Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles 32 Remington

Does anyone have any experiance with the 32 Remington in a 141? Ive purchased one here and was able to aquire 80 new pieces of brass, I have the Speer bullets and a set of Redding dies on the way. Ive read guys are trimming brass down the meet the col and utilize the cannelure. I will use the Hawk Round nose bullets if these do not feed well. I just do not want to cut my $2 brass down if it's not needed.
Any insight would be appreciated

Shawn

I had a 32 Soecial and had a couple different 141’s. But no 32 Remington 141.
The loads you’ll find for a 32 Special are perfect for the 32 Remington. It amounts to a little more power than the 30-30.

Thanks for the reply, I would feel comfortable using special data for the Remington from what Ive read. Ive also heard mixed reports of flat point bullets depending on seating depth. The Speer seems to be one people mention that feeds well but I am wondering about crimping and seating depth.

Shawn

I had a 30 Rem and a 35 Rem - both 141’s.
I crimped the bullets in the crimping groove. I used round nose bullets in both the 30 & the 35.
I’m guessing if you are crimping into crimp groove and it fits in the magazine and you can chamber and eject a loaded round, you’re there.

Unfortunately bullets designed for the 32 Remington are as obsolete as the cartridge. Overall Cartridge length seems to be a bit long for the Speer if crimped in the groove from what I've read. Some have used the 8mm (323) but I would want to sewage it down, not impossible but I would think the bullet may be a little tough for the Remington velocity ~2200 fps. Hawk makes a bullet designed for the Remington but it is about a $1 a pop.

Shawn

Thanks for the laugh.

FWIW I have passed on several model 14 and 141 in 32 for the same reasons you are asking about. I don't have the answer but if it were me, I'd try 5 full length and see how they run. If you have issues you can try cutting 3 or 4 down and see if it fixes the feeding issue.

Gotta love spell check, I hadn’t noticed the error. Too funny. I plan on doing just as you suggested. I received my brass and dies today. Not much there for$317

Shawn

The other thing to maybe look at is a cast lead bullet, possibly powder coated. I'm betting there's some good 32cal casts that would work well in the 32Rem, and powder coating is fairly cheap and easy. I've been making some 30 and 35 cast PC bullets for plinking and it's not rocket science.

IIRC, the Lyman #45 loading manual has data on the 32 REM for both cast lead and jacketed bullets in the "obsolete" section of the book.

Thanks for the heads up on the data and I did look into cast bullets. The coating is exactly what I thought about. I don't cast as of now but MBC is in my back yard and I use their 41 mag bullets with their hi-tec coating. I didn't see any 32 cal bullets that really looked round. I'm going to try the Speer bullets as Ive heard of people having success with those. I might enjoy a hunt with it so I need to find a bullet suitable for that

Take a look at Hawk bullets.
https://hawkbullets.com/bullet-selection.html
I shoot cast bullets in my original Sharps carbine but only because I have to do so. Otherwise I find jacketed bullets work better on game.

Yes Hawk is an option and I may try them. They are a bit pricey but what’s the difference when you are setting them in $2 brass.

NOE makes molds that may work well for your 32. I just looked at their selection of molds.

No swaging needed , the .323 work just fine. I use from .321- .323 and if anything the .323 might shoot just a hair better. Mostly I shoot the Hornady 170 and 34.5 grains of IMR 4320.

PS: Lead bullets work but leave lead shavings in the magazine so you need to clean it out fairly often and that's not particularly fun as they are a lot more complicated than most tube magazines.

Lots of good info here, I have heard about the lead shaving off. I’ll try these Speers and see how it goes. The flat point Hornady my be fine too at the correct depth

Shawn

The issue with the flat points is (according to the internet experts) that they don't feed reliably with the unique model 14 magazines. Same with the pointed bullets that the corkscrew magazine tube was supposedly designed for. I've shot some powder coated 200gr flat pointed Lee 200 gr bullets out of my 35 Rem, and have not noticed any issues with feeding personally. I'd like to hear your experience though also once you've tried them.

I will try to post results when I get around to loading and shooting this 141. I am still waiting on a shell holder and some time off. It came with some reloads I plan to disassemble and they are flat points. I was curious enough to see if they would feed and I was having issues with the carrier lifting the shell into position. I completely disassembled and cleaned the rifle. After getting things back together it was lifting the shell as it should but it did seem to jam. I saw where someone had better luck cycling the pump in a more vertical position as in don't watch it feed. Well I guess there may be some merit to this as it fed the shell right into the chamber. Interesting project and I love this rifle. If I am reading the date codes correctly it was built in November of 1936, predating me by 35 years. Sure wish these old guns could talk, I have no idea its history


Shawn

My 141 in 30 Remington feeds flat point bullets fine. I believe the OAL magic number is 2.550", no longer.
The 141 was not designed for pointy bullets. Actually the tag which came on them new read "Round Nose Bullets Only". Of course Remington only made round nose bullets for their factory ammo. Flat point bullets are also safe and well feed well if not too long.
Good luck!
Rick

I love how it was made for round nose bullets only as the hanging tag stated. Also, the special design magazine tube with spiral flutes so as the point of a bullet would not rest on the primer of the cartridge in front of it. Seems a bit of a conflicting design.

