32-20 on its way

[Canuck Bob]

Hello Veral, you helped greatly on some questions regarding a pending 303 Brit purchase and casting for it.

Bad news is I am not getting that rifle now.

Good news is I changed my order to a Miroku Winchester in 32-20, 24" barrel, take down model.

I read your other reports on this caliber and you mention that the stout loads reduce case life.  If a guy loads the bullet so it engraves against the rifling will that eliminate problems of this sort?  I used to load everything this way and had good results.

Is it possible to use GOP bullets in this little rifle's tube mag? 

This gun will travel with me in my suitcase on my sales territory in the oilpatch up here.  It will be a dedicated plinker small game gun.  Would you still recommend the 115 Gr or something a little lighter?

[Veral]

  The only way I've found to make cases last with stout loads is the minimize headspace.  The cases taper to gently, and are so thin, that they slip forward under hammer impact, then swell and lock to the chamber tightly enough that they stretch precisely the amount of headspace.

  I definately wouldn't advise using gop bullets in this tiny cartridge as gc are so much easier to make and stand all it can dish out.

[torpedoman]

32-20 brass is very delicate i use 4 to 4.5 gr bullseye anything 5gr or over is a case wrecker. I am shooting a rem rolling block your results may differ.

[Veral]

  You are absolutely correct, torpedoman,  IF THE GUN HAS SERIOUS HEADSPACE. OR GREATLY OVERSIZE CHAMBER.   
 
  As it came from the factory, my Marlin would pull cases in half with three shots if the load was anything over whimpy.  With a bit of experimentation I learned that the problem was headspace, so lengthened the bolt till it would just close on a case rim.  I then used one case, plumb full of a forgotten powder, which gave a velocity of an also forgotten bullet weight, of 2450 fps.  I loaded that one piece of brass 35 times with no visible or measurable change in it's condition.  I'm quite sure it would have gone at least double that many rounds and possibly triple, but was quite content with my modification at 35 rounds.  Point here is, if the ctg base can't move back when it fires, the brass won't stretch. - As I recall, factory headspace was around .010, which stretched the brass .030 in three shots, which was at or near the break point, with cases pulling in two about a quarter inch forward of the rim.