Pardini HP 32, ammo talk

[pistol champ]

These are two 10 shot targets shot at 50 yards with Old Casters's bullet.

[Heddok]

Now those targets have really caught my attention! This is the Tight wad load?

[pistol champ]

Those groups are from the info I submitted prior with TiteWad.

[john bickar]

These are two 10 shot targets shot at 50 yards with Old Casters's bullet.

From a rest, I presume?

[pistol champ]

Yes from a rest. I'm a high master but I'm not that good.

[Murph]

Once I have the lead bullet loaded, can I use alcohol or something similar to wipe off the lube? Is the purpose of the lube just for the reloading, or is it to remain as part of the cycling, feeding operations? I'd like to clean them all off once the cartridge is made have a cleaner round to handle and shoot. Mor I need to use less lube when making them.

I shot Pistol Champ's combo today except with 1.6 of Vv N310. Off the bench with a red dot only, 8 of the 10 rounds were in the X, two out in the 10 ring. Did this twice in a row. They were all good trigger pulls. Not sure why the two drifters, but still awesome groups. I suspect my crimp was a bit loose so I will add a bit to that and retest hopefully tomorrow.

Please, anyone, chime in about the lube. Can I clean that off or leave it alone. This is all new to me.

[pistol champ]

You can clean up the lube that is on the outside you only need lube in the lube groove of the bullet for it to do its job.

[Murph]

I do not have access to a ransom rest, so I use a bench rest with my Aimpoint 4 MOA red dot. I know it's a good hold because I can duplicate ethe results. Today I ran some Old Caster designed bullets again that I casted. Similar specs to what Pistol Champ posted in regards to the loading. Mine were 0.870 oal, 0.333 crimp, with 1.7 on VV N310. Didn't set up the Chrono either. But I shot almost 100 rounds. Largest group was about 2 1/2" (again, off the bench) with usually 8 out of 10 under 1.5". The last two groups were under 1.6" and the 5 shot strings were grouping together so I would bet a paycheck out of a ransom rest these would be closer to 1" groups.

My bullets drop close to 0.316 from the mold. I size them to 0.3148". Alox lube. Once fired Hornady brass.

[pistol champ]

I hope someone starts to manufacture this bullet commercially so others with this gun can enjoy the accuracy.

[oldcaster]

I happened on 16 pounds of Titegroup so I tried it in the 32. I used 1.3, 1.4 and 1.5 and the 1.5 was the best. I tried the Titewad and got better results with 1.2 grains but not quite as good but almost as the Tightgroup or 231. All of these including 1.7 231 give me groups in the 1.5 inch for 10 shots with the typical 1 or so flyer that makes it 2 to 2 1/2 inches. I sometimes get 10 in a row with no flyers but as long as I group mostly in the 1.5 range I am happy. Of the three powders I would go for the fastest, Titewad first and Tightgroup second because they are probably cleaner but you may have to use what you can get.

[pistol champ]

Old Caster,

Are you using all the same make brass in your testing? I've had different points of impact with different makes of brass. Remington is much thinner than Winchester so my crimp is different which I think changes the ballistics.

[oldcaster]

Yes, I only used Magtech CBC partly because that is what I could get and partly because I had such good results with the 32 long with CBC and my friends did well with Remington. I have 300 Remington but haven't used them yet and a mix of about 500 of who knows what that people gave me. One of these days I will test some with mixed brass to see if it still is OK. I have my doubts but when shooting the .45 it seems that nothing related to brass mattered. The 32 is pretty small and that might make variances show up more. When I am testing, I get real anal because one never knows what matters. I have to have the cases real clean inside and out, the same length and the same manufacturer. I also watch my bullets real carefully too and of course check to make sure my powder drop varies very little. When I started to use the CBC cases for the 32 ACP, I measured the thickness of the brass, trying to see if the taper inside was the same in the complete circle and found that as far as I could measure they were the same but different manufacturers were different so that turned me off from mixing them.

