Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors .32/20 question

I have a few rounds, with the box, of the old high velocity rounds, that were rifle only. I have intention of firing them, but I am curious as to whether they would be OK in a 23C. I know there are no current loads that would not be OK in older rifles and revolvers.

Correction: I have NO intention of firing them!

It was indeed a hot load. "HV" on the headstamp? Like you said, there are enough standard velocity .32-20's around that a fella shouldn't feel the need to tempt fate with an old 23C, but I doubt it would blow up the gun very much. They pretty much didn't want folks shooting them out of early Colt and S&W revolvers.

I shot my 23C in 32-20 with various loads. Both factory and reloads. Absolutely loved Remington 100 gr factory lead RN. No problems whatsoever. I was told if in doubt only shoot lead bullets, much less pressures. They are very fun rifles

Good point re: lead bullets. They never loaded HV ammo with lead bullets.

I have fired some warm 100G XTP w/1680 handloads in my 23C with no issue. IMHO your fine.

Shoots them very accurate too!

CW

I think the real danger of the old HV loads was to the very lightest framed and worst made of the revolvers available in that caliber at the time that HV ammo was around. "Lightest framed" would be the Colt "Police Positive," But it handled the heaviest loads for .38 Special OK at the time, or at least I never heard of one blowing up. So I suspect it was OK, although the 4" bbl. model must have been a flame-thrower and an eardrum cracker with .32-20 HV.

"Worst made" would be SOME of the many Spanish S&W Copies in .32-20, or ".32 Largo" as it is called in Spanish. SOME of these are fair copies of the S&W "M&P" or K-frame revolvers, or look-alikes with S&W cosmetics and Colt mechanisms. Some were made in mom-and-pop shops out of any old steel available from railroad tracks on up. It takes a real expert to tell which ones are which and it is a most unrewarding study. And because the .32-20 will chamber and shoot just about any .32 out there, from .32 ACP on up, these guns were often loaded with a mixed grill of .32 when ammo was scarce (my "Beesleey" had a mix of .32-20s (inc an HV Remington hollowpoint, a .32 S&W, a .32 Long Colt. and an ACP when I traded a Mexican part-time cop out of it back in the early 1960s. Three pops, three CRACKs, one "Que Viva la Republica" and a Colt "Frontier Scout" and it was mine.).

My small experience with shooting HVs in large frame .32-20s has told me that they won't take Smith or a Colt apart with a few shots, but that leaves the possibility of increased wear and tear with extended shooting. I wouldn't do it again, now that I am a prudent adult, i.e. "chicken."

But all 23s were made in the era of HVs, both .32-20 and .25-20, so I suspect that Savage was aware of their potential use with HVs. Is that possibly the reason for the safety lug on the bolt? I know it doesn't keep the 23D action from losing headspace with Hornets, and especially K-Hornets, but was it originally conceived to handle .25-20 and .32-20 HVs? (If not, what the heck WAS it made to do?).