tark
Member
I was playing around with my Ruger Blackhawk in 30 carbine the other day and I got to wondering. Would a 32-20 chamber and fire? The bullet would be .003 to .004 thousands oversize, but factory rounds are loaded to less than half the pressure ( SAAMI says 16,000 PSI ) of a carbine round and that soft lead bullet should have no trouble squeezing down.
So I grabbed a box of Ultramax Cowboy loads and tried one. It chambered perfectly but....the cylinder wouldn't turn. It was binding up as the next round to be fired came up against slightly raised portion on the frame, just to the left of the fired round. I found that by carefully thinning the rim on the 32-20 it fit perfectly. It took only a couple of thousandths to make a perfect fit.
Long story short, the gun fired and functioned beautifully No signs of distress anywhere. Very mild recoil and report, as would be expected. The icing on the cake was the fact the gun was more accurate with the cowboy ammo than it was with the carbine ammo!!
I considered facing off the rear of the cylinder a couple of thousandths, in the same way Webley's were butchered so they could fire a cartridge that had far too much pressure to be safe in them....but I decided against it. It would have had no effect of the use of carbine ammo. They headspace on the case mouth. And you would have to remove a lot more than a couple of thousandths to leave the rear of the carbine case unsupported to any dangerous degree.
But I won't, I just don't want to modify the gun. Thinning the rims on the 32-20s is the best option.
It was a fun experiment, but considering the cost of 32-20 ammo.... it will not be repeated.
So I grabbed a box of Ultramax Cowboy loads and tried one. It chambered perfectly but....the cylinder wouldn't turn. It was binding up as the next round to be fired came up against slightly raised portion on the frame, just to the left of the fired round. I found that by carefully thinning the rim on the 32-20 it fit perfectly. It took only a couple of thousandths to make a perfect fit.
Long story short, the gun fired and functioned beautifully No signs of distress anywhere. Very mild recoil and report, as would be expected. The icing on the cake was the fact the gun was more accurate with the cowboy ammo than it was with the carbine ammo!!
I considered facing off the rear of the cylinder a couple of thousandths, in the same way Webley's were butchered so they could fire a cartridge that had far too much pressure to be safe in them....but I decided against it. It would have had no effect of the use of carbine ammo. They headspace on the case mouth. And you would have to remove a lot more than a couple of thousandths to leave the rear of the carbine case unsupported to any dangerous degree.
But I won't, I just don't want to modify the gun. Thinning the rims on the 32-20s is the best option.
It was a fun experiment, but considering the cost of 32-20 ammo.... it will not be repeated.
