doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com 32 gauge

Been thinking about the 32--anyone hunt with one? What's your likes and dislikes other than availability of the shells.

Why bother with a 32 gauge when you can have your choice of 67 gauge guns, also ammo, while spendy, is much more available.

Steve

BTW I was looking at a 32 gauge several years ago but fortunately one of the other board member�s here saved me by beating me to the purchase.

I don't have a 32 gauge but I do have a 24 gauge.

Cartridges are sporadically available but the only loads that I've seen in the US for the 32 gauge is an anemic 2 1/2" 1/2 ounce load with a roll crimp - essentially a 2 1/2" .410 load. Because of the larger bore I suspect that they will pattern better than a .410.

If you don't reload, you'll probably be unhappy.

I'm happy with my 24 gauge but I'm also set up to reload and roll crimp - all I had to buy was the GAEP roll crimp head for my drill press and components.

32g is very popular in Europe. It is basically their .410.

Might be hard to find ammo here in the US. Woild likely have to special order it in large quantity from a wholesaler.

When gauge specific hulls and loads became hard to get and load choices were limited I bought RMC brass hulls. Cowboy action shooter have reloading RMC hulls over 3k times. They are easy to load with simple hand tools and because they use 209 primers, have straight walls and have the same dimensions as factory shells, modern reloading options are good. Below are two 16 GA brass hulls and simple reloading tools.

I have two boxes of Fiocchi 32 gauge shells pretty much like Fly Champs describes: 1/2 ounce of #8's, 2 1/2 ", plastic case and roll crimped.

20 bucks plus shipping for both boxes if any one can use them. They would have to go FedEx or UPS Ground, about 2 pounds from my Zip Code 14519 to yours.

PM me or direct: biljolliff@aol.com

Jolly

I have two 32 ga guns one double and 1 single shot both damascus guns. I load 5/8 oz of shot by volume with AAA goex in the 2 1/2 plastic hulls and I also have some magtech 2 1/2 inch brass hulls that use the small pistol primer. I see midway still sells the 32 ga 2 1/2 brass hulls. They would be a good alternative if you do not have a crimper. I use a GAEP crimper. I think Ballistics products has the 32 ga crimpers now.

A couple of years ago I purchased an H & R 32 gauge "Kaptur(?)" gun that came with the original insert for 22 blanks and one syringe and dart. I have no plans to tranquilize any annoying bulls (or bears); but it was cheap at $100 o-t-d, and I thought this little 32 gauge would be a fun gun to shoot in spite of its rifled bore (and I could also get shells locally at $10/box). So I took my prize home and quickly learned that a Fiocchi 32 gauge shell is about 3/8" too long (or my chamber was too short). I can slam the breech closed and force a chambered shell, but then the shell is so tight I have to knock it out with a cleaning rod; at which point the "extracted" plastic shell is perfectly reformed to match the forcing cone. Although the barrel must be a t least a 1/4" thick around the chamber, I'm too old and cautious nowadays to risk an experiment gone bad; so I've yet to shoot the gun, thinking I might have someone lengthen the chamber at some point. Only problem with that thinking is that I don't know anyone with a 32 gauge chamber reamer? And although I satisfied with fantasy at the moment I still think this would be a fun gun to shoot.

Or take Magtech all brass 32 gauge hulls and shorten them to chamber length and reload them
What fun, what fun

http://www.midwayusa.com/Product/119743/magtech-shotshell-hulls-32-gauge-2-1-2-brass-box-of-25

Mike

In the September 1933 issue of The American Rifleman, there was a good article on the 32-gauge by James Vance, M.D., F.A.C.S. He had gotten a 32-gauge Lancaster with straight grip and 30-inch barrels. At that time the load offered by Winchester and Remington in their 2 1/2 inch 32-gauge shells was 1/2 ounce of shot --







At that time the loads offered in the .410-bore were 3/10 ounce of shot in the 2-inch shell and 3/8 ounce of shot in the 2 1/2 inch shell.

However, three months earlier, an article by F.C. Ness in The American Rifleman introduced the new Winchester Model 42 and the 3-inch .410-bore shell with a 3/4 ounce load. A year or so later the load in the 2 1/2 inch .410-bore shell was upped to the 1/2 ounce we've known all my life.

All this making the good Dr. Vance's 32-gauge arguments rather pointless.