Ballistic Blogging: Put Me Some Information Here, Please

  I’ve got a couple of firearms that aren’t really useful.  No, really!  It’s twue!  It’s twue!

  I’ve got a Nagant revolver in 7.62×38 that a recent review in Shotgun News said is “a perfectly useful military sidearm, if your only duty is to execute bound prisoners.”  I’ve got a Stevens Favorite single shot rifle in .32 Long rimfire.  The major cartridge companies stopped loading that round in the 30’s, but Navy Arms has a plant in Brazil run up a quantity of them about every decade or so.  Unfortunately, the place where I could get them at a reasonable price ($25 for a box of 50, compared to $40 or $50 for the same box everywhere else), sold the rest of their stock last month.  Now I’m stuck with only 150 rounds of ammo for that White Elephant, so you can be darn sure that it won’t be my primary Zombie Gun when “Dammit, I TOLD You All To Be Prepared For a Zombie Apocalypse, But Did You Listen?   Noooooooooooooo!  Day” rolls around.  Well, at least it’s a really cool wallhanger.

  And now, I’ve got THIS:

  Well, I didn’t JUST get it.  I’ve had it since April.  I’m currently under a “don’t you DARE bring anything else home” embargo, and I just wanted to make it clear that I’m following directions on that front.  I got it from a guy at a local gunshow who sold it to me as a .32 S&W revolver for $50.  I’ve always had a fondness for the British Bulldog revolvers of Webley and other firms, so I figured “hey, I’ve got a couple hundred rounds of .32 S&W laying around, so what the hey?”  Well, when I got it home and tried to chamber a .32 S&W round into it, imagine my shock when the bullet was too darn big to fit into the chamber.  I’m talking diameter here, not length.  A .32 S&W bullet is about as small as it gets, and it wouldn’t fit into the cylinder?  What the hell did I buy?  There are no markings left on the gun, even though the nickel finish is fairly OK.  Apparently, it was re-nickeled at some time in the past, or else it’s one of those guns that just doesn’t HAVE any markings to begin with.  That’s not completely unusual with European guns from the late 1800’s.

  Now that I’ve had some time to research the problem (hey, I’m a busy man), I’ve figured out that what I’ve got is a European pistol chambered for “.320 Revolver”.  Best guess is that it’s either Belgian or Italian, and dated somewhere from 1870 to 1890.  It’s a British cartridge that went out of production in the 20’s.  According to “Cartridges of the World” by Barnes, the cartridge neck diameter of .320 Revolver is .320″, versus .334″ for the .32 S&W.  That means that unless I’m willing to tap the cartridges into the cylinder with a hammer (NOTE:  Sarcasm alert here people.  I’ve seen that Road Runner cartoon where Wile E. Coyote does that, and it ended pretty badly for the Coyote.), the .32 S&W round ain’t gonna work in this particular pistola.  The ballistic data from Barnes says that the factory loads for the .320 Revolver with an 80 grain lead bullet produces 550 fps and 54 ft-pounds of energy, compared to factory loadings for the .32 S&W 98 grain lead bullet that give you 705 fps and 115 ft-lbs.  What does that mean in English?  Well, the factory loading for the .25 ACP gives you 760 fps and 64 ft-lbs, and as far as self defense goes, it’s considered to be one step above throwing rocks.  Heck, the .22 short subsonic loading produces 786 fps and 38 ft-lbs, and I’ve seen those bullets disintegrate on road signs without penetrating.  Let’s just say that this gun won’t be useful for self-defense unless I get attacked by a VERY aggressive cockroach, and only then if it’s a medium sized or smaller roach.

  I’ve gone all over the net looking for ammunition for the old girl, and all I’ve found so far is one place in Florida that offers custom loaded ammunition for all sorts of exotic cartridges.  I haven’t called them yet to see how expensive the ammo would be, because I’ve discovered that I may have another option.  After reading my copy of “Cartridges of the World” again, I found out that the .32 Short Colt was derived from the .320 Revolver, and they are dimensionally identical.  Of course, the ballistics noted for the .32 Short Colt are 745 fps and 100 ft-lbs for the 80 grain lead bullet, which is almost twice what the .320 is supposed to produce.  Part of that could be that the old .320-chambered revolvers have looser tolerances, causing more energy to be lost through the cylinder gap, but I’m worried that even though Barnes’ CotW and several other sources tell me that I should be able to fire this cartridge in my pistol it’s going to make it come apart like a wet pinata in my hand when I pull the trigger.  Why am I even considering this?  Well, Winchester still loads ammo for the .32 Short Colt, and I can get a box of it for $25, versus God knows how much for custom loaded ammo.

  I know, I know.  It’s silly to risk your hand or a finger or two for a measley $10 or $20 for a box of 50 shells.  But, if the gun will work with this commonly available ammo, it would be nice to know it, so that if (OK, more like WHEN) I sell it I can represent it as a “shooter” versus a “display piece”.  I’m thinking about two possible ways to test the gun’s safety using .32 Short Colt ammo:

1.  Bring it to the next IBSBP and dare Michael to shoot it at the Pre-Superbowl Shootin’ Match.

2.  McGyver up a vise and string, and test it out at the farm from a safe distance, preferably from behind my Explorer.

  Of course, both of these options run the risk of destroying the pistol (don’t worry, Michael would be OK.  I’d at least make him wear welding gloves & some goggles while shooting the gun….I’m not a complete savage after all), leaving me out $50 and stuck with most of a box of useless (to me) ammunition.  Fifty bucks ain’t much, but if you think about it as “two and a half lap dances”, you realize that it ain’t exactly NOTHING.  Of course, I COULD get some components and handload some rebated loads, but the dies and brass for this task wouldn’t exactly be cheap, unless I’m willing to shoot it enough to justify the expense.

  That’s my quandry:  Push the envelope and possibly blow the gun to smithereens, or play it safe with expensive custom ammunition?  I’m probably going to go with “Door A”, but I’d love to get your input.