GUNS Magazine Black Powder .32 WCF

They don't come much more soul-stirring to a sixgunner's heart than this 1st Generation Colt Single Action Army chambered in .32-20.

The .32 Winchester Centerfire (.32 WCF) is more generally known as the .32-20. It began life as a rifle cartridge and is slightly tapered, making it easier-feeding in a lever-action rifle. Both Winchester and Marlin chambered their leverguns in .32-20 in the last quarter of the 19th century. The Winchester Model 1892 chambered in .32-20 is one of the handiest little leverguns a shooter can have for everyday use in taking varmints, small game and even deer.

A lighter, easier-to-pack .32-20 alternative sixgun to the Colt Single Action Army (bottom) is the S&W Military & Police.

Two of my favorite gun writers as a budding sixgunner were Elmer Keith and Skeeter Skelton. I was still in high school in 1955 when Keith wrote of the .32-20 as a revolver cartridge while speaking of his very first centerfire sixgun, a 7 ½" Colt Single Action: "I killed more small game with it than any other sixgun cartridge and shot a lot of trapped coyotes, bobcats, badgers, etc. with it for years while running trap lines. I killed three mule deer with the cartridge from the S.A. Colt. However, I consider it much too light for such use."

Skeeter would share later: "When the Marines finally decided they’d gotten all the work out of me they could, they handed me a fistful of money and cut me loose in Chicago. That was in 1946 and good guns were hard to come by. I rode buses and trolley cars for three days, going from one gun emporium to another, looking for a good .44 or .45 Colt Single Action to side me home to Texas. There were none, so I finally compromised on a like-new 7 ½" Single Action Army .32-20. Thus armed, I went home and carried the long, graceful revolver on a tractor, shooting jackrabbits to enliven the dull days as I drilled the family's winter wheat. Once this onerous chore was completed, I took a year off to get caught up with pistol shooting. Two years with the .32-20 taught me a great deal about accurate revolver shooting and even led me into handloading. I learned a lot about aerial shooting with the long-barreled Colt."

Over the years I’ve accumulated Italian-replica .32-20 Single Actions in all three standard barrel lengths of 4 ¾", 5 ½" and 7 ½" and found them to be excellent shooters. When Colt celebrated their 175th Anniversary in 2011, they offered not only the .45 Colt and .44 Special, but the .44-40, .38-40 and .32-20 in their Single Action Army. I ordered all three of these examples with hyphenated cartridges and simply asked for three different barrel lengths. The .32-20 came through with a 5 ½" barrel and it is an excellent sixgun in all ways. Colt did a bang-up job on their Anniversary Models, exhibiting what they really were capable of doing with the right leadership.

Targets (above) shot at 20 yards with black powder loads in the .32-20 Uberti 7 ½" Model P.

One problem inherent in loading the .32-20 is the fact all manufacturers do not adhere to the same cartridge case length.

Cast bulletsfor loading black powder 32-20 rounds include a 92-grain RNFP, a 115-grain RNFP and a 125-grain Keith.

Loading the .32-20, whether with smokeless or black powder loads, require some careful attention. I have cartridge cases from Starline, Remington and Winchester and the three cases have three different lengths. So, they must be kept separate when reloading and the crimping die adjusted for each brand or they all need to be trimmed to the same length. When it comes to purchasing new brass, I only choose Starline as theirs is much tougher and thicker in the case mouth, and not susceptible to crumpling like the other two brands when bullets are seated.

My most-used cast bullets for black powder loading of the .32-20 include a 125-grain Keith SWC, the Oregon Trail 115-grain RNFP and for special plinking loads, a 92 RNFP and 78-grain round-nosed bullet. The Keith bullet is the most effective on small game and varmints with its flat nose. Most of my black powder tests utilize the Uberti-manufactured Cimarron 7 ½" Model P. With the Keith bullet, 20 grains of Triple-Seven FFFg results in a muzzle velocity of 943 FPS, which is pretty potent for most uses.

Most of my loads are assembled with 16.6 grains of black powder or black powder substitute by volume simply because my Lee dipper throws this charge amount. For black powder I like to place the empty primed cases in a loading block then dip my loads and use a small funnel to trickle the powder into the case. With this 16.6-grain charge and the 125 Keith bullet, Triple-Seven FFFg gives a muzzle velocity of 868 FPS while Elephant Brand FFFg drops all the way down to 661 FPS; Swiss FFFg gets back up to 850 FPS followed by Goex FFFg, 822 FPS. The same 16.6 grains of Clean Shot FFFg yields 812 FPS. My loads with the Oregon Trail grain 115 RNFP with 20 grains of Goex FFFg comes in at 889 FPS and the same charge of Pyrodex gives 841 FPS. All of these are quite pleasant shooting with the most accurate load being the 115-grain RNFP at just over 1″ at 20 yards with the Goex load.

Most shooters today would consider the .32-20 has been replaced for sixgun use by the much newer .327 Federal Magnum, which is a straight-walled case allowing the use of a carbide sizing die. However, I have found the .327 can be quite problematic with certain loads, bullets and powders. I like both of them in a sixgun, however, I have only used black powder in the .32-20. At least, thus far.

The .32-20 remains an excellent cartridge and the Triple-Seven load with the Keith bullet makes an excellent every day packin’ load in a Colt or replica Single Action Army. It's a load that will do well when wandering sagebrush, foothills, forests and mountains. However. the one drawback is, as some might say, the Single Action Army weighs over 3 lbs. If this is objectionable — it isn't to me — an excellent alternative is the Smith & Wesson Military & Police chambered in .32-20, an original loading in this sixgun going back to 1899.

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