doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Cartridge question

I bumped into an old gentleman yesterday in a local gun shop who was trying to sell back a Winchester High Wall ( as he called it?), a single shot rifle in caliber 32 Ideal. His reason was that in having owned it for three years he has never found ammunition to use in it anywhere on the planet. The salesman and I started looking in Cartridges of the World and found the round in question. The description gave the bullet diameter of .323 when most of the other categories of 32's were about .327. He supposedly has found a box of brass but is unable to find any bullets or molds, etc. Anybody here know anything about this round and able to offer any advice to this guy?

The standard advise in a situation like this holds true.....A chamber cast is needed, then slug the bore. Until that point you are guessing and rifle pressures are nothing to mess with.

What did he say ?

Custom molds are easy enough to come up with. Why not have one made to fit?

Send him over to the ASSRA.com web site. There are a bunch of single shot shooters, some of whom are actively shooting the .32 Ideal and can provide sources for brass and components.

Perry,
The load data in COTW shows using cast bullets from Lyman Molds #32359 and #32360. The first of these is a 115 gr bullet and the other is 150 gr. Since the "32359 bullet was sometimes used for 8mm Nambu, I would guess other bullets intended for the Nambu would work. Also the bullet for the .310 Martini Cadet should work, after a fashion, they are intended to be outside lubricated but are the right diameter for loading with the grease groove inside the case. If he has cases, he should treat them with care, they will be hard to replace. The case has about the same head diameter as 32-20, 25-20, and 218 Bee; but is about 1.77" long, whereas the others are 1.32-1.35" long. If I had the rifle, I think I would just use 32-20 cases and the #32359 bullet( I have the mold and cases "on hand" already).
Mike

I suggested the possibility of 32-20 cases and one of the bullets from the Lyman mold. He insisted that he had found no one who could make a bullet for him. I personally think that he just wanted to get rid of the rifle due to his first admission that he needed "a little money." Nonetheless I will as promised pass this information provided here to him and let him have it from there. Thanks for all the information.

Why do people buy odd caliber guns without thinking about finding ammo for them? I would not think about buying a 14, 24 or 32 gauge double without figuring out where I could get shells for it. Do they figure it�s an easy thing to find on the internet? And if you don�t know and don�t reload that�s double stupid in my book.

here is a market for that rifle, even in that caliber. It always comes down to price. And in this case rare definitely does not make it more valuable to all but an extremely select collector group. As a shooter you�d be better off finding someone who is already loading that round or a close cousin.

I just talked to the salesman at the store I was in yesterday and passed on the information provided here. He told me that they bought the gun back from him!! I don't think he had any interest in finding anything to shoot in it. Rather, he just wanted whatever part of what he paid back for the rifle. It was a nice enough piece but like you said KJ, I would not buy it without a sure source of something to shoot in it!! Anyway, the old guy continually stressed the fact that 'it is a Winchester...and not an inexpensive piece of junk....." Right.

Pretty sure the .32 Ideal was similar to an elongated .32-20 and used the same bore diameter as the .32-40. I've got no less than five .322/323 molds that I use for my Schuetzen rifles. There not unusual at all. A .32 Ideal Hi Wall would be an entertaining rifle to play with.