TargetTalk

I have been offerred a Hammerli SP20 for sale. It is new and unused and came from a production batch in 2003/2004. The pistol is chambered in .32 S&WL and the price is US$1468.

To all SP20 .32 S&WL owners out there........

what technical problems if any are inherent to SP20s?
How durable is the gun?
If the only ammo available is Lapua .32 S&WL WCs (which are loaded hot), what can i do to prevent the frame or other parts cracking?

Lastly, reloading in my country is illegal.

Bought an SP20 in late 2003.

Thousands of rounds (including Fiocchi mostly and some Lapua).

Never a crack, never a jam, never a problem. No alibis. Ever.

Did have to replace that cheesy O-ring around the bolt a couple of times though. Well, I didn't "have to" but I didn't like the way it looked. It gets "chewed up" on top after 500 rounds or so, so I replaced it every 500 rounds or so.

Never gave me any problems.

Steve Swartz

Hi Steve,

I have been told that fiocchi is claimed to be a light recoiling or low pressure round, hence it would not tax the pistol and break parts. I'm not trying to be offensive but i would be inclined to presume that your pistol has not been "tortured".

Furthermore, as Fiocchi is simply not available in my country since stocks ran out 8 years ago, I would like to ask......

Exactly how many lapua rounds did you run through your SP20? The most commonly available .32 S&WL round in my country is magtech with lapua being sold for much higher. As the magtech box claims a muzzle velocity of 740ft/s and laupa claims 760ft/s, how do you think your SP20 will stand up to a weekly diet of "hard" ammo?

Lastly, how do you set your recoil buffer screw? Did you leave it in the factory setting or did you change it for either harder kicking or softer kicking ammo?

Ps: Anyone else own a SP20? Please chime in.

I don't know if this is a particular problem with the 32 S&W Version. I have a SP20 22LR, which I purchased when they first came out and after about 30K rounds it went full auto. Larry's Guns looked at the pistol and said that my head space was gone. Apparently, the constant slamming of the bolt against the barrel wall pushed the wall in enough so that their was no head space. I eventually ended up replacing the ($250) barrel. I don't remember everything he told me, but I asked him if these had occurred on other SP20 22LR and he said yes, which is why he new what the problem was when I described it over the phone. The barrel is supposed to last longer then 30K according to Larry. I think he did give me a break on the barrel because of the short barrel life.

You might want to read this previous thread.

2500 Fiocchi, 1000 Lapua.

Set buffer to factory, then adjust stiffness until a round fails to feed, then back off 1/2 turn.

I didn't like the "snappy" feel of the factory setting, so adjusted it to a "mushier" feel. This means more spring resistance.

The Lapua needed more resistance to get the same effect.

The factory settings- and owner's manual instructions- result in not enough resistance in my opinion.

The tradeoff seems to be between frame battering and reliable feeding. The good news is that there is a "sweet spot" in between the two where you get both.

But this sweet spot is in a different place for each load.

(ps I tried reloading once but the small volumes of powder wouldn't meter reliably in my progressive press so I just bought cases of "off the shelf" match ammo)

Steve

Most of our SP20 in 32 S&W have had at least 2-3 broken recoil buffers in past 7 years or so. For normal use, this could be understandable, however, as most are aware, GBR Centre Fire Squad has only a precious days training a year and competing in competitions such as the Europa Cup.

We have access to excellent independent ex-Hammerli service agent. We have found that we rely upon Lapua as it offers us the assured reliability and accuracy (albeit at a cost) as batch testing or similar given the time pressures we face, we run the risk of the heavy poundings on the recoil buffer. Accordingly, the setting we use is 21mm but individual pistols will no doubt vary. It is worth regularly replacing the recoil buffer as at a few cents if hundreds of time lower cost than a replacement buffer. We have been advised that the screws should only be tightened (and not backed off) to reduce stresses and increase life of this weak-point.

Given the reassuringly expensive cost of Lapua, Magtech is used for general training. We have had three cracked .32 SP20 frames. We don’t know if Magtech or Lapua was the cause. My suspicion is Magtech I noticed the stress fracture on the slide following a training match where I used Magtech and recall a particularly heavy round in the rapid stage.

We have had several cracked frames so regular inspection is recommended.