30-30 vs. 32 Winchester Special

"I wonder what differentiated it from 32 WS?"

I believe (but not 100% certain) that the shoulder was every so very much slightly different, and there was no rim.

Otherwise, it was a copy of the Winchester .32 Special.

To try to grab some of Winchester's smokeless cartridge thunder, and to give shooters alternatives to the lever action, Remington contracted with John Browning to design the Model 8 semi-auto rifle.

It was offered with four cartridges. Of those, the .25 Remington, the .30 Remington, and the .32 Remington were pretty much rimless copies of the Winchester rounds with virtually identical ballistics.

The only original round in group was the .35 Remington. Winchester didn't have a .35-cal round for the Model 1894 (although they did have the .35 Winchester, chambered in the Model 1895 and introduced in 1903).

Early on Remington almost screwed the pooch for two of their new cartridges.

They called the rimless rounds the .25-35 Remington and the .30-30 Remington, and so marked the guns.

At the same time Remington was also offering ammunition for the .25 and .30 Winchester rifles.

More than a little confusion apparently cropped up when someone went to buy ammo, said gimmie a box of .30-30 Remington, and got Remington manufactured .30-30 Winchester ammo for the lever action instead of the .30 Remington rimless round for the Model 8 semi-auto.
 
Finally, I believe that Winchester would occasionally make runs of .32 Special chambered 1894s right through the 1990s.

Right now the WRA page is showing the Model 1894 Carbine as being chambered in .38-55.
 
Those Remington cartridges were some neat trim little numbers. The 25Rem would really be sweet in a compact rifle today (bolt, semi). And how about the 25-36 Marlin, everyone wanted a piece of the pie back then!
 
And Mike,
The shoulders were different on all 3, 25,30,32. I have a pretty big bullet collection and have all the Remington auto rounds. The 25 in particular would seem to have quite a bit more case capacity than say the 25-35 Winchester. The 30 and 32 were very close to their Winchester counterparts.
 
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The 25, 30 and 32 were all based off the same cartridge just necked up or down depending on caliber. They were also able to shoot pointed bullets in the rifles they were chambered in, Model 14 and Model 8. Just another great Browning invention, he even said that it was his favorite rifle he ever made. I have a picture of him and his brother in the Tetons with an elk they took with a 35. The 35 Remington is pretty much dead as of now too.
 
Dang!!! This thing still going on??? 6 pages.....

Here is what I have found and I have both. And I wont sell ether.

The 30-30 and the 32sp are both very good choices for hand loaders who would also like to be able to shoot some cast bullets.
The 30-30 is pretty easy to get some loads working. But I have found the 32 its like a duck to water.
Given the twist rate and such there are some very interesting areas you can get that 32 to just sing.

I recommend any one wanting to hand load and play with cast bullets to get one and have fun. Its not like we only get to have one gun. Get lots. And at the price you can find a good serviceable 32 at. You can for sure afford it.
35rem would do too, but I just havent found the right Model 14 yet.

If I want the performance of a 308 win. I take that one out. but when I want to really enjoy some cast bullet shooting. The 308 can do it but my 32 does it right.
 
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"I have a pretty big bullet collection and have all there Remington auto rounds."

I have a fairly extensive cartridge collection.

Not just the bullets.

:p
 
When I wrote that yesterday, I was sitting in a Federal facility where they develop huge cases of ass if you try to bring a 500+ piece cartridge collection into the building...

I believe the shoulder angles are different on the Winchester vs the Remington rounds, but I know it's possible to load the Remington rounds using the proper shell holder and dies for the rimmed Winchester rounds.

Don't know if the reverse is possible or not.
 
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