CZ93X62
Official forum enigma
I am a long-time mid-caliber handgun addict. I know that I write a great deal about the serious side of sidearm carry and usage, but a significant part of my handgunning hobby involves the less serious venues like small game and varmint hunting, paper punching, and plinking. The 32 S&W Long is PERFECT for this sort of fun.
It was the 32 SWL that prompted me to take up bullet casting in 1981. I had S&W Model 31-1 x 3" that I needed to feed, and in the early 1980s 32 caliber revolver bullets were very thin on the ground. I did find one vendor that sold Lyman #313445 (IIRC)--Green Bay Bullets. I bought 300 of those, and those lasted for a couple months.
Among my first moulds was Lyman #313492, which I think is just #313445 with its SWC nose abbreviated. It certainly shoots well, I still have that tool in the shop. It has seen usage in ALL of my 32 revolvers--including 7.62 x 38R in the 1895 Nagant revolver. It is perhaps the perfect bullet for that weirdest-of-all-handgun-calibers, with its undersized front band that enables proper crimping of the bullet via the T/C sizing die for 32 SWL run in about .050" to snug up the case mouth to mate with the barrel's forcing cone before firing.
The 95-100 grain bullets of the 32 SWL have been restricted to about 725 FPS in older revolvers so chambered. I have one of those--a nickeled Colt New Police x 6" made in 1901. It gets gentle treatment--The RCBS #32-98-SWC atop 2.0 grains of WW-231 for around 700 FPS. The modern post-WWII S&W J-frames like my now-departed 31-1 and Glaciers' new-to-him revolver can safely manage that 98 grainer to 850-900 FPS.
The One That Got Away--About 10 years ago I attended a gun show in Boise, ID with some of the members of our crew here at A&SBC--some of whom have gone over The Great Divide. At one of the tables I saw a 4" Model 31-1 with a price of $475 attached. I was sorely tempted to swoop on that example, but still had kids in college that made the purchase of toy guns more luxurious than the domestic budget & policy guidelines might have borne without Castilian Inquisitions being conducted. Shoulda/woulda/coulda.
It was the 32 SWL that prompted me to take up bullet casting in 1981. I had S&W Model 31-1 x 3" that I needed to feed, and in the early 1980s 32 caliber revolver bullets were very thin on the ground. I did find one vendor that sold Lyman #313445 (IIRC)--Green Bay Bullets. I bought 300 of those, and those lasted for a couple months.
Among my first moulds was Lyman #313492, which I think is just #313445 with its SWC nose abbreviated. It certainly shoots well, I still have that tool in the shop. It has seen usage in ALL of my 32 revolvers--including 7.62 x 38R in the 1895 Nagant revolver. It is perhaps the perfect bullet for that weirdest-of-all-handgun-calibers, with its undersized front band that enables proper crimping of the bullet via the T/C sizing die for 32 SWL run in about .050" to snug up the case mouth to mate with the barrel's forcing cone before firing.
The 95-100 grain bullets of the 32 SWL have been restricted to about 725 FPS in older revolvers so chambered. I have one of those--a nickeled Colt New Police x 6" made in 1901. It gets gentle treatment--The RCBS #32-98-SWC atop 2.0 grains of WW-231 for around 700 FPS. The modern post-WWII S&W J-frames like my now-departed 31-1 and Glaciers' new-to-him revolver can safely manage that 98 grainer to 850-900 FPS.
The One That Got Away--About 10 years ago I attended a gun show in Boise, ID with some of the members of our crew here at A&SBC--some of whom have gone over The Great Divide. At one of the tables I saw a 4" Model 31-1 with a price of $475 attached. I was sorely tempted to swoop on that example, but still had kids in college that made the purchase of toy guns more luxurious than the domestic budget & policy guidelines might have borne without Castilian Inquisitions being conducted. Shoulda/woulda/coulda.
