I just got back from John Taylor at Taylor Machine what amounts to an American-Style rook rifle, chambered for the .32 S&W Long revolver cartridge.
I had laying around an old pre-war H&R .410 single-shot shotgun. This was one of the tiny, cute, small actions, about the proportion of an English rook rifle, not the fence-post and railroad iron clunker they sell now.
John machined and fitted a new replacement rifle barrel which would interchange with the .410 shotgun barrel, so that I still had the use of the shotgun. This made more sense to me than lining the shotgun barrel, as it cost very little more.
The completed rifle weighs a few ounces over 5 lbs. with iron sights and just over 6 lbs. with Unertl blocks and 6X Small Game straight tube scope. This is going to be my standard walking around rifle from now on! My Single Six Ruger now has a hunting buddy!
The rifle barrel is 26" long and skinny in contour, fitting the original shotgun wood. Rifling specs are equal width lands and grooves of normal .30 cal (.300x.308) dimensions, with a 16" twist of rifling. The chambering reamer was one which I had made when I was on the NRA staff in the early 1980s, when we were testing this cartridge in T/C Contenters for Hunter's Pistol silhouette. The introduction of the .32 H&R Magnum killed the project, because they didn't want people loading hot silhouette loads in .32 S&W Long for T/Cs, but our special S&W Long chamber shoots better than the H&R Mag. with SAAMI dimensioned chamber, when used in a rifle.
The chamber body is of minimum SAAMI dimensions, based on the pressure-velocity test barrel. However, the "second shoulder" or transition from the .335" diameter at the case mouth, to the .3114" diameter of the forcing cone entrance is 15 degrees included angle. This provides an easy transition for lead bullets and enables a narrow front driving band as large as .314" to rest against the origin of rifling. The forcing cone angle is 3 degrees included angle, which provides a Mauser-style long tapered throat which enables you to seat a 150-gr. FN cast bullet with only the gascheck and the bottom band in the case, for added case capacity if you want to experiment. So-loaded the case holds enough RL-7 to provide a subsonic "blooper" rifle load. About 20 years ago I tested the concept thoroughly in a single-shot target rifle and got sub-moa grouping at 100 yards when breech seated.
More practical for field carry are any ordinary revolver loads for the .32 S&W long, which also shoot spendidly in this chamber. Factory loaded 98-gr. LRN or HBWCs make about as much noise outdoors as Eley Tenex fired in a .22 sporter. My standard revolver load with the Saeco #325, 95-gr. SWC bullet and 2.5 grs. of Bullseye gives about 850 f.p.s. in a 4-5/8" revolver and remains subsonic in the rifle, being quieter than high velocity .22 LR, but should be much more effective.
A heavier revolver load I shoot in my Ruger Single Six, 7 grs. of #2400 with the same bullet, gives 1050 f.p.s. in the revolver, and I expect would approach 1300 f.p.s. in the rifle, approximating the standard ballstics for the .32-20 Winchester, one of the best small game rifles ever invented.
I contacted Henry Arms and suggested that they consider a quiet, long barreled center-fire small game rifle, available in either .25-20, .32-20 or .32 H&R Magnum. No lever action cowboy gun here, but a handy, well-balanced walking gun like a single-shot rook rifle, or maybe even a trim bolt action, slim, balanced at the natural point of carry, without excessive belly or clubby wood.
They need convincing. I paid about $360 in custom work, $85 of which was for the XS Ghost ring peep sight and white line Patridge front, to get mine, but if you don't have an action floating around, a factory gun would sure be nice. Certainly there must be other shooters out there who understand that a truly utilitarian small game rifle should use a cartridge other than a .22 rimfire and shouldn't "crack" in the report to alarm the neighbors or make your ears ring. It should balance more like a good fly rod than an SMLE!
If you agree please help me ring the drum gently.
