Wolf Gold .32ACP 71gr FMJ

Gun scribes I've read over the past 30 years mostly have given short shrift to the .32 ACP as a defensive handgun caliber, if they mentioned it at all. You know the drill: it's anemic, underpowered, a "mouse gun" - a handy thing to have with you when you're not carrying a gun. Yadda yadda. And, while it's sound advice for any who by choice or vocation lawfully carry a firearm to "bring enough gun" to cover one's bets when one goes heeled, circumstances may place dimensional restrictions on what "enough" gun is. Maybe it would be better to advise, "bring the most gun you can". On a crisp fall morning out in the piney woods that might mean a full-sized .44 magnum sheathed in a heavy leather cross draw or shoulder rig. Walking fido during the dog days of summer could argue in favor of a smaller, lighter-weight, more concealable platform tucked into the cargo pocket of your khaki shorts - something along the lines of one of those pint-sized, razor-thin, flat-sided .32's they make nowadays.

So you pays your money and takes your choices, and a .32 it is. If you're wise and responsible, you'll go practice with it - alot - until you can reliably hit a target of reasonable size from every reasonable shooting position at any reasonable distance. And you'll practice with the factory ammo you carry (or if you're a capable handloader, with carefully developed handloads that duplicate the factory stuff).

A wide variety of factory-loaded ammunition in just as wide a range of price, brand and bullet configuration is available for the .32 ACP. Hollow points, "hard ball" and high-end specialty rounds can all be had. Due diligence is required on the part of the shooter to fit the ammunition to the purpose, environment and circumstances in which it might (but hopefully never will) be pressed into service. Whichever round seems most closely to fit your specific requirements is most likely the one worthy of consideration. A no-brainer, right? Right.

I've tested a number of .32 ACP rounds of various brand and bullet type against such varied and menacing targets as angry cantaloupes, maruading plastic milk jugs full of water, hulking hunks of firewood, and plain old 25-yard slow-fire pistol targets. In general, hollow points give more dramatic results vis-a-vis expansion than does hard ball, but hard ball offers better penetration. Both dynamics are worthy of factoring into the equation when it comes to choosing the right round to carry. But the most important factor is neither expansion nor penetration. It's ignition; i.e., does the round go BANG! when you press the trigger, and is the round thereafter sent downrange with sufficient vigor to accomplish something worthwhile at the terminus of its flight. Therein lies the rub.

Just prior to a recent trip to the range, I laid out close to 30 clams for a couple of boxes of Wolf-brand "Gold" .32 ACP ammo in the 71 grain FMJ configuration. I had it in mind to see how they stacked up against the hollow point fodder from Speer, Magtech and Federal that I'd been practicing with up until then. The Serbian-made Wolf ammo wasn't particularly cheap - in fact, as I recall it was about the same or slightly more costly than its American-made counterparts. One never knows when one will happen across a pill more easily digested by a sometimes finicky sub-compact autoloader, however, and since I hadn't yet tried Wolf handgun ammunition in any caliber, I thought it a worthwhile exercise to give it a shot, as it were. I'm glad I did, because now I know that the Wolf can't be trusted to hold up its end of the bargain.

Out of 100 rounds I sent downrange, at least 10% were squibs - noticeably underpowered - so much so with one in fact that I unloaded the magazine, cleared the chamber and checked the tube to be sure the bullet had in fact found its way out of the muzzle. Another 10% were hot loads by sound and feel, probably bumping up against the ragged edge of what a "proof" load would be like to touch off. The rest fell somewhere in between, and seldom were any two alike in terms of report, accuracy or felt recoil. Thus by such experiments do we live and learn. But we are not amused.

So, from here on out, no more wolves in the magazine, whether for practice or for carry. Oh, I'll reload the empty Wolf cases with 71 grain FMJs using data from one of the big-name manuals and use the reloads for plinking and for range practice - that's a fact. But I wouldn't trust my life to a Wolf, and that is also a fact.

Post Script: Reloading the Wolf .32ACP brass went off much more reliably than did the factory-built ammunition from whence it arose. Each backed by a Winchester small pistol primer, 3.2 grains of Alliant Power Pistol, and topped with a Mag Tech 71 grain full metal jacket bullet, 50 re-invigorated Wolf cartridge cases rolled off my RCBS Rock Chucker/Piggyback III progressive combo in a leisurely 15 minutes, using RCBS carbide dies. A single factory primer that (apparently) stuck to the decapping pin and got re-seated with the priming stroke constituted the only fly in the ointment and was easily remedied.

The reloads performed flawlessly. Accuracy was far better than had been expected. Shot-to-shot uniformity in terms of report, felt recoil, extraction and ejection was excellent, indistinguishable from Mag Tech or Winchester FMJ factory loads.

The long and short of it stacks up like this: while I can't recommend Wolf .32 ACP ammunition for reliability out of the box, their brass cartridge cases reload as good as any. So, if the Wolf is holed up in your stores of ammo and you have the where with all to reload it, go punch some paper with the factory stuff. Then, depending upon where your .32 shucks the empties, you'll have the beginnings of some reliable ammo laying at your feet.