.32 Automatic Defensive Loads

[Mr. Mosin]

What is currently the most favored loads for defensive use of the .32 Auto (from a Zastava M70) ?

 

[Dave DeLaurant]

MAC did some interesting ballistic gel shots using a couple of .32 ACP boutique types:

Ballistic Tests - 30 Carbine and 32 ACP

Two calibers that are often written off as obsolete or ineffective are .30 Carbine and .32 ACP. We take two different modern loads for each caliber to put th...

www.youtube.com

 

[Michael Tinker Pearce]

Underwood Extreme Defenders seem like the based bet based on test results in gel. They are in fact the only .32 ACP rounds with enhanced wounding effects that meet basic FBI standards for duty ammo in these tests. Larger-caliber versions of these rounds have performed well on dangerous animals like feral hogs.

 

[chicharrones]

What is currently the most favored loads for defensive use of the .32 Auto (from a Zastava M70) ?

Personally, I've always preferred hotter Euro made FMJ ammo in my pocket .32 ACP pistols. My long time favorite has been Sellier & Bellot 73 grain FMJ.

For .32 ACP, I hope for two things out of FMJ round nose ammo. Penetration, and no rimlock in the magazine (due to a full length cartridge). The faster Euro ammo not only moves a bit faster out of short barrels, but also has more reliably cycled little pocket guns in my experience. Whether blow back or locked breech.

 

[Walkalong]

Whatever feeds 101% in your pistol.

 

[halfmoonclip]

I vote with chicharrones, and the conventional wisdom...go with FMJs, for the reasons cited.
BTW, .32ACP is an easy round to reload.
Moon

 

[wnycollector]

I have carried Fiocchi FMJ in my Kel Tec P32 for years without issue.

 

[TTv2]

If the barrel is long enough, the Fiocchi XTP's can expand and penetrate deep enough, but for any short barrels you should stay away from hollow points and either use FMJ or Lehigh Xtra Xtremely Xtreme thing.

Sticking with European brands like Fiocchi, PPU, S&B does seem to be the better bang for the buck.

 

[Tallball]

Yeah. European FMJ.

 

[Mosin77]

Euro FMJ here, too. Plenty of penetration, reliable feeding, great accuracy… and with .32 I don’t care to sacrifice any of those attributes in a quest for expansion which may not even happen.

 

[Shawn Dodson]

Years ago I bought a case of FN .32 ACP 70gr FMJ to shoot in my Beretta Tomcat. The FN load had a flat nose bullet, which crushes a larger diameter permanent cavity than a round nose bullet. The flat nose also allows the bullet to penetrate deeper too.

There currently isn't any expanding bullet in .32 ACP that penetrates a minimum of at least 12 inches that I'm aware of.

I have a .32 ACP Seecamp. I load it with Winchester white box FMJ, which has a flat nose.

I tried Underwood's .32 ACP Xtreme Defense (XD) load but experienced intermittent feeding issues. If the XD bullet reliably penetrates point forward (some yaw 180 degrees and penetrate backwards) then it has the potential to create greater wound trauma than a flat nose FMJ. The raised ribs on the XD bullet are more likely to cut soft tissues as the bullet slows with penetration, whereas soft tissues will "flow" around the smooth contours of a flat nose FMJ bullet's ogive.

 

[Mr. Mosin]

Thank you @all for your input and advice

 

[dodo bird]

Another vote for Euro fmj. I wish I jumped on the boat when there was a lot of surplus 32 acp pistols for sale a few years ago.

 

[GRIZ22]

I use fmj in my 32s.

 

[Ohen Cepel]

Hot FMJ for me.

 

[Mr. Mosin]

Would a Zastava M70 have a barrel long enough to expand the Fiochhi XTP ?

 

[Paul Kersey]

Buffalo Bore makes/made a LFN loading that was excellent. I use Rim Rock hard cast 75gr. FP, same as BB, and Starline brass with a CCI 500 loaded to euro spec.

 

[Steven_Seagull]

I heard somewhere about using n even heavier bullet than 73-75gr.
Read somewhere about a 85-98gr load being used by people. Handloads, might be going too slow. Not really sure, barrel length would help aid in velocity/powder burn.

