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A few weeks back a buddy traded my an Armi San Marco 1848 Pocket (sometimes called a 'Baby Dragoon) .31 for a pair of custom grips. Being me I decided to convert it to fire cartridges. I'd already redone one in .22LR and another in .251 TCR, so I thought I'd do this one in .32 S&W. These guns are small- here's a pic of the gun as I got it, with a .45 ACP cartridge for comparison.
First off I slugged the bore at .315; a bit big for .32 S&W (normally .311-.312) but I figured sot lead bullets would 'bump up' to caliber easily enough. I actually had an extra 5-shot cylinder that fit and worked, so I used that instead of the one that came with the gun; good to have a back-up. I pulled the nipples, turned down the back of the cylinder, then carefully bored through the chambers. I used a modified, slightly undersized drill bit to ream the chambers, then =finished them to size with sanding drums. I made a breech-plate with a loading port, and bored it for the fixed firing pin I mounted in the hammer-face. Once that was working properly I re-contoured the under-barrel lug, then stripped and rust-blued the gun. I'd hoped to leave the color case-hardening, but while I was cutting the loading port in the blast-shield a tool slipped and marked up the side of the frame. I also reshaped the back of the trigger guard a bit, as it was uncomfortable with my rather large hand. The end result came out pretty good.
I left the barrel stock length- 5-3/4". I did refinish the original grips.
Naturally with the local shooting ranges closed I couldn't test fire it with standard ammo, so I came up with some low-powered 'gallery' loads.' I swaged some 65gr wadcutters out of soft lead, and loaded them over 1.2gr of Red Dot with a Federal #100 primer. They have just enough power to firmly sink themselves into a 2x4, and proved quite accurate at 5 yards, that being about the maximum distance I can shoot in my workshop. They're pretty quiet, too. I ran them over the chronograph and got these results:
412 fps. 24 ft./lbs ES: 38
Just about perfect for indoor target shooting. Here's the 2x4 I tested them on-
So, fun little range toy. With some proper loads I might take it out for small game.
First off I slugged the bore at .315; a bit big for .32 S&W (normally .311-.312) but I figured sot lead bullets would 'bump up' to caliber easily enough. I actually had an extra 5-shot cylinder that fit and worked, so I used that instead of the one that came with the gun; good to have a back-up. I pulled the nipples, turned down the back of the cylinder, then carefully bored through the chambers. I used a modified, slightly undersized drill bit to ream the chambers, then =finished them to size with sanding drums. I made a breech-plate with a loading port, and bored it for the fixed firing pin I mounted in the hammer-face. Once that was working properly I re-contoured the under-barrel lug, then stripped and rust-blued the gun. I'd hoped to leave the color case-hardening, but while I was cutting the loading port in the blast-shield a tool slipped and marked up the side of the frame. I also reshaped the back of the trigger guard a bit, as it was uncomfortable with my rather large hand. The end result came out pretty good.
I left the barrel stock length- 5-3/4". I did refinish the original grips.
Naturally with the local shooting ranges closed I couldn't test fire it with standard ammo, so I came up with some low-powered 'gallery' loads.' I swaged some 65gr wadcutters out of soft lead, and loaded them over 1.2gr of Red Dot with a Federal #100 primer. They have just enough power to firmly sink themselves into a 2x4, and proved quite accurate at 5 yards, that being about the maximum distance I can shoot in my workshop. They're pretty quiet, too. I ran them over the chronograph and got these results:
412 fps. 24 ft./lbs ES: 38
Just about perfect for indoor target shooting. Here's the 2x4 I tested them on-
So, fun little range toy. With some proper loads I might take it out for small game.
