Min hassle, max accuracy .32 shooting

[Jäger]

I have a .54 T/C Hawken that I've been knocking off deer, elk, and moose with for about twenty five years now. My brothers decided it was rather ridiculous to watch me chasing gophers with it each summer, shooting them with my full power maxi ball hunting loads. And so, I have a Green Mountain .32 caliber drop in barrel on the way. Well, those big conicals certainly would dig sod poodles out from behind any mound they were peering over, but I do have to admit it was a bit expensive and at the end of the day the shoulder could be a bit sore.

Anyways, I am a shooter, not a traditionalist. When I first got the .54, I tried round balls and had assorted periods of frustration and annoyance dealing with patches, lube, etc. No patience for figuring out the right combination. The mould was one of the Lyman combos, so I gave up on the balls fairly quickly and tried the conicals. Bingo! Instant success, minimal hassles. Stick in muzzle, run to bottom, good to go. The round balls I cast way back then and the patches have been gathering dust ever since then.

Anyways, I would like to keep things just as simple with the little .32. My first instinct was to buy a .32 conical mould, but low and behold, there don't seem to be any made. I do have some .32 caliber pistol moulds kicking around, but I suspect I might find that they don't work all that well.

My guess is I have to either surrender to messing with patches as well as balls, or go to Mountain Moulds or some such and have a mould cut. I'm not adverse to getting a mould cut - I do it all the time for centerfire rifle - but would need a few exemplar Maxi-balls to lift measurements off.

So, you experienced small bore shooters out there, a few questions:
Is it reasonable for me to assume I can get accuracy with a Maxi-ball design every bit as good as with a patched round ball in a .32 caliber?

Where do I find a good Maxi-ball mould or had I better start getting example bullets and ordering a custom mould?

What kind of load ranges and resultant velocities should I be thinking of? My Lyman BP manual doesn't include the .32 data and I tend to mostly use Pyrodex.

I think that's a good start to the questions I have. Really looking forward to playing with this itty bitty black powder caliber.

BTW, if it matters, all the .32 will be used for is plinking, casual target shooting, and deconstructing gophers. Everything bigger around here gets either the .54 or .358 Norma Magnum treatment...

Thanks boys...

 

[Rebel]

Bruce at Blue Grouse sells .32 cal Maxi balls. He might even have a mould he will sell you.

 

[J.D.]

Bruce at Blue Grouse sells .32 cal Maxi balls. He might even have a mould he will sell you.

Yeah, but don't tell him it's for a foreign made gun, if that is the case, or he won't sell 'em to you.
J.D.

 

[sprucefly]

I have had good luck with Buffalo's .32 ballets being pushed by 30 grns of Goex 3F. I still prefer prb's. I fill up several loading blocks w/prb's ahead of time and its no problem.

 

[Jäger]

Bruce at Blue Grouse sells .32 cal Maxi balls. He might even have a mould he will sell you.

I'm almost positive Walt at NEI made their bullet mould/moulds. Blue Grouse doesn't appear to stock the moulds. Could contact him and ask, but if he is actively selling the bullets I doubt he is getting out of the moulds. Meaning the buyer is helping them replace a mould.

If the moulds aren't a stocked item, I'd prefer to buy a new one myself. It is worth a thought, however.

I have had good luck with Buffalo's .32 ballets being pushed by 30 grns of Goex 3F. I still prefer prb's. I fill up several loading blocks w/prb's ahead of time and its no problem.

I was eyeballing those as well. Look to be pretty hassle free. However, given that there's a nuclear medicine department here and the lead is free, I'd prefer the economy of casting my own bullets.

Thanks for the suggestions so far.

 

[Walks Alone]

I have a couple of TC 32 maxi-ball moulds. Never tried them in my TC Cherokee, but they shoot very well in my old CVA Squirrel with Goex 3F.

The discontinued moulds can be found with some looking - just over the last couple of years I've managed to double or triple up on all the TC RB and maxi moulds for 32, 36, 45, 50 and 54 (plus have Lyman, RCBS, Lee and Tanner as well for many of them). Prices ran from give away to making a withdrawal from the US Mint though.

 

[Jäger]

I have a couple of TC 32 maxi-ball moulds. Never tried them in my TC Cherokee, but they shoot very well in my old CVA Squirrel with Goex 3F.

Ah! You're the guy hording them!

So... two questions: what quality bullets do they drop (the blocks look really small to me in pics), and how well do they shoot?

I guess I will just have to start looking for one somewhere. One problem with used moulds is if the previous owner wasn't knowledgeable, they can be in pretty rough shape. I have seen some rare moulds at gun shows that, had they been looked after, would have been invaluable finds. However, there is a limit to what you can do to rehabilitate an abused mould.

