Reloading S&W Long for outdoor Bullseye

[Guzzi]

A couple of years ago I bought a used Benelli .32 fitted with a Wilson tighter bore and faster twist barrel. My the intention was to use it for CF portion of outdoor Bullseye (50 and 25 yards), but work took up too much time and I never got around to reloading for it.

I'm looking for equipment recommendations for loading the little .32.

I've been a reloader and bullet caster for decades, but am planning to buy a replacement for a Dillon SD I've worn out. Definitely need a progressive press to reload my other standard pistol rounds (.45, .38 Special, .40 S&W and 9mm. etc.)

With that in mind, is there a progressive press that would be better suited to reloading match grade .32 S&W Long? I'm familiar with Dillon, but certainly not opposed to trying something else. I've got a good single stage press, so feel free to tell me that the .32 is better reloaded the slow way rather than on a progressive.

What about dies--what would you recommend for somebody starting from scratch on the .32?

Molds? Brass? Other component recommendations? Any other tips?

Thanks!

[bdutton]

A couple of years ago I bought a used Benelli .32 fitted with a Wilson tighter bore and faster twist barrel. My the intention was to use it for CF portion of outdoor Bullseye (50 and 25 yards), but work took up too much time and I never got around to reloading for it.

I'm looking for equipment recommendations for loading the little .32.

I've been a reloader and bullet caster for decades, but am planning to buy a replacement for a Dillon SD I've worn out. Definitely need a progressive press to reload my other standard pistol rounds (.45, .38 Special, .40 S&W and 9mm. etc.)

With that in mind, is there a progressive press that would be better suited to reloading match grade .32 S&W Long? I'm familiar with Dillon, but certainly not opposed to trying something else. I've got a good single stage press, so feel free to tell me that the .32 is better reloaded the slow way rather than on a progressive.

What about dies--what would you recommend for somebody starting from scratch on the .32?

Molds? Brass? Other component recommendations? Any other tips?

Thanks!

I have the Wilson barrel on my Pardini.

After a bit or reliability issues with the first barrel, Wilson sent me a second which still had issues. Even with match grade store bought ammo. This is not a knock against Wilson either. Its an excellent barrel with very tight tolerances for the feeding of bullets. I found the remedy for timed and rapid fire was using a very tight crimp creating a kind of bevel for easier feeding.

Occasional failures to feed on slow fire is not a big deal.

I reload with a Dillon 550b progressive and carbide dillon components. It does a decent job. You need to get the dillon small pistol powder drop. Recommended load is 1.7 grains of Bullseye powder for the long line. I drop it to 1.3-1.4 for the short line. I forget the name of the bullet maker. I got them at Camp Perry from a very nice German woman at one of the shops on commercial row. OAL is jsut flush with the brass. I use only Lapua brass.

[ghillieman]

Guzzi-
Check out uniquetek.com they have the arrendondo powder drop bar w/ micrometer for the dillon powder measure. I think this is what you would want for that caliber. Otherwise, Harrell makes a very accurate powder measure for small rifle and pistol calibers. It's their scheutzen model, but its a couple hundred dollars.
BTW, do you compete at TRPC, if so I probably know you.
-Dan Miller.

[Trooperjake]

The Dillon SD press is perfect for loading the 32 S&W Long.
You say yours is worn out, I would send it back to Dillon and have them rebuild it. They will not charge for all the parts changed, with their lifetime warranty, it will just cost shipping.
I agree with Dan Miller, get the Arrendondo small powder drop, from UniqueTek, in Arizona. The SD dies from Dillon are great.
I use VVn310 1.4 gr. In my Walther GSP, with no problems.
I had the Benelli 95 in 32 S&W Long and always had feeding problems, with reloads.
With factory Fiocchi it worked great, I did experiment with case length, different bullets and different roll crimps.
Good luck with yours,
Marty

[Guzzi]

Thanks for the feedback.

Dan--this is Prescott, your TRPC match director! :)

[Dipnet]

Guzzi,
I just abandoned, but not yet sold, my GSP 22/32. I followed all the recommendations on Tony's Bullseye Blog for reloading 32 S&W (using a Dillion 550), but the most important is to purchase the long powder drop (20064) designed for deep belling of brass for wadcutters in 32. Using that powder drop and ever so lightly crimping produced accurate loads (at 25 yards). The Arrendondo small powder drop was also a big help for throwing accurate small volume powder charges.

I looked up the specs for Lapua 98 grain bullets:
Yards: 0 10 50
Velocity: 787 760 672

The 6th edition Vihtavuori Reloading Guide gives the following data:
98gr Lapua bullet; 1.4gr V N310 yields 764fps and 1.9grs N310 yields 843fps (from a 6-in barrel).

I tried to duplicate that load using my chronograph and 1.7gr N310 with 98gr Speer or Lapua bullets, which proved to be accurate at 25 (mean vel. =742 fps) but were inconsistent at 50 yds. Sometime thereafter, the GSP and I got a divorce and I'm hoping a crow will nudge it out of the tree (or I'll have to send my son Cleaver up there and he is terribly afraid of heights). Dipnet

[ghillieman]

Hey Prescott,
Check out Dardas cast bullets, and also Berry's, they make a plated 32 HBWC. From what I've read it seems that you have to custom fit these loads to your pistol, unlike the wham bam thank you ma'am of 45 ACP.
That being said, I have a Magma Master Caster and Star sizer's. Once you figure out the bullet it likes we can cast up a few thousand on my machine.
Oh, I've seen a lot of molds being custom made and altered to cast HBWC, and some that work in the Master Caster.

[TonyT]

When I loaded for the 32SWL I used my Dillon 550 with the extra small powder bar.

[oldcaster]

I did a lot of loading for my 32 Benelli 90 and something that may be causing a lot of you problems is the recoil spring. When the spring gets weak the gun will alibi with a round pointing up out of the magazine. That might be why the gun will run with one round and not another. When the spring gets weak it will be necessary to lighten the load and then it will fire again, for a while. The last time I bought another spring, it didn't work much better than the one I had so I stretched it about an inch. Now it works. I should have just stretched the one I had.

There are a lot of posts of people testing loads for the 32 long on this site. For the most part, if you use an expander for the neck to make it to the point that it is not too hard to insert the bullet into the case you are using and use a bullet like a Saeco #323, or H&N HBWC which are the best of the lot. The Dardas bullet is not as good but not really bad either. At 50 yards it will group around 3 1/2 to 4 inches and the H&N or Saeco will get down to about 2 inches if you get everything right. My pick of brass would be Remington, CBC, or Lapua. It seems quite possible that CBC was made by Remington. I tried H&N brass and it seemed too stiff as did FC.

Pick a powder that people use and say that it throws well and keep the velocities around 700 to 725. I don't think it is worth it to suggest more because each gun likely wants what it wants anyway.

One of the guys here that quit shooting Bullseye is selling a Mihec HBWC mold for a 32 if anyone is interested in it.