.32 H&R Magnum
Encyclopedia
The .32 H&R Magnum is a rimmed
Rim (firearms)
A rim is an external flange that is machined, cast, molded, stamped or pressed around the bottom of a firearms cartridge. The rim may serve a number of purposes, the most common being as the place for the extractor to engage...

 cartridge designed for use in revolvers. It was developed in 1984 as a joint venture between Harrington & Richardson and Federal Cartridge
Federal Cartridge
Federal Cartridge is a wholly owned subsidiary of Alliant Techsystems, located in Edina, Minnesota. With a work force of nearly 1,000 in Anoka, Minnesota, Federal manufactures a complete line of shotshell, centerfire, and rimfire ammunition and components....

. The .32 H&R Magnum is produced by lengthening the .32 S&W Long
.32 S&W Long
The .32 S&W Long 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...

 case by .155", to 1.075".

Performance

The .32 H&R magnum offers substantially more performance than other .32 caliber handgun cartridges, such as the .32 ACP
.32 ACP
.32 ACP , also known as the .32 Automatic is a pistol cartridge. It is a semi-rimmed, straight-walled cartridge developed by firearms designer John Browning, initially for use in the FN M1900 semi-automatic pistol...

, and can be considered an effective small game hunting cartridge. Its higher velocity offers a flat trajectory, while the light weight of the bullets results in low recoil. The older .32-20 Winchester
.32-20 Winchester
The .32-20 Winchester, also known as the .32 WCF , was the first small-game lever-action cartridge thatWinchester produced. It was initially introduced as a blackpowder cartridge in 1882 for small-game, varmint hunting, and deer. Colt produced a single-action pistol chambered for this cartridge a...

 was extremely popular in the Winchester lever's and Colt single actions, available at the turn of the century, for small-medium game hunting. The .32 H&R offers near duplicate performance.

One of the .32 H&R magnum's favorable attributes is that it offers .38 Special
.38 Special
The .38 Smith & Wesson Special is a rimmed, centerfire cartridge designed by Smith & Wesson. It is most commonly used in revolvers, although some semi-automatic pistols and carbines also use this round...

 energy levels and allows a small-frame revolver to hold 6 cartridges, whereas a similarly sized revolver in .38 special would only hold 5 rounds. Penetration is also increased compared to the .38 special with bullets of the same weight.

Max pressure for the .32 H&R Mag is set at 21,000 CUP
Copper units of pressure
Copper units of pressure or CUP, and the related lead units of pressure or LUP, are terms applied to pressure measurements used in the field of internal ballistics for the estimation of chamber pressures in firearms. These terms were adopted by convention to indicate that the pressure values were...

 by SAAMI
Saami
Saami or SAAMI can stand for:*Sami people*Sami languages*Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers' Institute...

.

The .327 Federal Magnum
.327 Federal Magnum
The .327 Federal Magnum is a cartridge introduced by Sturm, Ruger and Federal Cartridge, intended to provide the power of a .357 Magnum in six shot, compact revolvers, whose cylinders only hold 5 rounds of the larger .357 Magnum cartridge...

 is based on the .32 H&R Magnum and improves performance to levels near that of the .357 Magnum
.357 Magnum
The .357 S&W Magnum , or simply .357 Magnum, is a revolver cartridge created by Elmer Keith, Phillip B. Sharpe, Colonel D. B. Wesson of firearms manufacturer Smith & Wesson, and Winchester. It is based upon Smith & Wesson's earlier .38 Special cartridge. The .357 Magnum cartridge was introduced in...

.

Use

Though the .32 H&R was not designed with a particular task in mind, it is fairly well suited to small game hunting. It is also an acceptable self defense cartridge. It is not generally considered a good "plinking
Plinking
Plinking refers to informal target shooting done at non-traditional targets such as tin cans, glass bottles, and balloons filled with water. The term is an onomatopoeia of the sound a bullet or other projectile makes when hitting a tin can, or other similar target, referring to the sharp, metallic...

" cartridge, due to high cost and poor availability of ammunition.

Many handgun hunters use the .22 Winchester rimfire magnum with great success in hunting small to small-medium game, up to coyote in size. The .32 H&R magum offers increased stopping power due to its heavier bullets and larger caliber, with the added bonus that the .32 H&R magnum can be reloaded for cost savings.

Since the .32 H&R Magnum headspaces on the rim and shares the rim dimensions and case and bullet diameters of the shorter .32 S&W
.32 S&W
The .32 S&W cartridge was introduced in 1878 for the Smith & Wesson model 1½ revolver. 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....

and .32 S&W Long cartridges, these shorter cartridges may be fired in arms chambered for the .32 H&R Magnum. Longer cartridges are unsafe in short chambers, so more powerful .32 H&R Magnum cartridges should never be loaded into arms designed for the .32 S&W or .32 S&W Long.

External links

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