.32 rimfire

Last updated
.32 Short Rimfire
32 Rim-Fire UMC Cartridges.jpg
TypeRifle and handgun
Place of originUnited States
Production history
DesignerSmith & Wesson
Designed1860
Specifications
Case typeRimmed, straight [1]
Bullet diameter.316 in (8.0 mm)
Neck diameter.318 in (8.1 mm)
Base diameter.318 in (8.1 mm)
Rim diameter.377 in (9.6 mm)
Case length0.575 in (14.6 mm)
Overall length0.948 in (24.1 mm)
Primer typeRimfire
Ballistic performance
Bullet mass/typeVelocityEnergy
80 gr (5 g) Rimmed945 ft/s (288 m/s)126 ft⋅lbf (171 J)
Test barrel length: 24
.32 Long Rimfire
Type Pistol/Rifle
Place of originUnited States
Production history
DesignerSmith & Wesson
Designed1860
Specifications
Case typeRimmed, straight [1]
Bullet diameter.316 in (8.0 mm)
Neck diameter.318 in (8.1 mm)
Base diameter.318 in (8.1 mm)
Rim diameter.377 in (9.6 mm)
Case length0.791 in (20.1 mm)
Overall length01.26 in (32 mm)
Primer typeRimfire
Ballistic performance
Bullet mass/typeVelocityEnergy
90 gr (6 g) Rimmed1,080 ft/s (330 m/s)233 ft⋅lbf (316 J)
Test barrel length: 24
.32 Extra Long
Type Pistol/Rifle
Place of originUnited States
Specifications
Case typeRimmed, straight [1]
Bullet diameter.316 in (8.0 mm)
Neck diameter.318 in (8.1 mm)
Base diameter.318 in (8.1 mm)
Rim diameter.377 in (9.6 mm)
Case length1.150 in (29.2 mm)
Overall length01.26 in (32 mm)
Primer typeRimfire
Ballistic performance
Bullet mass/typeVelocityEnergy
90 gr (6 g) Rimmed1,050 ft/s (320 m/s)221 ft⋅lbf (300 J)
Test barrel length: 24

The term .32 rimfire refers to a family of cartridges which were chambered in revolvers and rifles in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These rounds were made primarily in short and long lengths, but extra short, long rifle and extra long lengths were offered. [1]

Contents

Manufacturers

Manufacturers in the USA generally discontinued making .32 rimfire ammunition after the country's entrance into World War II in 1941. [1] It was available from old stocks for some years afterwards, but it has been made only sporadically in the last 70 years. [1] Occasionally, special limited runs of .32 rimfire ammunition are manufactured for gun collectors with shootable specimens, but the round is not considered a current commercial cartridge. Navy Arms Company had periodically imported .32 Rimfire Long made by CBC in Brazil until 2014. [2]

History

The .32 short was designed in 1860 by Smith & Wesson for their Model 2 revolver. In 1868, they introduced the .32 Long in the Model 112 Second Issue revolver. [3]

The .32 Short fired an 80 gr (0.183 oz; 5.184 g) lead bullet at 945 ft/s (288 m/s) (generating 159  ft⋅lb (216  J ) muzzle energy) from a 24 in (61 cm) rifle barrel. The .32 Long fired a slightly heavier 90 gr (0.206 oz; 5.832 g) bullet at approximately the same velocity, for 178 ft⋅lb (241 J) muzzle energy. Remington rifles in .32 rimfire listed a bore diameter of .304 in (7.7 mm) [4] [ page needed ]

The .32 Colt Short and Long centerfire cartridges matched the external dimensions of the .32 Short and Long rimfire cartridges. [5] The Marlin Model 1892 lever-action repeating rifle was shipped with two firing pins, one rimfire and one centerfire, to allow use of either the rimfire or centerfire cartridges. [6] Revolvers and single shot rifles chambered for one of the longer .32 rimfire cartridges would chamber and fire the shorter cartridges. [1]

Remington Arms manufactured .32 Extra Short ammunition (also known as .32 Protector) until 1920 for use in the Protector Palm Pistol and Remington Magazine Pistol. [7]

During its lifetime, the .32 rimfire was loaded with black powder, followed by semi-smokeless and smokeless powder loadings. While it was popular as a very effective small game caliber, it was considered obsolete by the late 1930s, in part due to the introduction of high-velocity versions of the .22 Long Rifle using smokeless powder. [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cartridge (firearms)</span> Ammunition consisting of a casing, projectile, propellant, and primer

