Allan can’t explain his fondness for accurate .32-caliber revolvers other than to say they are fun to shoot.

After many decades of shooting, reloading, and developing data, I find myself with strong feelings about some cartridges. Some of it is admiration gained through wringing out the cartridge in the lab; some is plain old personal prejudice. This column covers my favorite handgun cartridges; next month I'll tackle the rifle stuff.

.32-Caliber Revolver Rounds
Don't ask me why, but I've developed affection for .32-caliber revolvers. The .32 S&W Long, the .32 H&R Magnum, and the .32-20 Winchester all get my seal of approval.

My .32 Long revolver is an S&W Model 31 with a 3-inch barrel and fixed sights. A short barrel and small, fixed sights can't keep this little gem from shooting nice groups. I like cast bullets; the .32 Long gets either the RCBS No. 32-98 flatpoint or the original .32-20 bullet from an Ideal mold, No. 3118, weighing 115 grains.

The .32 H&R Magnum is a Ruger Single-Six made back when you could get adjustable sights. This revolver and the Ideal No. 311316 gascheck bullet make a remarkable long-range combo. I can keep the majority of bullets on a large watermelon at 250 yards. For an expanding bullet, I use the Speer .312-inch, 100-grain jacketed hollowpoint over a max charge of H110 or VihtaVuori N110.

My .32-20 revolver is a Bowen Classic Arms custom conversion of a three-screw Ruger .357 Magnum Blackhawk. I shoot the same hot loads in it as I run through my Winchester Model 1892, running up to 28,000 CUP, and the Ruger handles them in stride. The new cylinder that Hamilton Bowen created has massive wall thickness--very reassuring. For this rifle/revolver combo, I usually load the Ideal No. 3118 bullet over the charges of H110 we developed for strong-action rifles in the Speer manuals. They are accurate and flat-shooting.

I am sometimes asked what's the good of a .32-caliber handgun, and I am always stretched to come up with a decent technical or social reason. All I can say is these firearms are accurate and fun to shoot. They are especially nice after shooting the big bruisers; I use them to give my shooting hand a rest.

.38 Special
The .38 Special was the first cartridge I reloaded. That was back when my only centerfire revolver was an old model Ruger Blackhawk .357 Magnum. Magnum cases were expensive when I made $250 a month, but I could get scads of .38 Spl. cases, and I loaded scads.

I think I've loaded just about every bullet type available for the .38 Spl., in weights from 90 to 200 grains. Working in a ballistic lab later in life made me reassess the use of jacketed bullets, though. We published safe jacketed-bullet loads, but getting there took a lot of work. I've settled on lead, taking the Special back to its beginnings. For standard loads, I shoot 158-grain cast bullets with 4.5 grains of Unique and with 5.3 grains of Power Pistol for +P loads.

I have found the most accurate cast bullet across a number of guns is the original Keith 173-grain SWC (Ideal mold No. 358429). My mold drops closer to 168 grains, and I load 5.0 grains of Power Pistol for a +P load. However, when I scored an original S&W .38-44 Outdoorsman--the heavy-frame model Elmer Keith used to prototype loads that eventually became the .357 Magnum--I could not resist trying Elmer's big charges of 2400 under the Keith bullet. I was able to reproduce and chronograph Elmer's screamers. The solid version of the Keith bullet averaged 1,130 fps from the 6.5-inch barrel of the Outdoorsman; the hollowpoint version weighing 155 grains hit 1,190 fps. Don't try this at home--not even I shoot these loads anymore. These loads exceed any modern pressure standard by a bunch and should be relegated to historical interest only.