"Ask the Rabbi" by R. Mermelstein

I have a little H&R 32 magnum. A good little 5 shot pocket revolver. How do you rate this caliber?

Tom Pardue

The 32 H&R Magnum was conceived to be an improvement over the ancient 32 S&W Long, but that's not saying a great deal if you're an adherent of Marshall and Sanow and their statistical research into self defense cartridge effectiveness. Federal Cartridge Co. has an 85 gr. JHP and a 95 gr. lead SWC. According to Cartridges of the World, 8th edition, these loads gave chronographed velocities of 1090 fps and 1030 fps, respectively. While not approaching the far superior ballistics of the 32-20 Winchester, it would rate alongside the 380 ACP or slightly less than the 38 Special in standard pressure (not +P) loads using like weight bullets.. If you handload (and at the price of a box of 32 H&R Mag cartridges you really ought to), factory ballistics can be boosted a bit. You don't mention the barrel length of your revolver, but the velocities I quote were derived from a 5 1/2 inch Ruger Single Six. If your barrel is shorter, you can assume a velocity reduction of roughly 40 fps for each inch less than 5 1/2.

Sincerely,

R. Mermelstein