Top break revolvers that are safe to shoot

Tallball · Oct 11, 2019

Dewey 68 said:
I ended up buying a blued H&R 32 S&W off Gunbroker. I should have it Monday. Hopefully it functions reliably. It has the markings on the barrel to fire smokeless rounds. It won't do the S&W 32 long, just the plain 32 S&W. Looks like 32 S&W isn't too hard to find, but I'll probably get a couple hundred rounds and reload them. With a little over a grain of Bullseye it should be very cheap to reload.

It has been a while, six months or longer, so I wouldn't trust my memory and neither should anyone else, but...

What I read was something to the effect that H&R knew that S&W 32 long was going to be the standard and that the days of the short round were numbered. They made some revolvers that said something like"32 S&W crtg" on the barrel, but the cylinder was longer than the older ones and would accept the longer cartridges. I also read that the barely more powerful long cartridges were safe to shoot with them.

The H&R that I bought sight unseen from Gunbroker unfortunately has mechanical issues that I may or may not get around to repairing or be able to repair. I did shoot a few cylinders of commercial S&W 32 long through it. They did not ignite reliably due to the mechanical issues, but they didn't seem to stress the revolver any when they did.

This is something that a person would want to carefully research themselves. I am just mentioning it because I see the long cartridges at stores sometimes, but never the short ones. Since the OP reloads, if the longs fit in his cylinder, he could get a suitable amount of long brass and reload it to moderate/safe levels. The long ones would be much easier to reload than the short ones, which are very small. (My FiL refuses to reload those, or 25acp, for that reason.)

Note to readers: I would never try to shoot 32acp through a 32 S&W 32 short or long revolvers, because they are loaded to a significantly higher pressure than the revolver cartridges.

Be safe.

TTv2 · Oct 11, 2019

Tallball said:
It has been a while, six months or longer, so I wouldn't trust my memory and neither should anyone else, but...

What I read was something to the effect that H&R knew that S&W 32 long was going to be the standard and that the days of the short round were numbered. They made some revolvers that said something like"32 S&W crtg" on the barrel, but the cylinder was longer than the older ones and would accept the longer cartridges. I also read that the barely more powerful long cartridges were safe to shoot with them.

The H&R that I bought sight unseen from Gunbroker unfortunately has mechanical issues that I may or may not get around to repairing or be able to repair. I did shoot a few cylinders of commercial S&W 32 long through it. They did not ignite reliably due to the mechanical issues, but they didn't seem to stress the revolver any when they did.

This is something that a person would want to carefully research themselves. I am just mentioning it because I see the long cartridges at stores sometimes, but never the short ones. Since the OP reloads, if the longs fit in his cylinder, he could get a suitable amount of long brass and reload it to moderate/safe levels. The long ones would be much easier to reload than the short ones, which are very small. (My FiL refuses to reload those, or 25acp, for that reason.)

Note to readers: I would never try to shoot 32acp through a 32 S&W 32 short or long revolvers, because they are loaded to a significantly higher pressure than the revolver cartridges.

Be safe.

If the OP does reload, the best powder for him to use for top break gun longevity is Trail Boss. I've shot .32 Long handloads loaded warm and with a 100 grain bullet it felt like it was too much for a steady diet, good defense load, but not for practice shooting. Then I tried Trail Boss with a near max charge and it was a total pussycat load. Something you could shoot hundreds of rounds thru once a month and would have no ill affects on the top break.

Dewey 68 · Oct 11, 2019

TTv2 said:
If the OP does reload, the best powder for him to use for top break gun longevity is Trail Boss.

Over at Castboolits 1.5 grains of Trailboss with a 78 grain LRN seems to be a recommended load for the 32 S&W. MBC just happens to sell a 78 grain LRN. I'll wait until I get the gun and see how it it functions before I start buying new reloading supplies.

It's a vicious cycle: the more I reload, the more revolvers I buy. Okay, not such a vicious cycle, just nice to not chase brass all over the place.

Top break revolvers that are safe to shoot

Tallball

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TTv2

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Dewey 68

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