Rifle cartridge adapters

[Erasmus]

These things allow .30 and .31 caliber rifles to shoot pistol cartridges, instead of the normal ear-splitting stuff they were originally chambered for. I've been wanting one of these for some time, and so purchased the " .32 Multi-Chamber Insert" from SportsmansGuide. For just over $20 out the door, this turned steel adapter arrives at your door, a week later. Much anticipated. (I fizzed with impatience the whole time!)

On unzipping it from its tiny baggy, you see by the paper insert that it also chambers .32acp, .32 S&W Long, as well as .32 H&R "Magnum". How a cartridge with a 21ksi pressure limit could be classed as a magnum, is beyond me. At any rate, to the review...

It just happened to fit my Post War chamber neatly, with NO extra clearance. The included literature hints that you may need to do some minor fitting (sanding the adapter) to get it to chamber easily. Do not just buy one of these, jam it into your chamber, and slam your bolt closed. If you create an interference fit, you'll be epicly and expensively unhappy. Easy does it, 'nough said.

The .32 Magnum chambering indicates that the steel adapter unit is only guaranteed for a max operating pressure of 21,000c.u.p., so hotrod handloads need not apply for this unit. People (read that "hunters") needing more power than this pressure will allow, should just skip it and reload empty rifle brass to meet their needs, conventionally.

I chose this adapter to fit a particularly good and accurate surplus .303 British rifle I hunt with. My reasoning is that I could just drop pistol cartridges into the adapter, and if they grouped well, could be made to answer for small game hunting, with less report and consequent hearing damage, to me, and to my dogs.

My first foray with some .32acp reloads proved sketchy. The .32Mag chambering with its attendant (fat) .337" chamber dimensions, meant that my short little .311" 71grain FMJ's just sorted of coasted through space, unguided, till they hit the .311 portion of the adapter, and thence into the rifling for its trip down the tube. The bullets patterned into about 4" at 25 yards, using the rifle's 500 yard flip up peep sight. A few rounds of ancient mixed headstamp factory ammo from a 50 year old box of Peters brand did better, grouping into 2" at this distance.

A check of the wooden backstop revealed that the little bullets had enough oomph to penetrate 4" of weathered pine boards and plywood. An examination of the bullets revealed that the rifling was engraved unevenly on the copper jackets --> The bullets had left the short .32auto cases, coasted through the rest of the .32Magnum chamber, and had crashed somewhat tilted (off axis) into the smoothbore portion of the cartridge adapter. No wonder they didn't group well. All their bases were tilted! Not enough to show noticeably oblong holes in the target, though.

This pattern went on for all the .32 acp I shot out of it. The velocity hadn't seemed to drop off in my 25" bbl, it's just that the accuracy wasn't there. Sound signature is directly comparable to .22LR from a rifle.

I then rummaged around in a dusty and forgotten basket, containing obscure cartridges, and located 9 pieces of empty .32 S&W Long brass, as well as a small handful of the Shorts. I ignored the Shorts.

I can tell you that after reloading the .32 Long with some 100 grain .313" Wadcutters and 2 grains of Bullseye, that I have easily achieved 2" groups at 50 yards. Bingo. This with mixed brass. I seem to see a bag of .32Long brass in my near future. The above load duplicates a standard, accurate and mild target load, but still retains a flattish 50 yard trajectory, and good knockdown power when it hits.

The same powder charge and bullet is quieter in the Long brass, than the acp brass. Ejection of the empty brass is via an abused and carboned up pencil. You're gonna want to use cast lead bullets in this application, since they have much less bore friction than jacketed. They're cheaper, too.

Here are the downsides to this cartridge adapter business:

1. .32 acp is a waste of time (solely because of accuracy considerations). Why couldn't they just make a dedicated .32auto adapter?! I'd have been happy to stop at that power level.

2. The steel unit does not achieve the usual excellent gas seal at its cartridge mouth, which we are used to from conventional brass casings. This means that a little bit of powder fouling escapes into the chamber, dirtying it, and allowing some high pressure gas to get away from the breach, making it louder for the shooter than it would have been, had there been a gas tight seal in the chamber.

3. Does not feed easily from the chamber of my No. 4 Enfield. "Push feed" is easier than CRF for this adapter.

4. Your rate of fire will best be described as "leisurely". That's not a big deal for me.

If you like interesting gizmos for your guns, this one is worthwhile. Just shoot Long or Magnums out of it.
I expect it to provide lots of quiet small game hunting hunting fun in my future, from my big game rifle.