If you're sitting there someday, with nothing to do, perhaps you could attack one of those maxi-balls with a micrometer and vernier and give me the dimensions off the thing. The thought of having the barrel and no bullets is a terrifying thought. Mountain Moulds prices are very reasonable, the quality is almost unbeatable, and the wait time is very short.

Thanks for the info!

 

[CoyoteJoe]

I doubt you'll have much luck with conicals out of the Green Mountain barrel. GM cuts their grooves twice as deep as T/C or any of the production guns. That is the very thing that makes them great round ball shooters but I don't believe a conical would "slug up" to fill those deep grooves. I think trying to shoot a conical will prove much more frustrating than patched ball.
Try a .315" ball, pillow ticking patch, spit lube and 30 grains of 3f Goex. That should group under two inches at 50 yards right off and will get better as the barrel breaks in.
Or, if you haven't the patience for load development I hear the 17 HMR is great on gophers.

 

[Jäger]

I doubt you'll have much luck with conicals out of the Green Mountain barrel. GM cuts their grooves twice as deep as T/C or any of the production guns. That is the very thing that makes them great round ball shooters but I don't believe a conical would "slug up" to fill those deep grooves. I think trying to shoot a conical will prove much more frustrating than patched ball.

Well, I will have to keep that in mind, but I am going to give it a try nontheless. I have been very happy with just shoving pre-lubed conicals down the pipe and not having to worry about patches, aligning patches, cutting patches, etc. But that's with the original .54 barrel.

If conicals out of a T/C .32 maxi-ball mould won't shoot in a Green Mountain barrel, some design changes in a custom mould might work. A deeper bottom lube groove and narrower bottom band should allow a slug to bump up a lot easier. The moulds are relatively cheap, so it's worth a look. A skirted conical would probably have an even better chance of success, but those moulds are much more expensive. A bit more than I would spend on having a speculative mould cut at this time...

Come to think of it, the Buffalo Ball-ets are a skirted design, aren't they?

Try a .315" ball, pillow ticking patch, spit lube and 30 grains of 3f Goex. That should group under two inches at 50 yards right off and will get better as the barrel breaks in.

This is getting a little off topic, but when you speak about barrel break in are you talking about conditioning the surface or smoothing the bore finish?

I'm curious because I handlap all my cast bullet centerfire barrels that haven't already been lapped, using Clover compound. I have had great success with that and notice that Veral Smith also advocates lapping barrels for cast bullets. I have never thought of handlapping a muzzleloader barrel, but by sliding a piece of steel to the bottom of the barrel to upset the lap against, the process shouldn't be much different.

A lot of custom barrel makers i.e. Lilja lap their barrels themselves; I wonder if Green Mountain does the same thing. If so, wouldn't be much point in repeating the process.

Or, if you haven't the patience for load development I hear the 17 HMR is great on gophers.

So's the .22 rimfire...

I have patience for load development; I just don't have patience for anything more than minimal mucking around in the field. I can understand the traditionalist's enjoyment of the ball/patch/lube etc process, but just having a lubed conical to run down the barrel seems about as good as it gets to me.

If I have to resort to ball and patch, I will, but I'm going to see if the conical solution will work first.

 

[CoyoteJoe]

Yes, lapping will take care of the break-in. GM barrels are not lapped, just reamed and cut rifled and there is often a few burrs on the lands and some roughness which gets worn away and smoothed out by 200 or so cloth patched balls. You will need to remove the breechplug to do a proper job of lapping.
I just installed a GM .36 barrel on my old Blue Ridge .45 flinter. The very first five shots went into 1.7" at 50 and another five with slightly different components went 1.3" I fully expect groups well under one inch at fifty after the barrel breaks in and I find the magic load.
I really think you are in for some frustration with conicals and if your only beef against balls is the bother in the field just get or make a loading block to carry a supply of prepatched and lubed ball ready to load with just a bump on the short starter. You may find it even quicker and easier than them stinkin' maxi-balls. :grin:

 

[sduve]

I have a GM .32 cal for my Renegade and it shoots Blue Grouse maxi's wonderfully. I have about 10 lb and lubed them all about 2 years ago and load them with 30 gr of Pyro P. I have shot 1 hole groups at 25 yards but the norm is 1" at 50 yards. When hunting tree rats and bunnies, I load PRB with 20 gr Pyro P. Still, this is more than enough for harvesting small game.

 

[Jäger]

I have a GM .32 cal for my Renegade and it shoots Blue Grouse maxi's wonderfully. I have shot 1 hole groups at 25 yards but the norm is 1" at 50 yards.

Hey, you're doing better than Coyote Joe with them stinkin' PRB's!

Anyways, that's good to know. NEI still makes and sells the mould design Blue Grouse uses to cast their Maxi-balls.

Caliber Base Ogive WT
.32 .318 .324 100

$80... Do those band measurements and the weight correspond to the conicals you got from Blue Grouse?

