Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire 32 Special AI

Has the 32 Special ever been improved kinda like the 30-30 has?

Most likely. There have been some internet discussions about it but I don't know if anybody ever really did it.

Ernie

Isn't the .307 supposed to a "new and improved" 30-30?

No, its supposed to be a rimmed .308 Winchester...

Redesigned like the 30-30 improved.

In the almost 50 years of big game hunting, I only seen the Winchester 32 special in the field just once, a school friend had one, didn't hunt with it much since it was a cherry pre '64 Model 94 my guess it was pre war too. All this improved business was all the rage till you could buy chronographs, then it petered out like most fads do. You want more than what a 30-30 delivers then buy a 300 Savage or a 308. Just like if you want more that what a 30-06 dose, you buy a 300 H+H or one of the other 300's. To many really good guns were buggered up buy improving case and by poorly installing the Griffin and Howe Side mount. As much as I like the 1950's and early 1960's the cartridge improving fad was not one of them.

I just looked at P.O. Ackley's book (Handbook for Shooters & Reloaders (Vol. I & II) and I was surprised to see that he has no mention of a AI 32 Special. Ackley improved and experimented with virtually all other cartridges and I was really surprised that he hadn't (as of the books' publication) worked with the 32 Special.

I killed a nice Whitetail in NM above Santa Fe with the Win 94 in 32 Spl in 1971 . He dropped in his tracks at around 50 yards , Win factory load . Should have keep that rifle, but like most young people , got hard up for cash and sold it . Have own a dozen 94's in the 32 Spl. over the years , but parted with them and now just have a couple of 94's in 30-30 and one Marlin in 30-30.

I got both my first deer and 1st elk with a Win 32 Sp back around '60. It was originally designed to duplicate 30-30 performance but could also be used with black powder. I don't know if this is true, but Speer used to claim that if the barrel got even a little bit worn out, accuracy plummeted. Mine sure shot well.
I don't know why anyone would try to improve performance when there are so many better rounds on the market. Just hop to a 35 Rem for example.

Not exactly sure how you can bugger up a gun by going AI with it.

Might not net the gain you were after, but nothing is ruined and you can still shoot factory ammo in it. .....

you could probaby gain the same amount of speed by using the leverevolution ammo,or reloading with that powder.

That's about my view on them. If you need more gun, step up a notch, or two! Case trimming might be significant, if you burn lots of ammo per year shooting gophers, etc., and I hate trimming cases as much as anybody!

Either the last or second to the last grizzly ber killed in NM was killed the trusty ol 32 Special.

Got to handle the gun, see the skin and talk to the guy that killed it.

Either the last or second to the last grizzly bear killed in NM was killed the trusty ol 32 Special.

Got to handle the gun, see the skin and talk to the guy that killed it.

Double post, content removed

I used to believe the same but I learned that was probably a myth. When you think about it, it doesn't make any sense as a bp round anyway, given the .32-40 and .38-55 that were bracketing it very closely and had the convenience of being straight walled cartridges.

http://www.chuckhawks.com/32spec.htm

From Wikipedia. This duplicates what Speer wrote about it.


This cartridge is based on the .30-30 Winchester cartridge of 1895, but differs from the .30-30 in bullet diameter. More significantly, Winchester decreased the rate of rifling twist in their Model 94 rifle, from 1:12 when chambered for the .30-30 to 1:16 when chambered for the .32 Winchester Special. Winchester used the slower twist to reduce fouling retention when creating a new cartridge for sportsmen who wanted to reload their own ammunition using black powder and cast bullets.[3] It was also marketed as something more powerful than the .30-30 and yet had less recoil than the .30 Army.[2][4] This new cartridge enjoyed only moderate success, and remained hampered by the small selection of available bullets in the .321 diameter.[2] There is a wide selection of bullet types and weights for the .30-30, while the only commonly available bullets in .321 diameter are 170 grain and 165 grain. Also, due to the slow twist of the barrel, accuracy suffered when the barrel exhibited wear.

I really like the mdl 64. Nice rifles.

Disclaimer - I've never messed with a .32 Special.

But I have looked up the SAAMI specifications. They show bore dia. .315, groove dia. .320. I wonder how much effect the shallow grooves had on accuracy going sour?

SAAMI .32 Special

just because it hasn't been AI'ed,doesnt mean it cant be.