Reloaders who cannot be bothered to mess with adding extra calibers or using fiddly adapters can roughly duplicate this performance with Ed Harris's suggested load of 5 grains of Red Dot and any 100 to 150 grain lead bullet in their .303. I've shot a TON of these low powered cartridge (approx. duplicating .38 Special or 9mmLuger power levels), but the adapter just adds an interesting new wrinkle.

I fully expect small game to flee in terror when I locate a bag of empty .32Long brass.

 

[boring]

thanks for the report. I always found caliber/gauge adapters appealing.

 

[Erasmus]

Yeah, the rationale is that you may see something you want to shoot, but don't wish to use a full power rifle cartridge for. This was one of the driving forces behind "trail guns"-- you're deer hunting, and you see a grouse/rabbit/something tastey. How do you get it? This website has one answer, the trail gun:
http://www.buckmasters.com/top-stories/view-all-articles.aspx?articleType=ArticleView&articleId=4219

Personally, if I'm already carrying a heavy .30 caliber rifle and backpack high up on the Sierra plateau with the prospect of carrying out heavy quarters of Mulie, 3 extra lbs of small game pistol loses a lot of appeal. This is where the adapter comes in. For the price of carrying 10 or 20 pistol cartridges and a small metal adapter, you can render a dinner of fried Dendragopus Obscurus in noodles fait accompli.

I was originally looking at the Hammond Game Getter:
http://www3.telus.net/gamegetter/
People who have them, like them. You choose from 4 power levels of rimfire nail drivers to lob .30 buckshot out of your rifle. Sends a 45 grain lead ball at about 800fps out of your weapon, with accuracy and trajectory suitable for its max effective range of 25 yards. Canadians have used this for years and report it works fine. I just suffer from lack of confidence in the low powered lead balls it launches. I'm probably wrong to doubt the device's efficacy.

I looked at the McAce people:
http://www.mcace.com/
They probably(?) make a nicer version of what I got from SportsmansGuide. If you buy one of his, the stainless one is likely the best bet. Exhausted deer hunters have been known to neglect gun cleaning! His prices include shipping, so he may even be a hair cheaper than SG!

I see in this Ed Harris article on the subject
http://www.gunandgame.com/forums/powder-keg/85502-32-caliber-small-game-rifles.html
that 2 grains of Bullseye in a .32 S&W Long case yields 850fps with 120 grain bullets. My homecast 100 grain wadcutters may reach 900fps in a rifle/adapter application. I consider that entirely adequate for something that is intended to take small game at less than 50 yards.

Personally, I find high-subsonic velocities to be ideal for small game rifles. You get a much quieter report, and don't have to deal with the sonic crack.

My only question for this adapter, is, should I buy a bag of .32 S&W Longs, or hope for more accuracy with Starline .32H&R Magnum brass. I don't think I could lose, either way.

I probably also need one in .30/06 and 7.62R Ruskie, too.

Personally, I'd stay away from SG's 7.62x25mm adapters. People report that they have to hammer on them to extract that high pressure little bottlenecked round, and the accuracy wasn't there. These things intrinsically have such a low rate of fire, that if the accuracy isn't there, then they've got nuthin going for them.

CHEERS

 

[Joe Calton]

those things are really great! you might want to buy at least 2 for each caliber that you hunt with. Ive been using a pair of the old ones in 308 win for about 10 years. the ones that I have are only 32 acp to 308. I did notice that the pair that I bought for my daughters 308 could take up to 32 mag.

the reason you want at least 2, is that sometimes, the brass doesnt extract easy, and its faster to just load another converter than to fight with it while you have a bunny or grouse in front of you. also, if you are on a hunt with a buddy, and he has the same caliber rifle as you, and there are no deer, elk, whatever, but lots of bunnies, you can loan him one, and you both are in business. youll only do that once, as that buddy will buy his own when he gets home.

I havent had a probem with the ones I have that are only 32 acp. the 32 acp is more than enough power for anything I want to shoot quietly. I did find that loading 30 caliber bullets improved accuracy. I had to make up some loads, based on 32 short colt data, for some speer 100 grain plinkers that will shoot into an inch at 70 yards. when Im out of them, Im going to try some hornadays 90 xtp's.

I have put a drop of super glue on the side of the case to keep the 32 cartridge in the converter while its in my ammo pouch

these are really the ticket when hunting with a 30 caliber rifle. when I hunt with something else {338, 7mag, 6.5 swede}, I usually pack a flatband slingshot if the weather isnt too cold, or a ruger sp101 in 357, with light 38's. I did just get one of the ruger sr22's. someone finally made a midsized 22, that isnt ammo picky, has a 3.5" barrel, weighs 18 oz loaded with 10 rds, for around $350!

the 338 win to .22lr, that mcace sold me a long time ago iisnt very good byt the way. it is basically a 2" 22lr, that is still reallly loud, and very inaccurate. 2"-3" groups at 5 yards. but the .30 caliber stuff is great!