 

[Jäger]

Yes, lapping will take care of the break-in. GM barrels are not lapped, just reamed and cut rifled and there is often a few burrs on the lands and some roughness which gets worn away and smoothed out by 200 or so cloth patched balls. You will need to remove the breechplug to do a proper job of lapping.

Thanks for that info. The shooting balls approach is probably more fun than the lapping.

I don't think you necessarily need to remove the breechplug to handlap however. A very short brass plug just below bore diameter should be fine for bumping the lap up against. Pretty much the same method as you use for lapping revolvers.

Only way to find out would be to try it.

 

[sduve]

I have a GM .32 cal for my Renegade and it shoots Blue Grouse maxi's wonderfully. I have shot 1 hole groups at 25 yards but the norm is 1" at 50 yards.

Hey, you're doing better than Coyote Joe with them stinkin' PRB's!

Anyways, that's good to know. NEI still makes and sells the mould design Blue Grouse uses to cast their Maxi-balls.

Caliber Base Ogive WT
.32 .318 .324 100

$80... Do those band measurements and the weight correspond to the conicals you got from Blue Grouse?

It seems mine were a little heavier- 110 gr maybe.

 

[Walks Alone]

Ah! You're the guy hording them!

So... two questions: what quality bullets do they drop (the blocks look really small to me in pics), and how well do they shoot?

I guess I will just have to start looking for one somewhere. One problem with used moulds is if the previous owner wasn't knowledgeable, they can be in pretty rough shape. I have seen some rare moulds at gun shows that, had they been looked after, would have been invaluable finds. However, there is a limit to what you can do to rehabilitate an abused mould.

If you're sitting there someday, with nothing to do, perhaps you could attack one of those maxi-balls with a micrometer and vernier and give me the dimensions off the thing. The thought of having the barrel and no bullets is a terrifying thought. Mountain Moulds prices are very reasonable, the quality is almost unbeatable, and the wait time is very short.

Thanks for the info!

Sorry late getting back to you. Had to run to another state for the day and just got back home.

I don't know that I'm hoarding them, but I did snap quite a few up while they can still be found. One 32 mould was still NIB and the other barely used when I got them, so both are in factory condition (all the TC and RCBS moulds I picked to buy were in the same condition). I've only used the already used 32 maxi, and it throws consistent and good quality maxi's with my own harder alloy. As said, have only shot them in the CVA Squirrel (not the Cherokee), and that rifle shoots them very well - better than it shoots RB (and it shoots RB well too).

I'll get you some dimensions when I can, OR ... I don't have any of my own thrown right now (I seldom shoot maxi's), but the used mould came with a supply of pure lead cast maxi's run by its original owner that I've never done anything with yet. If you want to PM me a snail mail addy I can drop a few of these in the mail to you.

HTH

 

[Jäger]

[I've only used the already used 32 maxi, and it throws consistent and good quality maxi's with my own harder alloy.

Thanks WA; appreciate that - just sent you a PM.

The comment about your own alloy is interesting. I always thought it was pure lead first, last, and always in muzzlestuffers. Most of my casting is centerfire rifle, and I heat treat those bullets to the desired hardness I need for the operating pressure of the load. Wheelweights takes care of all of that.

Drifting off topic here - but do a fair number of muzzlestuffer shooters use an alloy rather than pure lead?

BTW folks, my name is Rick. I usually use that as my username on lists, but somebody beat me to it here. No imagination I guess, best I could come up with was RLowe. Have a website started that shows some of the local hunting scenery and whatnot, although I haven't put much work into it...

www.Lowe.ca

 

[Walks Alone]

Got the PM and replied back with my comments.

I'll get some maxi's on the way to Canada.

Walks Alone

 

[Runner]

I use pretty close to pure lead in most things, but sometimes you have to adjust the mix if a certain bullet is casting a little small. The Lee target mini is one the casts small with pure lead and is not popular because of that. Most that use it successfully, wrap it. I adjusted the mix until a bullet that was large enough to grip the rifling was produced.

 

[Jäger]

The Lee target mini is one the casts small with pure lead and is not popular because of that. Most that use it successfully, wrap it. I adjusted the mix until a bullet that was large enough to grip the rifling was produced.

Well, I see they don't make anything for the small bores, so I guess it is a moot point where the .32 is concerned.

I generally don't care for Lee moulds. However, they have one giant advantage: with so little money invested in a mould, you can both buy moulds you wouldn't if they had Saeco or something else stamped on them. And, you can modify them with a feeling of impunity.

I have lapped Lee moulds in the past to get a fit to a centerfire rifle's ball seate. It isn't all that difficult as long as you understand the word "patience" and don't reach for the power drill...

I'd be tempted to lap the mould out, bit by bit, until I got the fit I was looking for

 

[Runner]

That is a good idea!