Wandering around the local. old time hardware store, I noticed 4 boxes of .32 Special. This is in NW Pa (Erie), so I guess a lot of the old guys still use one. I would think in most places, it is hard to find - just offering a heads up. Kraus's Dept Store, Erie, Pa.

The .32 Special is a great deer and black bear cartridge in a lever gun. The Hornady Leverevolution ammo makes it a viable 200 yd gun. And, yep, I'm an old guy that has one.

I was surprised to have seen it on the shelf at Gander Mountain in Peoria fairly recently. And you can't even shoot deer(or bear) with a breech-loading rifle in Illinois.

Have my dad's 94 .32 spl. carbine.. Have quite a few factory loads, plus a couple hundred hand loads.. Never shoot it much.. But it is nice to have.. The 32 was pretty popular when I was young, but have seen one in the hills for quite a while..

For what little whitetail hunting I do, I use a 94 1957 carbine in .32. More about the romance and nostalgia factor. The old girl has smacked a few deer, though.

A cartridge that was unfairly bad mouthed by older gun writers. JB and at least one other modern writer have been much fairer due to objective testing. It actually had some advantages at the time it was introduced. I wouldn't mind having a pre-64 Winchester 94 or an older Marlin in 32 spec.

IIRC, someone, or maybe multiple someones, wrote about the 32WS being very inaccurate if the bore was damaged.

I have read that the 32WS was designed to be reloaded with black powder, but a Winchester 94 collector told me that the 32WS was actually designed to be an updated 32-40, a more accurate cartridge than the 30-30 was reputed to be early in its production run. After over 100 years, the truth is probably lost or at least the truth is clouded in its old age.

If memory serves, Speer Bullets did a pretty detailed look at the history of the 32 WIN SPL and debunked several of the old rumors. I deep woods and swamp hunt with a 1957 built M94 - good old rifle.

All calibers can suffer accuracy issues if the bore is damaged. What makes you think this is unique to the .32?

True, however, IIRC, Frank Barnes wrote a very negative review of the 32WS in an old, later 1960s(?), edition of COTW. I've have good luck with the 32WS, but all have excellent bores.

A couple of years ago I somewhat inherited (for a price, of course) a late 40's, M94 carbine in 32Sp. with a tang peep.

The rifle came with 7 boxes of ammo (and five boxes of brass) from both Win and Rem. Like most 32Sp owners he would buy every box of 32Sp he found. Although the rifle shoots both factory loads quite well, I just had to get dies and some cast bullets to play with at the range.

I loaded some 170gr cast bullets from Hunter's Supply with 9gr of Unique and proceeded to learn how to shoot with that tang peep. I was quite impressed with the accuracy of the load and how easy it was to use that flip-up tang peep with these old eyes.

I haven't shot anything but paper with it so far, but that could change in the near future. It sure is a pleasure to carry, that's for sure.

My 32WS are a Marlin 336SD from 1959 and a Winchester 94 from 1948.

When I was a young hunter, just learning to hunt and shoot, one of my "mentors" was an older neighbor who was consistently one of the best deer killers I ever knew.

He hunted almost exclusively with a Winchester 94 in .32 Special. Although he owned a number of different guns (one of the main reasons I was fascinated with him...as I was a "gun nut" even at 10 years old) he always seemed to pick up that .32 Special when it was time to make meat.

Even in the 1960's the .32 Special had a reputation of being less accurate than the .30-30, but my friend insisted this was untrue. He didn't shoot targets, but could shoot gumballs from a tree time after time to prove his point.

He also insisted that the .32 was a more effective killer than the .30-30 and this was the reason he chose that chambering. Although the magazines I read stated that this was untrue, it was hard to argue with his success over the years.....and he had used both chamberings enough to "know".

I eventually owned and used the .30-30 and .32 Special myself and though a "sample" of 10-12 deer killed with each may not be large enough to prove anything, the .32 DID seem to me to hit a bit harder and kill quicker than the .30-30. Not a big difference, but enough for me to notice.

I would direct your attention to page 61 in COTW, 4th Edition, from 1980. Whoever wrote the summary of the 32 WS blessed us with the following gems:

"If there is such a thing as a most useless cartridge, the .32 Spl. would certainly cop the prize.".

"Once the bore of a .32 Spl. begins to go, you can't hit a flock of barns with it.".

"It's a lot better than the .30-30 only if don't think smokeless powder is really here to stay.".

My earlier copies of COTW are all dog-eared, stained, and MIA, but I believe that this "unbiased" review was printed in earlier editions, perhaps as far back as the 1st Edition that was published fifty years ago, in 1965.

I have both the 32ws and 30-30. Other than the 32 having a little more power than the 30-30, I don't see much difference.

I like my 32ws better because it is a '54 94 and it has Lyman steel aperture sights. The two 30-30's also have similar sights, but the Marlin and the Win 64 just don't handle the same as the old 94. Perhaps it is the straight stock on the 94 and the pistol grip on the others that makes the difference.

Need at least one photo in this thread. My M94 in 32 WIN SPL.

Odessa, nice 32 spl. almost an exact duplicate of mine.. My dad bought it sometime around WWII.. I doubt it has had 5 boxes of shells though it.. He was not a serious hunter, my grandfather was.. But he carried a .30-06.. Grandfather started out with a .32, but went to the 06 after a couple
seasons..
Our .32 has taken whitetails, antelope, and mt. lion and a few varmints..
Also have a couple .30-30's.. Nice rifles also..

Here's my old girl. The rock is kind of special, too. It sits right near the top of the Qu"Appelle Valley north of Grenfell. My Grandfather settled not more than a couple of miles away, and may well have passed by this rock on his way down to Hyde village in the valley for mail and supplies.

I love both photos. They do justice to a classic firearm.

Thanks gents

I found a copy of the original, 1965, edition of COTW. Page 48 has the same exact negative write-up on the 32 WS as in the 4th edition.

My grandfather had a model 94 in 32 win special which he gave to my father when he was 16 which my father gave to me when I was 16, which I gave to my son when he was 16.

None of the dozens of deer our family has shot with it over the decades thought the gun was "useless"

Just shot my old Waffetop Marlin 336 ADL yesterday. I'd vouch for the LE and 200 yds. Hardly ever shoot jacketed these days but had some test loads made from three years ago so finally freed up the brass. Pretty accurate in four out of five loads!

I believe the year was 1955 when my parents gave me my choice of a rifle. A model 64 Winchester in 32 special. It,like me is old, warn, and still functioning. Unlike me it functions as well as it did in 1955. It is a great Adirondack deer dumper. Kill number unknown but no question about it's quick kill capability. I never shot it beyond 250 yds. The 170 Hornady does the trick.

Jim

I always thought it was a good cartridge. A few thousandths wider that a 30-30. Works the same best as I can tell.