32-20 problem

[Noz]

I have not been pleased with the performance of the 1866 32-20 on steel. Seems I'm missing more than I should.

Had some time to put it on paper this afternoon.

10 rounds at 15 yards. leaning on the truck door post I got 2 hits at the very top of a 10" target when aiming dead center.
OK, I can fix that with lowering the rear sight a bit.
Where I'm lost is the 2 hits are both sideways.  Yup! An orange peel type target with 2 perfect profiles of my bullet.
Load is 16 grs of FFFg black, by weight, with a 120gr high lube capacity bullet. (Not a Big Lube).

Let the greater minds pontificate. I'm lost. Never had such a thing happen before.

[hellgate]

Noz,
Sorry to hear of your troubles. Let me ramble (not likely to solve the problem though). A couple of shooting buddies of mine (Ol#4 and Big Iron Buster) use 32-20s in their '73 rifles & pistols all the time. They use Desperado bullets cast at 1:20. Not a big lube, also no heavier than 115 grs. Even though the ad says BP compatible lube, they are swabbing their bores between stages too and use real black. A couple thoughts:
-Your 120gr bullets may be too long for the twist rate of the rifle.
-The bullet diameter might not be the right diameter for the bore. Are they hard cast that can't bump up or are they relatively soft?
-Small bores foul faster. Maybe the last few inches of bore are crudded up. How long is the barrel?

[Noz]

Noz,
Sorry to hear of your troubles. Let me ramble (not likely to solve the problem though). A couple of shooting buddies of mine (Ol#4 and Big Iron Buster) use 32-20s in their '73 rifles & pistols all the time. They use Desperado bullets cast at 1:20. Not a big lube, also no heavier than 115 grs. Even though the ad says BP compatible lube, they are swabbing their bores between stages too and use real black. A couple thoughts:
-Your 120gr bullets may be too long for the twist rate of the rifle.
-The bullet diameter might not be the right diameter for the bore. Are they hard cast that can't bump up or are they relatively soft?
-Small bores foul faster. Maybe the last few inches of bore are crudded up. How long is the barrel?

20" barrel. Bore was clean to start the limited string. I have an 80gr mold that I have hesitated to use because I was concerned that it might be too light to ring the steel. Guess thats next on the experimental list.

[Quick Fire]

You all may want to slug your barrel. Sounds like your bullet is too small for your bore.

[w44wcf]

Noz,
Sorry to hear of your troubles. First, the .32-20 was factory loaded with both 100 and 115 gr. (.32 W.C.F.) lead bullets, so it is not the length of the bullet....unless your 120 gr. bullet is a lot longer.  

I have a Lyman 3118 (311008) bullet that weighs 120 grs. with two lube grooves.  A friend used them in his original '73 .32-20 with very good results using b.p.

It is most likely the bullet fit to the barrel....in other words they are likely undersize unless there is soming wrong in the barrel.

If you make the bullets from pure lead, (or perhaps no more than 2% tin added (50/1) they will bump up to fit the barrel and the "keyholing" will be a thing of the past.

What make / mold are you using?

w44wcf

[Noz]

Problem solved. Seems like a relative came by and wanted to shoot a bit since I had cleaned the gun last.
.311 bullets don't go thru a barrel that is fouled down to about 25 cal.  30 minutes with a brass brush and she shoots to the middle of the target, point on.

[Lucky R. K.]

Noz, If you ever need to calculate the various factors for bullet weight, length or velocity check out the site below.  It gives you formulas to calculate them.

http://kwk.us/twist.html.

Lucky 

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

Problem solved. Seems like a relative came by and wanted to shoot a bit since I had cleaned the gun last.
.311 bullets don't go thru a barrel that is fouled down to about 25 cal.  30 minutes with a brass brush and she shoots to the middle of the target, point on.

[w44wcf]

So.....there was a problem with the barrel!  Clean and lightly fouled barrels do shoot better!

Sounds like a change in your b.p. recipe is needed for extended periods of accurate shooting.
Switching to Olde Enysford or Swiss would certainly help.0
Either that or much more frequent cleanings.......

Just curious...
What lube are you using?  What bullet?

w44wcf   

[Noz]

commercial 120 gr bullet. I do not know what the lube is but it looks like SPG.

[pony express]

I had a similar problem once with my 1889 Marlin 32-20. Shot a whole match with desperado bullets, over Goex. Was missing too much by the end of the match, then I tried to pull a bore snake through it....it got stuck! I took the whole outfit outside, tied the end of the snake to my tractor and yanked on the rifle with both hands, lucky the string held. Learned a lesson on that particular rifle then....don't shoot 5-6 stages without running something through it!

[Abilene]

I bought a .312 die for my old Lyman lubricizer so I could re-lube commercial bullets I had.  After I ran out of those I bought 500 Desperado bullets.  Didn't realize the blue lube in them was supposed to be BP-compatible, so I melted it out and relubed those as well.  All shot fine in my 20" Uberti.  Then I bought 1500 more Desperados recently at Winter Range and thought I might be able to shoot them as-is with BP, but reading the above makes me wonder.  I may try loading just enough for a match and see how it shoots, so I know if I need to relube those as well.

[pony express]

Abiline, you might get better results with your Uberti than I did with my Marlin, the bore on mine is lightly pitted just about from end to end. I think that was at least part of my problem. Solution: I bought an Uberti '66 and don't shoot the old Marlin near as much anymore.

[Dick Dastardly]

There's a Big Lube cure.

DD-MDA

[pony express]

There's a Big Lube cure.

DD-MDA

One of these days....but I still got nearly a thousand Desperados to go through first...