My nephew, Ross, is visiting from Australia with his family for Christmas. Although he goes hunting with his father when he is here (he doesn't have access to guns in Oz) he always enjoys a range day with my guns. His favourite is my Astra Constable .32 PPK lookalike.
This pistol was almost 100% reliable with Federal ammunition, but .32 auto ammo is hard to get here, and Federal .32 auto has been impossible to obtain for several years. I have tried Winchester Silvertip and S&B FMJ ammo. Both resulted in repeated failures to fire in the Astra.
As this pistol is used for shooting a 48 round Classic Pistol match (in modern replica category) these misfires are annoying, to say the least. Not only do I loose time but match rules only allow 6 rounds to be loaded per 6 shot string, so I also I lose shots on target when a primer fails to fire.
Some time ago I bought dies, cases and bullets (71 gn JRN) to reload the .32 Auto calibre, but I never found time to actually reload any ammo.
Yesterday I took Ross to the range, and while getting ready I found a half used box of the S&B ammo in my cupboard, so I put it along with the Astra into my range bag. Sure enough, when the time came to shoot the little pistol it misfired several times. While all rounds eventually discharged, some enquired as many as 5 strikes of the hammer to do so.
On getting home I ran 7 cases through the sizing/depriming die (it is set up on a seperate turret for my Lee turret press) and repimed them using Federal SPP's. All 7 discharged first pull of the trigger when run through the pistol (yes, empty cases loaded into the chamber from the mag and the primer detonations were no loader than a nail gun in my shed) so after resizing and priming all the fired cases I had on hand (115) I set up the powder/seating/crimping turret to reload them.
Checking the powder company data I found I had three powders on hand suitable for reloading the .32. W231 (2.1-2.3 gn), Tightgroup (2 - 2.2 gn) and Mulwex AP50N. Although ADI have no loading data for the AP50N powder in .32 auto their burn rate chart puts it equivalent to W231 and HP38. I had already calculated that around 2 gn's of powder would be a starting load by comparing the AP30 and AP70 data.
I decided on 2.1 gn's W231 as it burns at a lower pressure than Tightgroup or AP50N. I set up a Lee auto drum powder measure and selected the smallest pre-set drum I had on hand. It is a rifle drum with the supplied filler cap inserted which makes it a flat bottomed measure compared to the normal cone shaped one. When I tried to set the measure I had a big issue.
The drum stuck in the housing to the point that the plastic riser that turns the drum bent!
I spent an hour pulling the drum apart and putting it back together, and while I got the measure to work (I had to manually turn the drum as I pulled down on the press handle) and was able to set the drum to drop 2.1 gn's, there was some spillage out of the drum as the powder was dropping. That was when I recalled my Lee Perfect Powder measure which was on a nearby shelf and is fitted with an adaptor to allow it to be used in the top of Lee powder dies.
Removing the auto drum measure I installed the powder funnel fitting and inserted the Perfect powder measure. I very quickly was able to set the powder measure to the required 2.1 gn's and started to reload.
As the case is so small and the powder weight so low I decided to remove and check every case after the powder drop and to weigh every 5th charge. It is certainly a lot slower than my usual loading technique on either my progressive or turret presses but safety first.
Unfortunately my loading area does not have any lights set up and as light started to fade I stopped after only loading 20 cases. I'll finish the rest in the morning where I can see into the cases properly.
The .32 auto is a small case and is easily damaged by not going into the dies properly (or repeated insertions in the powder die). In this regard it is very much like the .38 S&W cases which I also load on the turret press as it allows me to gently feed each case up into the dies. (The .38 S&W I load with 2.4 gn's of AP50N (it was this powder drum I was using in the auto drum measure) and in future I can see my having to use the Perfect Powder measure to reload this calibre as well as my rifle ones).
It is not a calibre that is often reloaded, especially in my country. But it is a fun calibre to shoot
This pistol was almost 100% reliable with Federal ammunition, but .32 auto ammo is hard to get here, and Federal .32 auto has been impossible to obtain for several years. I have tried Winchester Silvertip and S&B FMJ ammo. Both resulted in repeated failures to fire in the Astra.
As this pistol is used for shooting a 48 round Classic Pistol match (in modern replica category) these misfires are annoying, to say the least. Not only do I loose time but match rules only allow 6 rounds to be loaded per 6 shot string, so I also I lose shots on target when a primer fails to fire.
Some time ago I bought dies, cases and bullets (71 gn JRN) to reload the .32 Auto calibre, but I never found time to actually reload any ammo.
Yesterday I took Ross to the range, and while getting ready I found a half used box of the S&B ammo in my cupboard, so I put it along with the Astra into my range bag. Sure enough, when the time came to shoot the little pistol it misfired several times. While all rounds eventually discharged, some enquired as many as 5 strikes of the hammer to do so.
On getting home I ran 7 cases through the sizing/depriming die (it is set up on a seperate turret for my Lee turret press) and repimed them using Federal SPP's. All 7 discharged first pull of the trigger when run through the pistol (yes, empty cases loaded into the chamber from the mag and the primer detonations were no loader than a nail gun in my shed) so after resizing and priming all the fired cases I had on hand (115) I set up the powder/seating/crimping turret to reload them.
Checking the powder company data I found I had three powders on hand suitable for reloading the .32. W231 (2.1-2.3 gn), Tightgroup (2 - 2.2 gn) and Mulwex AP50N. Although ADI have no loading data for the AP50N powder in .32 auto their burn rate chart puts it equivalent to W231 and HP38. I had already calculated that around 2 gn's of powder would be a starting load by comparing the AP30 and AP70 data.
I decided on 2.1 gn's W231 as it burns at a lower pressure than Tightgroup or AP50N. I set up a Lee auto drum powder measure and selected the smallest pre-set drum I had on hand. It is a rifle drum with the supplied filler cap inserted which makes it a flat bottomed measure compared to the normal cone shaped one. When I tried to set the measure I had a big issue.
The drum stuck in the housing to the point that the plastic riser that turns the drum bent!
I spent an hour pulling the drum apart and putting it back together, and while I got the measure to work (I had to manually turn the drum as I pulled down on the press handle) and was able to set the drum to drop 2.1 gn's, there was some spillage out of the drum as the powder was dropping. That was when I recalled my Lee Perfect Powder measure which was on a nearby shelf and is fitted with an adaptor to allow it to be used in the top of Lee powder dies.
Removing the auto drum measure I installed the powder funnel fitting and inserted the Perfect powder measure. I very quickly was able to set the powder measure to the required 2.1 gn's and started to reload.
As the case is so small and the powder weight so low I decided to remove and check every case after the powder drop and to weigh every 5th charge. It is certainly a lot slower than my usual loading technique on either my progressive or turret presses but safety first.
Unfortunately my loading area does not have any lights set up and as light started to fade I stopped after only loading 20 cases. I'll finish the rest in the morning where I can see into the cases properly.
The .32 auto is a small case and is easily damaged by not going into the dies properly (or repeated insertions in the powder die). In this regard it is very much like the .38 S&W cases which I also load on the turret press as it allows me to gently feed each case up into the dies. (The .38 S&W I load with 2.4 gn's of AP50N (it was this powder drum I was using in the auto drum measure) and in future I can see my having to use the Perfect Powder measure to reload this calibre as well as my rifle ones).
It is not a calibre that is often reloaded, especially in my country. But it is a fun calibre to shoot
Those housing can get fairly dirty, depending on make of gun and powder. W231 was and would be my choice. 
I just finished a 8 pound keg of W231 as I use it for most everything except hunting ammo. As luck would have it, I had another 8# keg tucked away. Should last me awhile. Good luck!! 
