.32 caliber dilemma...

[F.G. Ford]

The one thing that is a bit difficult about cast is getting the sprue pointed straight up . . .

To resolve the issue of sprue, put your cast balls in a plastic container, cover with the lid, put in some lube and gently shake the container in a steady rhythm for a few minutes.
All the balls will have a golf ball look with no sprue.
Within reason, the more balls, the easier it is to do.
Can't be more simple than that.
It works, even with my .610 balls.

 

[Crewdawg445]

:hmm: Sounds like fun for some reason!

 

[F.G. Ford]

It is hard to hang on to your balls on a cold day!

 

[hanshi]

After casting, I tumble them in my old Thumbler Tumbler. They do get nice after a couple of hours of tumbling. And since I use mostly Lee molds, there's no sprue to begin with.

 

[hanshi]

I've had a flint SMR in .36 for years and it is tried and proven. As little as 15 grains of 3F is squirrel head accurate well past 30 yards. If I think I need to shoot at 50 yards or more, 20 grains works splendidly; That load will easily roll plastic water bottles or soda cans at (a proven) 80+ yards.

 

[smoothshooter]

The next time you tumble some balls, try substituting just a pinch, and I mean just a pinch of powdered graphite instead of grease, and see if you like it better.
An advantage of using the graphite is that it is very effective at preventing oxidation on the lead if they are not fired for a long time, even for years.

 

[F.G. Ford]

Smoothshooter,
Thank you for the tip.
Fred

 

[Crewdawg445]

Certainly will give that a go! Thanks for sharing :hatsoff:

 

[Micah Clark]

Beautiful rifle Hanshi . . . thanks for sharing the pic ! Did you build it yourself, or TVM? Another reason I'd like a little shorter barrel and its one that irks me is my eyes aren't what they used to be and even with glasses, I can get a blurry sigh pic on some open sights.

 

[Grimord]

I use 10 gr 0f 3F in both my CVA .32 Squirrel and Pedersoli .32 Pennsylvania. The ped shoots alittle harder due to the 41"barrel. With the CVA, I've chronographed the 10 gr load at 1450 FPS and that is out of a 25" barrel. This is close to .22 Long rifle velocities, but with a .32 cal ball. Head shots are best taken. I have taken approximately 30-40 squirrels per season here in CT with the .32. In the winter when the leaves are gone I switch to the .36 for the longer shots presented, and for predator calling.

 

[hanshi]

Yes, that one is a TVM. I have another, even shorter .45 built by Mike Lange.

 

[Tinker2]

.36 caliber
This does well with 7 grains and PRB up close
or 15 grains with a Picket type bullet out to 75 yards



William Alexander

 

[Micah Clark]

OK . . . so I get out today for a little while to shoot my Traditions Crockett .32 again. . . This gun is so-bipolar. Definitely a high maintenance woman. I love it, then it frustrates the tar out of me.

I took some of your advice . . don't have patch material I could cut at the bore yet. But I did shoot only cast .311's (sprue up).

Used a new patch thickness of .20 for the first time. . pre-lubed with something like Moose milk. . a white liquid / paste . . (bought them that way from a vendor called Flintlocks, Inc. here in Indiana.) they worked well.

Got a decent group here in my first four shots of 1 inch, right out of the box with .25 grains of FFFg Schutzen a felt over power wad, the pillow ticking patch and .311 ball.

First shot was in the black other three above. This is a small pellet gun target with an inch and a half black area. . .which is about the size of a squirrel head. This was at just under 20 yards off a bench rest of course. Not too bad, in my opinion, and better than others I have, including the so-called factory range test, which was a joke.

I wiped with a damp spit patch with 3 or four patches after every shot and a dry patch after the load.

Then the poo poo hit the rotating oscillator . . . I thought I might have double patched, but pulled only one back in the jag. Not wanting to load over a patch in the breech I put a ball puller on the end, as the worm doesn't work as well for me. . and accidentally dropped the traditions rod and to my surprise the farkin rod got stuck !!! OK, well, that's not so much of a surprise, but I thought it was longer with the puller on. . It WASN"T enough. Got the dad-burn rod stuck in the gun an eight of an inch beneath the end of the barrel.

Perc cap didn't move it, btw. . that might have been kind of neat. (But, that would have been too easy with this gun.)

Long story short, I tried to take off the breech plug after the air compressor didn't budge it. . . buggered up the gun a bit, and went back to the drawing board . . . finally tapped a screw into the rod, which I could not pry out with dental picks, nails, etc etc etc. . . and pulled on the screw and out it came. Spent a few hours on that after just 4 shots. . . good shots, but all the while thinking I should sell this to someone who's not a novice like me. and go with Pedersoli or attempt a TVM kit.

http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll22/Micah67/photo_zps5bnhyzqr.jpg

 

[hoochiepapa]

Nice shootin'!
I, too, use 7 grains in my .32 for backyard squirrels. They don't bother my bird feeders anymore!!

 

[hanshi]

Good group, however.

 

[Micah Clark]

Yes it is a good group. . . could be better w practice, but I think that it is likely that I'll be upgrading to a TVM or Pedersoli .32 sometime in my future . . .

 

[BlackJack]

I've been planning my first rifle build from a kit for a while and settled on a TVM about a month ago. My kit comes Thursday--woo hoo! Just found this thread and am now totally fired up to assemble, finish and try out my TVM Early VA rifle in .36 cal. I'll get back with the thread as this adventure unfolds, complete with pictures.

 

[Micah Clark]

You're a few steps ahead of me . . . keep me (us) posted. I have heard TVM is not only one of the best, but perhaps one of the best for us first timers. . .which is my hope, if I take the plunge. . .I too want a small caliber squirrel rifle . .looking at either a Leman or late Lancaster. . in 32. . LH flint . . . but unlike Congress, I can't just run out and throw money I don't have around.