I love LOVE LOVE 30-32 caliber handguns. Every post I have seen both here and in That Former Site that dealt with this subject ALWAYS got tons of attention. There is a definite following for mid-caliber handguns.
30 Carbine Blackhawk--superbly accurate, and louder than Hell's Drumline when run at full power. It likes bullets between 100 and 130 grains in weight. My best is a plain base 118 grain that looks like a short plain-based #311440. Run at 850-900 FPS it isn't blasty and they stack on top of each other.
32 S&W Long--a delight to shoot, older revolvers should stick to the 95-100 grain castings at 700-750 FPS. A pound of powder goes a long long way. Post-war Colts and S&Ws can go past 900 FPS without too much fuss & bother. 85-100 grain weights have worked best for me.
32 H&R Magnum--I have a S&W Model 16-4 x 6" revolver that is the most accurate revolver I have ever owned or fired--bar none. Most of its shooting is with the RCBS #32-98-SWC castings, and though it can run them faster I choose to run them at 900-1000 FPS. There is no finer small game or varmint revolver ever made. 85-100 grain bullets have done the best work here as well.
32/20 WCF--I have 3 of these revolvers and a levergun as well. I could write for hours about these guns and their ammo, but I'll sum things up here. The 110-130 grain bullets do better work than do the 85-100 grain bullets have. This is based on over 50 years of loading and firing these cranky, quirky arms and cartridges. Also, Starline brass in this caliber is the single largest upgrade the chambering has ever received. Priming is not uber-critical with the wheelguns and 1880s load levels, but in rifles the use of Rem #6-1/2 primers will decrease group sizes markedly. CCI #550 primers seem to have the same effect. In rifles the SP primers are not quite enough, and the SR are a bit too much. The Rem 6-1/2 was developed for the small-cased rifle rounds like 22 Hornet, 25/20 WCF, 30 Carbine, and 32/20 WCF HV. SPM caps seem to duplicate the #6-1/2 primers' effects closely, but this needs further work for me to say this conclusively.
The bullets that do good work in the 30 Carbine also do good work in the 32/20 WCF. #311316 is my high-velocity champion in the Marlin 1894CCL, it stays accurate to 1900 FPS+. My 118 grain PB design for the 30 Carbine casts at .315" in 92/6/2, so It gets sized at .313" for the 32/20 and then squeezed down to .311" and .309" for the Carbine BH. Ben sent me my first #311008 mould some months ago, and I have some 32/20 revolver loads put up with those now.
'008' is the classic 32/20 bullet, but it is not without its quirks. It lacks a crimp groove, and its case mouth was meant to be crimped around the bullet ogive. A column of black powder was meant to support the seated bullet as the cartridges shunted down a tubular magazine. The late John Kort used 25.0 grains of RL-7 as a full-density BP substitute in 44/40 cartridges, so I did the logical & heretical thing and used 12.5 grains of RL-7 under some '008's just for grins. It worked. There are a few zombie grains left in revolver bores, but rifles do better work. BP velocities result, about 875-900 FPS from 5" barrels and 1200-1225 from the Marlin. Rem #6-1/2s were used throughout, revolvers and rifle.
327 Federal--Another great cartridge that combines the best attributes of the many other mid-calibers into one do-it-all chambering. For the record, my 4" SP-101 has the dubious distinction of being even louder than the Carbine Blackhawk with full-snort loadings. I don't have the time-in-grade with the 327 that I have with the above critters, but I do like what i have seen. I'm thinking that a Henry levergun in 327 might be a worthwhile addition to the fleet.