I also vote ball/hot euro.
S&B, PPU, Fiochi are all good choices. Geco would work as well.

A flatnose is ideal if it feeds, but avoid WWB 73gr. It's weak.

 

[Gordon]

I heard somewhere about using n even heavier bullet than 73-75gr.
Read somewhere about a 85-98gr load being used by people. Handloads, might be going too slow. Not really sure, barrel length would help aid in velocity/powder burn.

I also vote ball/hot euro.
S&B, PPU, Fiochi are all good choices. Geco would work as well.

A flatnose is ideal if it feeds, but avoid WWB 73gr. It's weak.

The older Geco .32 acp FMJ with the silver Cupro-nickel polished bullet feeds in every .32 Ive tried it in, it was noticibly snappier and I chronoed it in the 80s and found it was at least 100 FPS faster than the other domestic fmj loads . Same for their .380 and .25acp loads which looked the same ! They penetrated all the media I tried them in better than anything else in each caliber. I believe they were discontinued in the 1990s .

 

[TTv2]

Would a Zastava M70 have a barrel long enough to expand the Fiochhi XTP ?

Maybe. It's not as short as the Kel Tec, but not as long as the Beretta 81. Don't know how tight the chamber or bore is, so it's something only testing can determine.

 

[Steel Hayes]

While on the more expensive side of the spectrum, Buffalo Bore makes a good Hardcast Flat Nose for the .32acp.
I bought a box of 20 sometime ago and through my Zastava it shot great.
At 1100fps, it’s a stout little round.

 

[film495]

Fiocchi Ball, 7.65 Browning, or whatever will cycle flawlessly. I shoot this in an old CZ-70 and it is livelier than US brands, and the slide is stamped 7.65 Browning, and seems to have less reliabiltity loaded with .32 ACP, even though it is mostly the exact same, but not quite.

 

[halfmoonclip]

The Euro ammo has the additional advantage of a noticeably greater taper of the casing above the extractor groove, lessening the chances of rimlock. Using standard length (FMJ) rounds is a help as well; shorter JHPs can be more easily 'misloaded' in the magazine.
For the OP, perhaps finding a 'magic bullet' .32 load is less than a good idea; maybe be satisfied with a reliable, straight shooting, easy shooting pistol, and count on shot placement to do the dirty work.
Moon

 

[Mosin77]

The Euro ammo has the additional advantage of a noticeably greater taper of the casing above the extractor groove, lessening the chances of rimlock. Using standard length (FMJ) rounds is a help as well; shorter JHPs can be more easily 'misloaded' in the magazine.
For the OP, perhaps finding a 'magic bullet' .32 load is less than a good idea; maybe be satisfied with a reliable, straight shooting, easy shooting pistol, and count on shot placement to do the dirty work.
Moon

I agree with the thought (in that wonder-hollowpoints have issues when applied to the .32) but I very much think an extra 100fps is worth seeking out when we’re talking a round as marginal as this… I love .32, but some of the American stuff especially seems absurdly low powered (which I don’t understand considering one never hears of a .32 blowing up….) Maybe they download it some in consideration of the various Rubies out there?

Generally the FMJ are reliable (I’ve never had a rimlock issue) and have plenty of penetration.

The hollowpoints almost universally either don’t expand, or expand some but have very low penetration. And even then, a .32 hollowpoint’s expansion is pretty marginal compared to rounds that have a little larger frontal area to start with. So I don’t see a compelling reason to consider them.

 

[halfmoonclip]

I agree with the thought (in that wonder-hollowpoints have issues when applied to the .32) but I very much think an extra 100fps is worth seeking out when we’re talking a round as marginal as this…

Mr. Mosin, I can't argue with any of that. My only reservation; does that extra 100'sec adversely affect reliability?
In any case, you are no doubt right about fear of older guns keeping the loads light...there are a ton of old .32s out there.
Really love the .32, and I feed a bunch of them, from an '03 Colt to a CZ Scorpion. My usual load is 1.7 B'eye/75FMJ@803'sec in a Walther PPK; bumping it to a Lyman max of 2.0 gives you 837'sec.
Unhappily, I don't seem to have kept chrono data for domestic and imported factory ammo.
Moon