I noticed different points of impact when changing to a different powder. I initially thought that my scope was moving but proved that to be false by having duplicate loads that I would shoot after seeing the group move to a different place. They would typically go upper left to lower right about 3 to 4 inches. At this point, I am just happy to get the usual 1.5 inches with mild flyers,

[pistol champ]

I've also noticed that when loading 45 acp I can get away with mixed brass, different primers, powder weights consistent but the range is pretty wide and still get great results.
The magtech is good stuff I also get good groups with this brass. I got rid of some of my fliers or at least they were not as bad with the 32 acp when I went to Federal match primers. It seems that the 32 needs a little TLC to get small groups at 50 yards.

[oldcaster]

I just tried Federal match small pistol primers and didn't find them to be any better but I only shot around 80 rounds of different powders and loads. I did previously get better ( I think) groups with rifle primers in my 32 long Benelli but haven't tried them in the ACP. But, that is a tricky gun to load for also and just about the time you think you know something you find out you didn't.

When I was competing in F class matches a friend of mine who had extensive bench rest experience was mentoring me on which principles I should follow. When I questioned him about whether one of the things he showed me could possibly make a difference, he said, "You can't take the chance that it won't". So.......I followed everything he suggested and won a state F class match in 2010. I still don't know what mattered and what didn't.

Regarding the 32 ACP, there are several people here who put in a good amount of effort getting it to be reliable and quite accurate or at least good enough that we are happy with the results and can recommend it as an accurate bullseye gun. That should make a Merry Christmas for everyone.

[Murph]

Over the past three weeks, I put about 250 of these Oldcaster rounds thru my HP. I took it down today and took a good look down the barrel. Not a single sign of leading with this combo (0.314-0.3145 sized bullets). There was some minor coating inside from the lube and powder, but it wiped right out with no chemicals or scrubbing. I also shot it in the CF portion today, 90 rounds, and accuracy was perfect.....same as round one.

[pistol champ]

I also get no leading with this combination but I size my bullets a little bigger 0.315 and use 50/50 lube.

[oldcaster]

I am not so sure that exact size is real important when using an alloy that is fairly soft because the bullet can obdurate a little to fix a fit that isn't perfect. I have always felt this way from my experimentation but after reading an article by Glen Fryxell who is quite educated and an avid bullet caster I am convinced of this. Another reason is because of soft lube which I always thought worked better. He wrote that even if a barrel has a restriction at the chamber that is common among old revolvers because the barrel was tightened up so much that it squished it down at the threads, a soft bullet will swage down as it passed the constriction and then obdurate back making it less likely to cause a problem. He also said that the soft lube helps the situation, especially if the bullet speed isn't real fast (less than around 1200fps) because it has a tendency to better fill any leaks.

I had difficulty getting any commercial 200 grain wadcutters to be accurate in my Les Baer 45 wad gun unless I made them .451. I tried .452 and .453 and each was progressively worse. If I use a cast bullet that is relatively soft, I get away with any size and normally use .452. The old Star swaged bullets that used to shoot so well were pure lead so that means a BHN of around 5-6 and the alloy I use is around 9-11. Commercial bullets are normally around 15+.

The reason commercial entities use a hard lead is twofold. For one, people think it is necessary and want it. The other reason is because they ship better and don't get banged up. The same is true of the hard lube. Most people are not into accuracy and couldn't bench rest a group as well as a lot of shooters on this site do freehand so they are quite happy. I have noticed that most swaged bullets today are around 10 BHN. I don't know if this is picked because it works well or because lead in this area of hardness is easier to obtain. Either way, a commercial swaged bullet is easier to make accurate than a commercial cast one is.

If extensive testing was done, maybe a relatively soft bullet that is exactly bore size would improve if a larger one was used but so far my experience hasn't proven that. When you get down to getting decent groups in a pistol, it takes so many groups averaged together to prove more, that is gets to where I don't think it is worth the effort. If you still don't have satisfactory results, try smaller and larger but don't think the results are complete in just 10 shots. You have to prove it several times and then go with it whatever it is.

[gwpotte]

Hornady makes a 90 gr lead SWC in 0.314. Has anyone tried that with a Pardini HP in 32 ACP?

[Trooperjake]

90 grains is too heavy for 32 ACP, bullet would probably be too long.
It is probably for the 32 S&W Long Revolver.

[beeser]

What's the status on the .32 ACP LSWC bullets mentioned in this thread? I just received a small batch of them from T&B Bullets today and would like to give them a try. I gather 1.5 grains of Titegroup is good load but what about OAL? Any new info. on using this bullet?