30-30 vs. 32 Winchester Special

Nope. It was in an older Cartridges of the World book. He stated that "Once the rifling started to wear, you could not hit a flock of barns with them. Myself, I have nothing against them, but they are fading away. It is just like that sometimes. I still shoot my .303 Savage. It had quite a following at one time and is equal to the 30-30. It just went away.
 
Why would someone think "it was one of the more useless cartridges out there"? Almost a twin to the 30-30, unless you don't handload and go through large amounts of ammo you have a very useful brush gun.
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It depends you you look at it. If you look at it by itself, it is, as you say, a useful brush gun.

If you look at it in the context of its competition in the cartridge market it offers no advantage over the 30-30, with the considerable disadvantage that ammo is hard to find and expensive if you do find some. Perhaps "most redundant cartridge" would be more to the point.
 
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Does any caliber shoot well once the rifling is gone?

And it's not even redundant if you want to reload black powder.

Why would you buy one over a 30-30? If I could save a few hundred I would or to get a much better condition one that hardly ever got shot
 
I'd just stick with .30-30 due to ammo expense. I had this same issue with the .35 Remington. Great caliber, but factory ammo is expensive. With handloading it's great, but I only have so much time for the reloading press.
 
Geeze guys...a thread like this can take nit picking to a new level! If you have a .32 Winchester just shoot and enjoy it. They will shoot just fine, ammo can be had, and it's every much as good of a hunting rifle as a 30/30.
 
I found my 4th edition of Cartridges of the World, and I'll be darned if Barnes doesn't say "If there is such as thing as a most useless cartridge, the .32 Spl. would certainly cop the prize." (He says much the same thing about the .32 WSL.

Also, a lot has been said over the years about how the .32 Special's accuracy will go to hell when the bore starts to go...

I think everyone is missing an important distinction...

In my experience, a .32 Spl. with a worn bore will shoot jacketed bullets propelled with smokeless powder just fine.

What it won't do with a worn bore, though, is give good accuracy with lead and black powder.
 
Yeah, I know it was a copy from the 60's I saw it in. I probably would never have remembered it, except that a guy I worked with mentioned it to me and it started a massive debate with the whole shop. If I had to pick what killed it off, it would be the .35 Marlin.
 
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I was shocked to find Hornady makes ammo for it and on ammoseek their 165gr can be found for about $20.00 a box. I'm no rich man, but if I found a nice old 32spl ammo price would not be the game breaker for me. Several company's sell brass (Horandy one of them) and bullets. As Old Stony said "If you have a .32 Winchester just shoot it and enjoy it". I'll add, if you find one for sale and want it, just but it, shoot it and enjoy it. For myself, I would have no interest in loading it with black powder though.
 
I would personally choose .30-30 just because it is so much more common than 32 Winchester. I see hundreds and hundreds of rounds of .30-30 for sale at every gun shop in my area it seems.
 
Gunplummer, if the .32 Special was such a useless and obsolete cartridge, why did Hornady start making it in their LeverEvolution ammo 4 years ago?

The answer is there are still a lot of .32 specials going out every year and taking game.

Like I said, you can get a good deal on them because people think they are obsolete. There is no question that 30-30 is easier to come by, but you can also find 30-30 easier than .22LR right now. Does that make .22 obsolete?

BTW, there are 16 listings for 32 special ammo on GunBot right now.
 
I never said it was useless, Frank Barnes did. Hornady makes "Niche market" ammo all the time. I shoot their 6.5 Carcano ammo out of the box. They were really on a roll with obsolete military ammunition for quite a while and expanded into other hard to get brass. I even bought some of their 7.5 MAS brass when they first had a run of it. The .32 Special was not too popular the first time around, who knows, maybe the second time is the charm. It was another case of gun manufacturers producing a cartridge for a slot that did not need filling. Plenty of that over the years.
 
"I wonder how much lead you have shoot thru a 32spl before the barrel wears out?"

It wasn't the lead bullet that was the problem.

At the time the .32 Special came out:

1. the early smokeless rifle powders burned hotter than hell. Even with Winchester's new nickel steel the temperatures developed by the early powders was an issue. It's one of the reasons why the smokless powder version of the 1894 was held back until 1895.

2. the priming mixtures at this time were extremely corrosive.

3. Black powder fouling, by its very nature, is also very corrosive.
 
I don't know when Marlin switched to nickel steel for the older cartridges, but Winchester apparently didn't make the switch for a number of years. 94s in smokeless cartridges were significantly more expensive for several years, which seems to be linked to the newer, more expensive steel and the added expense of working with it.
 
There are LOTS of Win & Marlin .32s out there that have been deer rifles for decades, even generations, and haven't see a whole box of ammo shot through them in any given year.

These generally aren't the guns the once a year deer hunter shoots recreationally, so they tend to last a long time.

here's something I don't recall seeing anyone mention yet, that "obsolete" .32 Special is just a barrel change away from being a "modern" .30-30. ;)
 
This is my first post on this forum...Thanks KCub for starting this thread!!! I`m a big fan of the win. mod. 94 and of the 30-30, and 32 Spl.

I`m not sure when Winchester made the m.94 in 32 Spl, but I have 3 . they were mfg.in 1947, 1948, and 1950...I`m sure they were made later, but I don`t know when they stopped.

both rounds were factory loaded with 170 gr. flat nose; but the 30-30 was more popular in 150 gr., and the 32 Spl was more popular in 170 gr .

I`m sure marlin chambered lever guns in 32 Spl, but I`m not sure if savage did.... It would be interesting to see...I believe savage chambered the M99 in 30-30 wcf as well as their 303 Sav...I`m just not sure about the 32 Spl.

Tom
 
Great thread, and fun to read.

I believe Winchester was still cataloging the 94 in 32 spl into the early 70's anyways.

The comment in the older Cartridges of the World about not being able to hit a flock of barns was amended in a later edition. The author took a couple of 32 spls with flaky bores and loaded good shooting ammo for them. I don't recall the details, but they may have shot some of the .323" bullets (8mm) in loose bores also. His conclusion was the 32 spl shot fine with worn or pitted bores if the bullets fit it ok.

I haven't loaded cast in 30-30 other than small game loads, but I believe its pretty popular for cast bullet loads.

Winchester used to load a couple different lighter loads. One was called a "miniature" load, and was pretty light, another was a 110 gr at around 2550 fps which I think was mentioned. The 30-30 will duplicate what the 32-20 will, or go even lighter with round ball or very light bullet loads. I use round balls w/3 grs Unique for grouse, small game and rogue bull mice in the yard. Makes about as much noise as a 22 std vel. Great fun to shoot. Need to try the 77 gr 32 auto mold.

My vote for a crossover smokeless and black powder (and cast) capable round for 94's is 38-55. Should also be fun with round balls and the 150-ish gr mold I found.
 
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