A cartridge, also known as a round, is a type of pre-assembled firearm ammunition packaging a projectile, a propellant substance and an ignition device (primer) within a metallic, paper, or plastic case that is precisely made to fit within the barrel chamber of a breechloading gun, for convenient transportation and handling during shooting. Although in popular usage the term "bullet" is often used to refer to a complete cartridge, the correct usage only refers to the projectile.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Centerfire ammunition</span> Type of ammunition that is commonly found in small-, medium-, and large-caliber firearms

A centerfire cartridge is a firearm metallic cartridge whose primer is located at the center of the base of its casing. Unlike rimfire cartridges, the centerfire primer is typically a separate component seated into a recessed cavity in the case head and is replaceable by reloading.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rimfire ammunition</span> Type of ammunition that is only commonly found in small-caliber firearms

A rimfire cartridge is a type of firearm metallic cartridge whose primer is located within a hollow circumferential rim protruding from the base of its casing. When fired, the gun's firing pin will strike and crush the rim against the edge of the barrel breech, sparking the primer compound within the rim, and in turn ignite the propellant within the case. Invented in 1845, by Louis-Nicolas Flobert, the first rimfire metallic cartridge was the .22 BB Cap cartridge, which consisted of a percussion cap with a bullet attached to the top. While many other different cartridge priming methods have been tried since the mid-19th century onwards, such as pinfire, only small caliber rimfire and centerfire cartridges have survived to the present day with regular usage. The .22 Long Rifle rimfire cartridge, introduced in 1887, is by far the most common ammunition in the world today in terms of units sold.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lever action</span> Type of firearm action

A lever action is a type of action for repeating firearms that uses a manually operated cocking handle located around the trigger guard area that pivots forward to move the bolt via internal linkages, which will feed and extract cartridges into and out of the chamber, and cock the firing pin mechanism. This contrasts to other type of repeating actions such as the bolt-action, pump-action, semi-automatic, fully automatic, and/or burst mode actions. A firearm using this operating mechanism is colloquially referred to as a levergun.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.22 Long Rifle</span> Common ammunition cartridge

The .22 Long Rifle or simply .22 LR or 22 is a long-established variety of .22 caliber rimfire ammunition originating from the United States. It is used in a wide range of rifles, pistols, revolvers, and submachine guns.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.45 Colt</span> Revolver cartridge designed by the U.S. Army

The .45 Colt (11.43×33mmR), is a rimmed, straight-walled, handgun cartridge dating to 1872. It was originally a black-powder revolver round developed for the Colt Single Action Army revolver. This cartridge was adopted by the U.S. Army in 1873 and served as an official US military handgun cartridge for 19 years, before being replaced by the .38 Long Colt in 1892.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.223 Remington</span> Firearms cartridge

The .223 Remington is a rimless, bottlenecked, centerfire rifle cartridge. It was developed in 1957 by Remington Arms and Fairchild Industries for the U.S. Continental Army Command of the United States Army as part of a project to create a small-caliber, high-velocity firearm. The .223 Remington is considered one of the most popular common-use cartridges and is currently used by a wide range of semi-automatic and manual-action rifles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.22 Short</span> Variety of rimfire .22 caliber ammunition

.22 Short is a variety of .22 caliber (5.6 mm) rimfire ammunition. Developed in 1857 for the first Smith & Wesson revolver, the .22 rimfire was the first American metallic cartridge. The original loading was a 29 or 30 gr bullet and 4 gr of black powder. The original .22 rimfire cartridge was renamed .22 Short with the introduction of the .22 Long in 1871.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.22 Long</span> Variety of rimfire 22 caliber ammunition

The .22 Long is a variety of .22 caliber (5.6 mm) rimfire ammunition. The .22 Long is the second-oldest of the surviving rimfire cartridges, dating back to 1871, when it was loaded with a 29 gr (1.9 g) bullet and 5 gr (0.32 g) of black powder, 25% more than the .22 Short on which it was based. It was designed for use in revolvers, but was soon chambered in rifles as well, in which it gained a reputation as a small game cartridge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.32 S&W</span> Revolver cartridge designed by the Smith & Wesson Company (S&W)

The .32 S&W cartridge was introduced in 1878 for Smith & Wesson pocket revolvers. It was originally designed as a black powder cartridge. The .32 S&W was offered to the public as a light defense cartridge for "card table" distances.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.32 S&W Long</span> American handgun cartridge

