shooting .32 Rem FN verus RN in Model 14's: NO!

[Adam Lee]

Guys,

Boy do I wish I had the time to chat - but one thing before I get sucked into another distraction (it's either my dogs, my job, or family stuff as per usual) and it has to do with shooting .32 Remington flat nose rounds out of Model 14's and Model 141's - classic pump rifles.

Don't do it!

OK I had received this warning about not deviating from a regular diet of round nose ammo only via web research a few years ago - never knew anyone local that had background on this round. So anyway, I avoided shooting the very nice flat nose .32 that I sourced from a board member except by single-shot mode only - in other words, I did NOT cycle the rounds into my tube and pump it into the chamber - well that was about a year ago I think.

Until last weekend - well I was all excited about getting 4 of my old Remingtons back together, ready to test fire at the local WMA, including the said Model 14. My Model 81 in .30, another 81 in .300 Savage, my Model 8 in .35 went along for some "product testing" at a basic 50 and 100-yard WMA range.
Besides realizing that just wearing a t-shirt is sorta painful when testing every one of those rifles mentioned above at the same shooting event, I learned several other things.

1. Just because you are curious is not a good reason to test out whether a flat nose .32 round will feed successfully in a Model 14. It will not.
2. The half-hour I spent completely disassembling my Model 14 at the shooting bench in order to clear a live round from the bolt face (it is impossible to shake a round loose unless you do this - I learned the hard way) was NOT a fun way to end the afternoon.
3. On the other hand, I was pleased that the 14 fed all the crazy mixed up factory obsolete and antique ammo I tried to shoot. The early Remington ammo from the teens and the early 20's does a fair bit of hang-fires, but then I didn't pop off many. Who knows. All I do know is, if it is round nosed ammo, it is good to go out of the 14 and DON'T make my mistake and shoot any other bullet profile!
4. Another learned thing: I can actually place all 4 rounds within a 5 inch spread at 50 yards even when I have been beating up my shoulder over several guns and several strong rounds in just a skinny t-shirt. But then I felt like I had been receiving the bad end of the deal in a fight club experience on my shoulder later on.
5. Final observation: I will be replacing a few small parts that failed or were broken anyway, which I would swap out from gun to gun at times - the barrel lock spring from the .30 Rem broke, so I used the one from the .300 Savage; something's up with the way the follower is not sliding up properly in the .300 Savage and making the spring get all hung up and not feed rounds properly, and I really need to spend more time hunting down some decent hard cases for my guns.

Alright that's it for this session - no pics, no nothing sorry - just heed my .32 FN warning in Model 14's and 141's, 'yall!

PS....for shot placement I was not able to get a feel for which round was most consistent for follow up shots, since I only did 10 rounds on average per gun, some more, some less....maybe it seemed to me the .30 Rem/.32 Rem were most consistent due to the lighter recoil, and the .35 and .300 I did more spreading....I also was shooting the big boys late in the game....

thanks for the time to share out, guys!

Adam

[81police]

So I'm trying to determine if this was a good time or a bad time? Sounds like a bit of both!

I've actually never shot a 14 or 141, held a few of them before. Cool looking rifles. Hope you get the whole lot of them up and running right!

[Sarge756]

Adam Lee has brought up a valid point about shooting the Hornady FN 170gr .321 bullets in a model 14 or 141 Remington rifle chambered for 32 Rem. Of course it begs the question of why they will shoot just fine in Model 8`s or 81`s but not in the pump guns. Without going into the difference of tube fed vs box magazine as a possible cause the design of the bullet I believe gives a real clue as to why. Pictured below are three 32 cal bullets . From left to right the first one is the culprit that caused Adam the problem.It is the FN Hornady 170gr #3210. Middle bullet is a Hornady 170gr RN (I don`t have the # for this bullet but probably isn`t relevant as they are unavailable). Last bullet on far right is a Speer 170 gr FN # 2259 that work fine. Looking at them side by side it is apparent that the cannilure is located much shallower on the "culprit" bullet . When seated, there is more bullet exposed with the FN Hornady than with the other two and may be the cause of the problem. Well,What to do if you have a 14 or 141 in 32 Rem ? Try to find some of the non existent Hornady RN bullets? Search for Speer #2259 bullets that are also very scarce or shoot the FN Hornady bullets single shot? Perhaps there may be an alternative available from Hornady. Hornady offers a 165gr FTX bullet in 32 cal. From experience with their other FTX bullets as loaded in their Leverevolution ammunition this might solve the problem. Those FTX bullets have a small area of exposed bullet when loaded. I have a couple hundred of the RN Hornady and Speer #2259 bullets and with only one Model14 in 32Rem that will probably be a lifetime supply, so don`t see ordering any bullets soon. If someone else has used the 32cal FTX bullets in a 14/141 a report would be welcome.
Joe

[Adam Lee]

Glad to hear from you, Joe!

Yep - you got it all right - I even was aware, like I said, that it was NOT recommended. But you know just how stubborn some folks can be!!!!
That would be me....

I am going to most likely be pulling .32 RN bullets from some of that antique supply I picked up some time ago. Not a whole bunch, mind you, but I will weed through the rounds and select the cracked/split cases and start there first. Got to get a few tools I don't have, such as a bullet puller, but that was one idea I had to partially solve the .32 RN bullet dilemma.

Again, not a huge priority since I am very happy with the .30Rem/.35Rem/.300Sav 81's & 8 that shoot a variety of bullet profiles.

Everything's cool with the old 14, my 8/81's need a few small parts and that's all. It was still a very fun day, since Cam was wondering about that!!!LOL

Adam

[gusbratz]

I haven't got a chance to load for my .32 yet but for what it's worth the lee c358-200-rf bullet works good in my 35 rem model 14 and it's a flat nose. I did note that casing overall length was key. if I try to lengthen it up the bullet sticks out into the rifling and can be hard to un-chamber as it gets stuck in there. I shortened it up some and then it wouldn't feed. there is a plus or minus .005 window for col that works perfect.sounds like you may want to try making it a bit longer.

[norm]

I have read that warning about not using flat nose bullets in Remington 14/141's but not until I had shot a bunch of them in my 14's. Keep the cartridge oal within specs and you should not have problems - at least I haven't. I have model 14/141's in all four calibers. Gus I am not familiar with the Lee 35 caliber cast bullet. I use the RCBS 35-200-FN and in some of my 35 Remingtons the front band is big enough to cause hard chambering. What I do is run the bullet nose first into a .355 sizing die in my lube sizer just far enough to taper the front band so the cartridge chambers freely.