Home Forums Reloading Bullet Casting 32-20 reloading

I have a buddy that has one in a Remington Model 25. He brought it to my “rifle sight-in day” I had last weekend and I got to shoot it. I’d never seen one let alone shoot one. I can’t say that anymore and what a sweet little rifle it is!

Anyways, he has a very limited supply of ammo and doesn’t shoot it much because he’s not sure he can get more. That’s a pretty easy problem to fix for a reloader! One of my buddies had a box of 100gr jacketed bullets, another has dies and I have primers and powder. Looking for a suitable mold for him but in the meantime he has 55 empties that I’ll get tomorrow.

Anyone have one of these and a mold you’d recommend?

Lyman 3118

Modern version of the 3118.

I'm not a huge fan of Lyman molds but this design is proven over a few miles.

The NOE .314 123 FN would also fit the bill along the same vein and would be easier to cast with or get in a 4 cavity. They offer both PB or GC. In the steel of the 25 I would not use a GC unless the bore is pitted or rough.

I used a 115 FN GC and 125 FN PB along with some 115 NOE Keiths in a Marlin 1894CL and they all worked very well, although the slide action you shoot might not like the Keith for feeding. The other two are LBT molds, no longer a thing.

The 32-20 is a great cartridge in handgun or rifle and my only complaint is brass is easily damaged and be aware newish (the last 25 years) R-P cases will be shorter than Winchester or Starline. Speer #12 and 13, I believe notate the "why", IIRC its in regards to bullet length and cannelures for certain jacketed bullets.

I don’t remember the exact load we were shooting other than is was a lead bullet with a large meplat and it fed perfectly. I looked at factory ammo online and it was $2 per round. Won’t take much reloading to pay for a good mold, powder and some primers. I need to talk to him and see just how much he wants to shoot this rifle.

I have a buddy with an 4 cavity NOE mold and it works very well. I certainly wouldn’t hesitate to buy one from them.

I snagged an Accurate Molds #31-105T, wide meplat plain base, spec'ed to drop 1:20 bullets at .314" to fit the throats of my Colt Army Special .32-20. I feel it's a good compromise weight for .32-20, .32 H&R Magnum, and .32 S&W Long - maybe not perfect for any one of them but certainly workable. Works a charm in the .32-20 revolver, and a buddy is shooting the pocketful I gave him in a custom barreled Martini Cadet .32-20 and won't stop bugging me to make him some more.

I try to get guys hooked on shooting cast bullets and then put them to work finding lead for me! This guy with the 32-20 is a truck driver and might end up being a great source of lead. :-)

I have a 130gr mold but it’s 30cal so a little undersized. Have any of you had any success making bullets bigger with multiple coats of powder coat?

That's a fools errand. Point of fact, there's really no need to powder coat bullets like this anyway unless one wants to.

Go to Accurate Molds, select a bullet that suits you, and spec its dimensions to fit the gun in question. Minimal sizing will be necessary (if you do your homework) and even so a cheap Lee push through sizing die and pan lubing (or tumbling in liquid alox) will have you shooting cheaply in no time.

I've said all along that aside from specialized applications (like driving soft rifle bullets at higher velocity), powder coating is a panacea for guys who want to treat cast bullets like the jacketed stuff they've been loading - and not have to engage in the art/science of crafting cast bullets.

I want to do this. This is my hobby, I enjoy trying different things to see if they work and I LIKE loading powder coated bullets and dislike lubed ones so I’m going to try it.

If it doesn’t work, we’ll look into buying a mold.

Follow up on this story…. I powder coated a box of cast bullets I bought last week weighting 115grs and sized 310. Only got them to .311 - .3115 with the first coat. I got 150 or so for 10 bucks thinking they might be good for the 32-20 and if they weren’t I’d try them in my 300BO.

I don’t think I’m going to bother with these bullets for this “project”. We have a box of jacketed bullets .313’s, and this guy will never shoot as much as I do so I can’t get wrapped up in finding the perfect bullet for someone that just wants some ammo to hunt and plink with…

So anyways, borrowed the dies from a buddy and he had a 311 sizing die with it. Said he couldn’t chamber 313 bullets so he sizes them down with the die. I’m teaching his son how to reload so I had him size, deprime and prime the brass he brought. We then loaded just one round with the 313 bullet and I told him to have his dad try to chamber it. If it works we’ll try to find a load the rifle likes.

Found out really quick the brass is thin, really thin! Had to use the neck expander die as the first bullet seated start to crush the case. Good thing I was going slow and didn’t destroy it.

The gun owner texted me tonight and said the round chambered fine. Looks like it will be a couple of weeks until we get back to this…