Buy back a Nagant 1895

[PhilOhio]

I spent a couple years trying to figure out how to shoot and reload for my $80 Nagant in brand new condition. I have a large supply of .32 S&W Long ammo, cases, and bullets. But shooting that is a bad idea. The case is far too loose a fit in the Nagant cylinder. Sure, maybe they will just balloon without bursting in your particular cylinder. But look at the numbers in your reference books sometime. Yes, I know everybody does it because it is sort of "possible". You can also stick a small firecracker in the muzzle of a Colt Walker, light it, and it will go "bang". But why?

The .32 ACP cylinder is a pretty good idea. They tried to sell them at $80 for a few years, but that is the going price of the whole pistol and rig in new condition. Stupid. They couldn't unload them at that price; apparently, too many people were taking their smart pills. Century International was recently selling them for $50, as I recall. I didn't buy one, as I had earlier found a better solution.

I'm a big fan of the wonderful .32 WCF cartridge, aka .32-20. It is almost a perfect fit in the Nagant cylinder, but won't quite go all the way in, because of slight shoulder differences. And bullet diameter is already about correct, or can be sized to your particular bore.

For a year or two, I tried to find a .32-20 chamber reamer, but they are uncommon and new ones are far too expensive for such a project.

Then I found I could use an inexpensive but sharp hand expansion reamer to shave a very small amount of metal from the forward part of the Nagant chambers until my .32 WCF reloads dropped in without any tightness. Works perfectly, and it is very accurate. Reload the cases in standard .32-20 dies; no expensive custom order Nagant dies, and the .32-20 cases hardly change shape on firing...similarity to the Nagant round is that close.

This is a low pressure round, and the .32-20 cases should last quite a long time when you reload.

You can still use regular, and ridiculously expensive low powered Nagant ammo, if for some strange reason you would want to. The imaginative gas sealing feature is quite unnecessary, just historically interesting.

There apparently was considerable variation in production line specs among Nagant revolvers. Most American manufactured 32-20 cases should work fine in most guns, but if they are too tight when you draw back the hammer, because of rim thickness, remove a few thousandths from the locking block that is causing the problem. I did not have that problem on my gun, but know that it could happen.

With .32-20 cases, you will not get big bulges. The cases will be resized very little in reloading. The whole thing is virtually hassle free. Stick with the handgun loadings for this cartridge, as there are also high velocity and high pressure loadings for modern rifles. Stay away from these. But other than that, the cheap Nagant is a pretty strong gun, far better than its low surplus price suggests.

The cylinder on mine was especially strong and well heat treated. Removing that small amount of metal to make the .32-20 cases fit was not quite as easy as some chamber cleanups; had to do it slowly and carefully, and with a good reamer. But this is something anybody can do in the basement, in a half hour. And our traditional friends the Chinese are making acceptable quality reamers which will set you back about $15.

Like all such projects, this one will be so easy and briefly entertaining that you will soon get back to Lugers, though. Don't use Chinese expansion reamers on them.