32-20 M1 Carbine equivalent

[HowieG]

Any of you like to reload the 32-20? A little while back, I thought it would be nice to have a load that basically equaled the 30 M1 Carbine. Mostly, I shoot cast 115g lead at about 1500 fps out of my Marlin 1894 CL. I thought something a little more upscale would be handy for some tasks. The one load I have experimented with so far uses W296, a magnum small pistol primer, and a 100g Hornady XTP hollow point. That load gives me an average of 1969 fps out of my rifle.

Any of you tried anything that really works for you?

 

[STCL01]

I've dabbled with it a little. You can probably find the thread on here. I've only reloaded 100 of these, and haven't shot more than ten of them. I have an old Winchester 73 manufactured in 1897. I got the idea that I wanted to shoot it, but didn't want to blow it up. I loaded with Trailboss and I think, 115g cast bullets. It goes boom and didn't blow up the rifle. My original goal was to make something up that I could take a deer with at 50 yards or so... reasonable range for the caliber. I'm not sure that these fit that bill, but I am concerned about over pressuring the rifle. I am certain there are people on there with many decades more experience than I who can and will chime in.

 

[HowieG]

I've dabbled with it a little. You can probably find the thread on here. I've only reloaded 100 of these, and haven't shot more than ten of them. I have an old Winchester 73 manufactured in 1897. I got the idea that I wanted to shoot it, but didn't want to blow it up. I loaded with Trailboss and I think, 115g cast bullets. It goes boom and didn't blow up the rifle. My original goal was to make something up that I could take a deer with at 50 yards or so... reasonable range for the caliber. I'm not sure that these fit that bill, but I am concerned about over pressuring the rifle. I am certain there are people on there with many decades more experience than I who can and will chime in.

Doesn't seem like they are around so far. Maybe 32-20 isn't as popular with hand loaders as I thought.

I do it this way: If it has a jacketed bullet, it only goes into my Marlin and NOT my sixgun. Only lead goes into my sixgun, which turns it into a magnum, by the way. 1500 fps out of the rifle, 1200 out of the sixgun.

 

[GBExpat]

I have a half dozen vintage .32-20 Colt and S&W revolvers and a 1922 .32-20 Marlin 27S pump-action rifle.

I only shoot lead bullet (100gr & 115gr) loads in the pistols at conservative velocities (800+fps). I use Trailboss for these loads ... which also shoot very well in my Marlin.

I also developed two rifle-only loads with 85gr & 100gr XTPs over IMR4227. I also kept those in a conservative range (1350-1450fps). They are also very accurate.