Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors 32 Winchester special or 32-40?

Looking for thoughts on which one you guys would build on a 99 given the chance? Both are interesting the 32-40 has great history but the 32 Special was never chambered in the 99?

Thanks Chris

Depends.. for serious hunting, I'd choose the 32 Win Special. For a bit of hunting, range shooting, display - 32-40.

I would go with .32-40, but that's just me. I have plenty of deer rifles, I don't need another one, but a .32-40 with a good bullet mould and a can of SR-4759 and you're describing paper punching heaven.

Also, everybody forgets that the .32-40 was a popular deer hunting cartridge before the new fangled high velocity smokeless powder whizz bang .30-30 was introduced.

I have to tip my hat to the 32-40 as I think it may have the edge in accuracy. The 32-Special seemed to be the cartridge that never really made it in the Model 94 - but that may have been an issue with the rifling twist that was never resolved. Anyway, if I was going to go to the lengths of making a 32 Winchester Special on a 99 then I think I'd just blow out the bore another three calibers and make a .35-Remington. I'd rather have a 32-40 than a 32 Special, but I'd also take a .35 Remington over a 32-Special (or for that matter the 30-30). So I guess that put's the 32 on the bottom of my heap. Regardless, it sounds like you have an interesting project in mind.

If I were ever to build a 99 from the ground up it would be a 35 Rem.

The choice between a 32-40 and a 32 Win special to me is a coin flip. Black power era cool vs cutting edge smokeless powder technology.

The first rifle I ever owned was a 1952 model 94 in 32 Win special that my grandfather gave to me when I was 16 years old. He bought it in 1952 for my father. My father killed his first buck with it when he was 16. But he dislocated his right shoulder in a high school football game in the fall of 53 and my grandfather traded my dad his automatic for the 94 because it hurt dads shoulder to work the action.

I hunted with it until I got out of college and found enough money to expand my gun interests, but everything I ever shot with that gun wound up dead. I gave it to my son when he was 12. Everything he has shot at with it has wound up dead. There isn't really anything very interesting about the 32 Win Special on paper, unless you are unfortunate enough to be shot with one....

What are the details of the rifle. I would tend to pick the caliber from the period of the rifles production.

I think the 32 Winchester special as a very remarkable cartridge.

I have no experience with the 32 40.

The old stigma with the Winchester 94 was two fold:

1.The barrel was set up for black powder, shallow rifeling, slower twist.

2. Being a " blackpowder" special.....expect possible corrosion.

However.......
I found that in the marlin the 32 Winchester special it would load up to near top of " the book" even with vintage pieces.

The 30 30 I would be lucky to get mid book! In the vintage Marlins, and Savage 99/1899

I have not chronographed any of the loads but I am beginning to believe the less necked down the case is....the more powder it will tolerate. I think savage missed the train by not offering larger bores in their selections.

Not trying to high jack this thread, but what Savage 99 would be the best for converting to 35REM?

There's been a lot of talk about the 35 Remington in the 99 but has anyone ever did it? Seems to me it would be much easier getting to a 35 bore by starting out with the 308. But then I guess you'd also have to ponder a 338 along that route too. If I was going that route I think I'd go the other way and take it down to 260 Remington, being a fan of the 6.5 Swede and all. So many possibilities!

Start building!

Enabler!

Yeah, so?

Personally I would prefer a .33-47, Harry Pope's favorite solution for a worn out .32-40 barrel.

.33-47 Pope? Well crap damn, I never heard of that one!

I like the 35/30-30; 30-30 necked up to 35 caliber. Same ballistics as the 35 Remington.

Wow!

That is awesomeness!

Where did you get this done?????

What about dies?

Thanks!!!!!

+1 on the awesomeness!

++ on actually building your 99 in 35/30-30 while the rest of us talk about building 99s!!

(And JES offers 35/303, and 35/300 chambers...dies are another issue.)

But CTW, I think I'd end up going with a more modern 32Spec, just for the little better performance.

That is bad ass.

I would only build a 35 Rem so I could go to the store and buy the ammo in a green box. And, I don't have the ambition to have special dies made and reload a wildcat. Plus when I'm gone a 35 Rem would have a higher resale value.

Those would be the only reasons I wouldn't build a 35/30-30, or 35/300, not because they aren't cool or wouldn't tip deer over...

Bought it on GB! I use a 30-30 shell holder and 35 Rem dies.

I always sort of wanted a .35-30 wildcat, and despite my threats to build one I never have. It would make for a decisive deer thumper like Mr. Clark as shown us, especially if loaded with heavy soft cast lead hollow points. Alas, I have plenty of good deer rifles- more than I find time to hunt with- and my personal thrust from here on out is to concentrate on mild mannered cheap to shoot target arms, again throwing myself into the arms of the .32-40 crowd standing behind ctw.

As a hypothetical, what would be the potential of successfully fitting a take down barrel rebored to 35 to a take down frame that started life as a 30-30 or a 303? Would it only involve a simple rebore or are there other issues that could come into play having to do with things like the chamber, head space and spindle?

If the cartridges will load and feed the new cartridge successfully now, then it's just the barrel.

Well orderd the barrel , 32-40 will get the nod I was thinking 32 special for ease of finding brass. I need to get busy on some of these projects.