Shawn

Have you slugged the barrel?


From the Lyman 44th Edition (1967) which also has load data

Jacketed bullets for this cartridge are available in .320" diameter (Rem.) and .321" diameter (Hornady). As we have encountered barrels as small as .319", we suggest that you slug your barrel before reloading (see "Accuracy with Cast Bullets" in reference section). For tight barrels, the smaller Remington bullet is recommended.
New brass cases which exceed the maximum case length listed may be encountered. We suggest that you check your case length before reloading and trim your case if necessary.

That’s great info! Thanks

I don't know if you have this also but they list some lyman molds that were tested with the 32 Remington.

https://loaddata.com/Cartridge/32-Remington/132

I don't currently cast anything, I guess that's always an option.

Shawn

I don't shoot a 32 Remington, nor never have...

however you did mention Speer "Round Nose" bullets. I use the 170 grain SMP ( semi pointed) in .323 diameter, EXCLUSIVELY for my 8mm Mausers. Its a very accurate bullet, and has fantastic penetration abilities, whether pushed hard, or pushed slow.

Used it out of a Mauser pushed as fast as 3100+ fps ( hot load), and down to 1500 fps out of the Muzzle.

All this SR 4759 I've got saved for just a few cartridges, is for the 8 x 57s I have around. Last couple of years there have been several blacktails taken with them, when loaned to a couple of the Boy Scouts in our Troop, to go out for their first hunting outing with their dads. Easy for the boys to shoot, and bang/flop performance when they connect.

so if that is the bullet you are using out of your 141, it will certainly do the job... even on a very heavy deer. Old timers around here decades ago, after WW 2, used it in Mausers brought home from Europe after the war.... they even used those on plenty of Elk here in southern Oregon...

I am going to try the Speer 170 gr bullets and if the feed properly I’ve no doubt in their ability at 2200 fps

Shawn

I screenshotted (is that a real word?) a couple of pages on 32 REM from Ideal (Lyman) handbook 38 from the early 50’s? I don’t have a picture hosting service to upload with. If you’ll email me with 32 REM in the subject line, I’ll send the pages to you.

sales (at) oldfortarmory (dot) com

I replied to your email and sent you the screenshots. I have another Ideal/Lyman #40 from 1955 if you want those pages too. Let me know and I hope they help. Gives you an insight into just how long some of these powders have been around.

Was not to protect the primer from the bullet . Was to protect the bullet nose from being battered in the tube magazine by the cartridge in front of it. Also keeps the pressure off the nose which protects it from receding into the case neck due to spring pressure and the effects of recoil from firing the rifle.

Picture of hang tag.

Very cool tags, I’ve only seen the reference to the spirals to off set from the primer. I had never heard it was to protect the bullet. Either way pretty cool old rifle.

Shawn

I picked up a 141 recently and threw together a few loads with IMR 4320 I had sitting around. 3 charge weights and 6 shots total into just over an 1” at 50 meters. About as good as I can do with open sights.

Well it's been a while since Ive had the components so I figured I better get around to cooking something up. I used Re 7 at 30 gr, I trimmed the cases to 2.041, that was the shortest of the first new batch and most needed a bit of trimming. This allowed me to use the crimp groove of the 170 gr hot core bullets I was using. The OAL was 2.50. Primed them with WLR primers. I made one dummy round to check function and it worked just fine. Went to the range this morning and the first try was a click, not even a mark on the primer.
Packed up and went home. Disassembled the rifle again and decided not to dig too far into the breech block. The firing pin looked ok so packed wax in the primer pocket of my dummy round and tried it. The wax showed the firing pin had struck it so I went back to the range and tried it again.
All was good this time. I guess maybe I didn't close the action with enough authority? Ive no Idea what happened but no more misfires. The 50 yard range was pretty busy with rimfire guys so I set up at 100. Put 3 shots under about 2 inches, they were high and right by about 5 inches. I didn't make any adjustments today. I shot 5 over my Magnetospeed chronograph and all were just ofer 2300 and that was a surprise, I was expecting 2100-2200.

Anyway it was a great day and I shot the rest of what I loaded. For a moment it was in 1940 and I wearing a plaid wool coat sitting on an old birch log waiting on the drivers.

Hope y'all had as much fun today as I did

Shawn