P. Plainsman
Member
People, I'm sold on the .32 H&R Mag for general shooting fun. What a cool little round!
Took the brand new 3" .32 SP101 to the range for its inaugural spin today. Thing shot great. I use those 4" radius Shoot-N-C targets and by the end of the day I kept two consecutive cylinders, 12 out of 12, on the black at 25 yards, shooting offhand. That's from a 3" barrel gun with little half-fixed sights, out of the box, and I'm not a great shot. Impressive.
Recoil is comparable to a standard .38 Special, and muzzle flash seemed negligible. Muzzle blast was not: there's a good little crack! reminiscent of a .22 Mag rimfire.
I tried the Black Hills 85 gr JHPs and the equivalent Federal load. Black Hills felt zippier and shot right to point of aim, while the Federals were slightly low. I will stick to the Black Hills from now on. Maybe some of those hot 100gr Georgia Arms rounds! Those sound perfect for a sturdy little .32 Mag.
The SP101's action was very rough when I first got it. I dryfired it about 1000 times over the past few days before shooting it and it's much better now. Still a bit heavy, but smoother; I may add a Wolff hammer spring. Ruger DAs need breaking in, it's that simple.
Only reliability glitch from the new gun was two times, shooting single action, where it wouldn't cock fully at first. I lowered the hammer in each case, rotated the cylinder back one step, and gave the hammer a good jerk with the thumb, and it cocked correctly. So far it's never done this when the gun's unloaded. I attribute this, too, to breaking-in pains. It was interesting to compare the new SP to my stalwart gray GP100 next to it on the range bench. The GP is my car and nightstand gun, and after about 2000 rounds and mucho dryfiring its action is smooth, limber, and dead reliable. Gun shoots snotty accurate too. I would never sell it. Hope the SP101 acquires that patina soon.
I put a Pachmayr Compac on the SP101 as soon as I got it home. I like the SP101's ergos. Really doesn't feel like a "snubby" when shooting.
Oh yeah, I also shot my SIG P220ST today.
It's a fine gun, smooth, 100% reliable, looks nice. Still, it was funny to compare my P220 targets at 15 yards with my GP100 and SP101 targets. Autoloader targets = "peppered"; revolver targets = "clustered." I have a lot more practice with wheelguns, and I like 'em better, which explains a lot of the difference.
Back to the point. All you folks get out there and get yourself a .32 Mag revolver! They're sweet. Then the gun makers will give us more options (I wish Ruger would bring back the adjustable .32 Single Six with full-sized grips, I can't hold the Vaquerito properly). And the ammo companies will back down a little on the prices for factory .32. Everyone wins.
Now I'm starting to think about the featherweight .32 backup snubbies. S&W 432, Taurus 731 ... very different from the "kit gun" SP101, but intriguing ...
Took the brand new 3" .32 SP101 to the range for its inaugural spin today. Thing shot great. I use those 4" radius Shoot-N-C targets and by the end of the day I kept two consecutive cylinders, 12 out of 12, on the black at 25 yards, shooting offhand. That's from a 3" barrel gun with little half-fixed sights, out of the box, and I'm not a great shot. Impressive.
Recoil is comparable to a standard .38 Special, and muzzle flash seemed negligible. Muzzle blast was not: there's a good little crack! reminiscent of a .22 Mag rimfire.
I tried the Black Hills 85 gr JHPs and the equivalent Federal load. Black Hills felt zippier and shot right to point of aim, while the Federals were slightly low. I will stick to the Black Hills from now on. Maybe some of those hot 100gr Georgia Arms rounds! Those sound perfect for a sturdy little .32 Mag.
The SP101's action was very rough when I first got it. I dryfired it about 1000 times over the past few days before shooting it and it's much better now. Still a bit heavy, but smoother; I may add a Wolff hammer spring. Ruger DAs need breaking in, it's that simple.
Only reliability glitch from the new gun was two times, shooting single action, where it wouldn't cock fully at first. I lowered the hammer in each case, rotated the cylinder back one step, and gave the hammer a good jerk with the thumb, and it cocked correctly. So far it's never done this when the gun's unloaded. I attribute this, too, to breaking-in pains. It was interesting to compare the new SP to my stalwart gray GP100 next to it on the range bench. The GP is my car and nightstand gun, and after about 2000 rounds and mucho dryfiring its action is smooth, limber, and dead reliable. Gun shoots snotty accurate too. I would never sell it. Hope the SP101 acquires that patina soon.
I put a Pachmayr Compac on the SP101 as soon as I got it home. I like the SP101's ergos. Really doesn't feel like a "snubby" when shooting.
Oh yeah, I also shot my SIG P220ST today.
It's a fine gun, smooth, 100% reliable, looks nice. Still, it was funny to compare my P220 targets at 15 yards with my GP100 and SP101 targets. Autoloader targets = "peppered"; revolver targets = "clustered." I have a lot more practice with wheelguns, and I like 'em better, which explains a lot of the difference. Back to the point. All you folks get out there and get yourself a .32 Mag revolver! They're sweet.
Then the gun makers will give us more options (I wish Ruger would bring back the adjustable .32 Single Six with full-sized grips, I can't hold the Vaquerito properly). And the ammo companies will back down a little on the prices for factory .32. Everyone wins.Now I'm starting to think about the featherweight .32 backup snubbies. S&W 432, Taurus 731 ... very different from the "kit gun" SP101, but intriguing ...
