@Mr_Flintstone
I've just done on a deep information dive of the .32 S&W and .32 S&W Long and have been in contact with one Larry Gibson over on Castboolits. He has conducted pressure tests involving both the .32 S&W and S&W Long and has found that some factory .32 S&W ammunition exceeds the 17K SAAMI M.A.P., one of which is a Winchester going nearly 19K PSI. The one .32 S&W Long factory load he tried was a Federal wadcutter load that got 12K PSI.
It's just jarring for me to be saying that .32 S&W is a hotter cartridge than .32 S&W Long, but like Scott Steiner says "the numbers don't lie." For all intents and purposes tho, the S&W and S&W Long are virtually identical. Me and
@Driftwood Johnson were talking about this recently and Drift believes that Smith & Wesson's intention with making the .32 S&W Long was solely to stuff it with more black powder as the length increase of over 1/4" is well more than the roughly 1/8" increase for .357 Mag from .38 Spl for the purposes of preventing the chambering of a .357 into a .38 revolver.
It does make one wonder, why after smokeless powder had been discovered that S&W wanted to make a longer .32 S&W and still stuff it with Black Powder? IDK, but what's clear is that when loaded with smokeless powder the .32 S&W Long doesn't operate at pressures above what .32 S&W does and the only clear advantage that the S&W Long has is it can shoot 98gr wadcutters and 115gr bullets because of the longer case. It's very much akin to the .45 Schofield and .45 Colt in that the .45 Colt, at standard pressures, shoots at most a 300gr bullet and .45 Schofield at most is a 250gr bullet, but both are operating at nearly the same pressures. The only time there's a significant difference in performance is when they're both loaded with black powder and .45 Colt is touching 900 fps with a 255gr bullet while .45 Schofield is about 750 fps with a 230gr pill.
Anyway, what I'm reading from Larry and others is that the 15K PSI MAP for S&W Long was set there because all these semi auto .32 wadcutter target pistols that were getting popular all used a blowback action and needed a consistent ammunition loaded to a pressure that they worked best for. So, instead of just making a new cartridge called .32 Wadcutter and holding it to 15K PSI, SAAMI made the industry make every .32 S&W Long ammunition adhere to that pressure, reloaders or those looking to get the most out of their .32 carry revolvers could go pound sand.
Now, that doesn't mean that .32 S&W Long revolvers can't handle more than 15K PSI, they can, but Larry Gibson is of the opinion (one I agree with) of holding to the 15K PSI max for ALL .32 top break revolvers, both S&W and S&W Long.
IMO, I think for
solid frames you can safely go up to the 17K PSI limit that is set for .32 S&W for .32 S&W Long as well.
Then, if the factory .32 S&W ammo Larry tested was in spec and not overcharged ammo, then, again in
solid frames, I think 19K PSI would be an okay max pressure for both .32 S&W and S&W Long for any uh... "business" ammunition one would handload if they were so inclined. I would not make it a habit to shoot that ammunition any more than necessary tho because there's no reason to go above and beyond the 17K PSI for general practice shooting.
It does lead me to ask what the goal would be of pushing the .32 S&W's so much more? Even .32 Mag has issues developing enough velocity to expand a hollow point in a short barrel, so both .32 S&W's would have the same issues, but be operating at pressures that are over industry standard. After watching the Lucky Gunner .32 caliber video, even the 98gr wadcutters were consistently hitting the 12 inch FBI minimum penetration at 650 fps. Too many people seem to think that getting 15 inches of penetration vs 12 means that it's 33% more effective and it's not, it's 0% more effective because the 12 inch minimum is a simple pass/fail checkpoint.
Sorry for this insanely long reply, but you want answers and information as much as I do and details matter.