 

[Erasmus]

I think people who don't reload for their .30 caliber rifle, but want a quiet shooting small game option should definately acquire a dedicated .32acp or .32 S&WLong adapter. The Long version seems to throw a bigger payload of lead than .32acp, while being noticeably quieter. That's win right there.
Here's the youtube vid, which shows it just like it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Riv4arifoM
He noticed that Longs are quieter, too.

Another angle for small game is the Townsend Whelen-esque approach, in which you download some of your regular deer rifle cartridges to about 1,500fps. This gives you a few rounds of small game ammo, which shoots quietly and very flat, with approximately the energy of a .357Magnum. http://www.kifaru.net/handload.htm

I've done just like "Patrick" on that website suggests, and have been very happy with the results. My serious small game load has been 16 grains of 2400 powder, and whatever 150 grain .30 caliber bullet I've got. They don't even have to expand, to lay the smack down for sub-100 yard shots at interesting snacks.

I'm a cartridge reloader, so my attitude is, "I only need as much power as I need for the job, not necessarily only full power ammo." And in fact, Patrick is right. Once you become accustomed to having lots of "small game ammo" on you, you will shoot your regular highpowered deer rifle much more often, with the benefit that during deer season you are much more familiar, competent and confident about hitting.

It'll be interesting to see .32Longs operate in the game fields. I expect it to be very effective.


One issue I forgot to mention is "barrel time". Conventional rifle bullets seem to be gone from your weapon before flinches, follow through or poor shooting form can affect them much. Not so with low velocity pistol cartridges shot out of your high powered rifle. If you exhibit bad form, or fail to follow through, you'll lower the barrel before that slow little bullet has quite left, and you'll make yourself miss. Don do dat.

 

[mete]

I have a Springfield 1903 MK I though not complete .That was developed at the end of WWI .Firing the normal 30-06 cartridge and a 30 caliber pistol cartridge semi-auto ! Easy to spot as it has TWO ejection ports , one for each cartridge !

 

[Erasmus]

So, your weapon was set up for the Pedersen device, which was an 80 grain FMJ-RN pushed by 3 1/2 grains of Bullseye, to achieve 1,300 fps in an 03 Springfield, according to Hatcher. With the German loss in '18, the whole secret business was scrapped. The French may have cloned the cartridge for their own pistols and SMG's, as the 7.65x20 Longue.

As an aside, I thought I would mention that in light of my good 50 yard groups w/ .32Long full wadcutters, I'd try them at 150 yards (just because I easily could). At this longish range, they tumbled(?) or something, because they shot into a very randomly distributed 6 or 8 foot group at this distance. This kind of figures, since bullseye competitors note that neither .32 nor .38 wadcutters seem to stay accurate much beyond 50 or 75 yards. 115 grain Lead round nose bullets kept minute of 2L bottle accuracy for me, though.

It's a close range proposition, anyway. I wish I had a dedicated .32acp-.303Brit adapter. Part of the attraction of this is minimalistic bulk/weight for the ammo, which longer cartridges tend to negate.

Backpackers can't help counting grams.

 

[Erasmus]

Went out shooting .32 S&W Long yesterday, through my .303:

I reloaded a 115 grain LRN-GC RCBS cast bullet without its gascheck, ahead of 2 grains of Bullseye in the Long casing. This would be considered a regular power load in the .32 pistol cartridge.

My rifle shoots it to point of aim at 25 yards, using the 500 yard peep. Not satisfied with this, I backed up to 300 yards and shot them. I had to raise my flip up peep to the 1,200 yard setting, and judging by their visible impacts, I'd say they would have all stayed on a large pizza box. This in a variably gusting wind. The bullet impacts were much more visible than .22LR's.

When I get a still day, I'll try shooting them for a group, just for fun. Interesting how such a questionable little device can shoot so well, with the Longs.

Further, as I fire cartridges through it, it seems to be getting a little quieter-- this means that the adapter's medium hard steel is obturating a little more, which in turn cuts down on perceived noise. It is now so quiet, that you can hear the firing pin spring bashing around in the bolt, and you can hear the subsonic bullet sizzling through the air towards the target. I'd say it took almost 2 seconds for it to travel 300 yards. At least 1.5s