Cartridge Adapter Project

The 32 S&W / 303 Savage project progresses well.  I loaded up 25 of the little guys for test purposes.  Lube is a concoction that Buckshot and I came up with about 25 years ago when we were testing different ideas about how to keep shooting if all the ammo or components disappeared.  Its starting to look like we were ahead of our time. The main ingredients are a wax toilet ring, some candle wax to stiffen it up and a pinch or two of graphite.  The bullets were loaded without sizing and the powder charge was 1.2 grains of W231.  Yes, the decimal is supposed to be there.  The powder charge doesn't even cover the bottom of the powder scale's pan.  A pound of powder will last a  long time.

The picture shows the 32 S&W round, a 32 S&W atop the Marbles adapter and a real 303 Savage cartridge for comparison.  I tested it for sound in the back yard and couldn't believe how quiet it was.  When I first read Ragnar Bensen's  Survival Poaching,  I was skeptical when he said that a 32 pistol cartridge fired from a rifle makes as much noise when the bullet hits a deer's head as it does when you fire it but I'm a believer now.  The sound was more like a "swish" than a bang. Much like a 22 CB cap.  It did echo off the neighbor's house but not even as loud as a pneumatic nail gun.  Not even close.

For months now, our local Ganderberg hasn't had anything in rimfire but 17 HMR and some rat shot.  This morning even that was gone.  They don't even have spaces on the shelves for rimfire ammo anymore.  A friend in Oklahoma was on Facebook yesterday talking about 500 round  bricks of 22LR  for $80.00 at a gun show.  Something like this adapter gizmo could start to make a lot of sense with rimfire ammo gone or priced out of sight.

Marbles made adaptors for lots of different cartridges.  I have one for 25 ACP in 250 Savage and I would have bought one for 32 ACP in 30-30 but someone else had bid on it first and I decided that I could do what I wanted to do with the ones I already had. 

The Marbles adapters are essentially a collet shaped like the body of a cartridge case but without a neck.  The pistol cartridge snaps into the top and forms the neck of the  combination cartridge.  A firing pin inside the adapter does what firing pins do.   I also bought a couple of recently made adapters for things like 32 ACP in 30-06.  Those particular adapters are shaped like a  complete case and the pistol cartridge goes in a chamber in the bottom of the adapter.  I honestly don't know if one works any better than the other.  The second kind is generally a good bit cheaper.   I suspect that someone that actually knows how to use a lathe could make either kind without too much trouble.  Don't get hung up on the difference in bullet diameters between 32 ACP and the "normal" 30 calibers.  Its not enough to matter.

With a little luck, I will be able to fire a group later this week when I go to Hog Valley and will have some idea  if the bullets land where the sights are pointed.