fine for noise level but a rifle with a supersonic crack is too much. I was thinking about a rifle chambered for either the S&W .32 Short or S&W .32 Long. I can have an existing single shot rifle barrel relined for this. I’ve shot lots of rabbits and squirrels with subsonic Eley .22 Shorts with no problems but skunks, possums, fox and raccoons require head shots. With a frontal area about twice that of a .22 rimfire, it seems a .32 caliber rifle with flat nosed bullets would have a lot more thump. It also seems there should not be a lot of noise since it would not take much pressure to get 800 to 900 fps out of 60 to 90 grain bullets from a rifle barrel, and I read that for the same velocity, smaller cartridges produce less muzzle blast than larger cartridges because the muzzle pressure is lower. Am I way off track here? Any opinions?
Posts: 13978 | Location: http://www.tarawaontheweb.org/tarawa2.jpg | Registered: 03 December 2008
Originally posted by Huvius: Sounds like you are looking for a 320 Rook. It is the same as the 32 Colt. Difficult to find brass though. Maybe a 360 No.5 Rook would do. Brass is shortened .38 Special and has a nice 125gr heeled bullet. Super easy to load.
Why not use the 32 H&R mag case?
Jim
"Whensoever the General Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force." --Thomas Jefferson
Posts: 6173 | Location: Richmond, Virginia | Registered: 17 September 2000
I have stated this before in several other threads, but I built a sub-sonic load for my K-Hornet using the Lyman 225107 bullet, a half grain of Accurate #2 and a cotton pellet to keep the powder over the primer. Shot out of my NEF, the round is dead silent and shoots to one hole at 25 yards.
I didn't size or lube the bullets per se, just tumbled them as cast in liquid alox and loaded them. The cotton pellet would lodge in the barrel and you had to blow it out between shots! The load was absolute death on cat squirrels chewing on my parents' pecan tree.
I don't know why you couldn't do the same thing with the 32 Mag or similar. The 32 Smith and Wesson Long is another candidate, I would think. I have an NEI mould that casts a 100-grain SWC that I would think would be just about perfect in the 32s, but the Lyman 311316 should work just as well...
Posts: 4748 | Location: TX | Registered: 01 April 2005
The 32ACP case actually has a small rim, I used to fire these out of my Ruger SSM 32 H&R Mag revolver. With a 100 gr cast RN bullet and a couple of grains of W231 these would make a fine pest load.
Posts: 1230 | Location: Saugerties, New York | Registered: 12 March 2002
I cast and shoot the little Lee 32 cal. .314" tumble lube SWC in all my 7.62 cal. rifles. Bullets are cast from pure lead an lightly tumble lubed once before and after sizing.
In the SKS and Mosin rifle which have .312" groove bore I size the bullet to .314" it drops from the mold at .315" In all other US 30 cal. rifle I size it down to .311"
In the 7.62 x 39 I use 2.7 to 3.0 grs. Alliant bullseye, For all other rifle 30-30.7.62 x 54r,300 Sav. 30-06 or .308 I use 3.0 to 3.5 grs. Alliant Bullseye. These are not Max. loads but may lead if pushed much faster. All loads are sub-sonic and have chronoed just a little over 1K fps. using the Max. loads for caliber. Groups average 2" and usually less less at 50 yds. with iron sights.
Posts: 35 | Location: North Carolina | Registered: 19 September 2007
Thanks for all the help. I got in contact with a guy named Ed Harris who used to write articles for the NRA magazine. He had a couple rifles chambered for the .32 S&W Long and more or less said the noise from them varied from very quiet with 450 fps loads to about like a subsonic .22 rimfire with faster subsonic loads. At this point I think the decision will be between the .32 S&W Short and the .32 S&W Long. The Short should produce less noise but the Long would be more versatile for loads with a little more or a lot more power.
I used to like CCI CB Long cartridges. Less noise than an air rifle, struck like Thor's hammer, and didn't actually need a supressor or moderator as the powder was all burned withing a (long) barrel.
Posts: 6823 | Location: United Kingdom | Registered: 18 November 2007
If you don't want to build a new rifle, you could search out an older 32 rimfire rifle. Most of these can be easily converted to 32 Colt, by making an internal connector that will lower the breech block so that the firing pin hits center instead of on the rim. Some of the old Marlins I've seen have a second hole in the lever that was apparently a factory thing to allow use if either cartridge. I've done a couple old single shots over to use the 32 Colt for squirrels. Of course if you could pick up a Martini you would be good to go with a 310 Greener or if you found one rechambered to 32 20 with a light load. Bfly
Work hard and be nice, you never have enough time or friends.
Posts: 1195 | Location: Lake Nice, VA | Registered: 15 March 2005