The .32 S&W Long, also known as 7.65x23mm, is a straight-walled, centerfire, rimmed handgun cartridge, based on the earlier .32 S&W cartridge. It was introduced in 1896 for Smith & Wesson's first-model Hand Ejector revolver. Colt called it the .32 Colt New Police in revolvers it made chambered for the cartridge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.22 Hornet</span> Rifle cartridge

The .22 Hornet or 5.6×36mmR Hornet is a varminting, small-game hunting, survival and competition centerfire rifle cartridge commercially introduced in 1930. It is considerably more powerful than the rimfire .22 WMR and the .17 HMR, achieving higher velocity with a bullet twice the weight of the .17 HMR bullet. The Hornet also differs significantly from these in that being a centerfire cartridge makes it reloadable, and thus more versatile. It was the smallest commercially available .22 caliber centerfire cartridge until the introduction of the FN 5.7×28mm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire</span> Rimfire cartridge

The .22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire, also called .22 WMR, .22 Magnum, .22 WMRF, .22 MRF, or .22 Mag, is a rimfire cartridge. Originally loaded with a bullet weight of 40 grains (2.6 g) delivering velocities in the 2,000 feet per second (610 m/s) range from a rifle barrel, .22 WMR is now loaded with bullet weights ranging from 50 grains (3.2 g) at 1,530 feet per second (470 m/s) to 30 grains (1.9 g) at 2,200 feet per second (670 m/s).

A rim is an external flange that is machined, cast, molded, stamped, or pressed around the bottom of a firearms cartridge. Thus, rimmed cartridges are sometimes called "flanged" cartridges. Almost all cartridges feature an extractor or headspacing rim, in spite of the fact that some cartridges are known as "rimless cartridges". The rim may serve a number of purposes, including providing a lip for the extractor to engage, and sometimes serving to headspace the cartridge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">H&R Firearms</span> Firearms brand

H&R 1871, LLC, or more commonly known as Harrington & Richardson, is an American brand of firearms and a subsidiary of JJE Capital Holdings. H&R ceased independent production February 27, 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antique firearms</span> Firearms older than 20th century

An antique firearm is a term used to describe a firearm that was designed and manufactured prior to the beginning of the 20th century. Although the exact definition of what constitutes an "antique firearm" varies between countries, the advent of smokeless powder or the start of the Boer War are often used as cut-off dates. Antique firearms are usually collected because of their historical interest and/or their monetary value.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.22 caliber</span> Index of articles associated with the same name

.22 caliber, or 5.6 mm caliber, refers to a common firearms bore diameter of 0.22 inch (5.6 mm).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">5mm Remington Rimfire Magnum</span> Bottlenecked rimfire cartridge introduced by Remington Arms Company

The 5 mm Remington Rimfire Magnum or 5 mm RFM is a bottlenecked rimfire cartridge introduced by Remington Arms Company in 1969. Remington chambered it in a pair of bolt-action rifles, the Model 591 and Model 592, but this ammunition never became very popular, and the rifles were discontinued in 1974. About 52,000 rifles and 30,000 barrels for the T/C Contender pistol were sold during its brief production run. Remington discontinued the cartridge itself in 1982, leaving owners with no source of ammunition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.22 Extra Long</span> Rimfire rifle and handgun cartridge

The .22 Extra Long is a .22 in (5.6 mm) American rimfire rifle and handgun cartridge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.38 rimfire</span> Firearm cartridge

.38 rimfire cartridges are a type of ammunition that have been in service in the United States since the mid-nineteenth century. The cartridges are produced in short, long and extra long variants.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Barnes, Frank C. (1997). M.L. McPherson (ed.). Cartridges of the World (8th ed.). p. 386. ISBN   0873491785.
  2. Woodard, W. Todd (1 December 2014). Cartridges of the World: A Complete and Illustrated Reference for Over 1500 Cartridges. Iola, Wisconsin: F+W Media. pp. 1768–1769. ISBN   978-1-4402-4274-8.
  3. Kinard, Jeff (2004). Pistols: An Illustrated History of Their Impact. ABC-CLIO. p. 115. ISBN   978-1851094707.
  4. Sharpe, Phillip B. The Rifle in America (William Morrow and Co., 1938).
  5. https://www.handloadermagazine.com/cartridge-board-17
  6. Sears, Roebuck and Co. Catalogue No. 104, 1897.
  7. Barnes, Frank C. (22 September 2009). Cartridges of the World: A Complete and Illustrated Reference for Over 1500 Cartridges. Iola, Wisconsin: Gun Digest Books. p. 447. ISBN   978-1-4402-1330-4.

See also