Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles The Official 32-40 Hunting Thread

And now we know it wasn't an unfounded legend.

LOL, really cool stuff Dan, I'm going to take my 32-40 in a tight thicket nearly guaranteeing me a hard quartering in or frontal chest shot, will try to shoot completely through a buck or big doe, lengthways or diagonally.

Did that with big hunks of lead in a .44 mag. None of them exited, maybe ‘cause they were pure lead paper patched. Front to rear or quartering doesn’t lend to obvious suckage very much. OTOH, if you’re into carnage they work just dandy. Maybe if I slowed them down, or used a tougher alloy...

That'll work too DD, I happen to have at my use the perfect natural autopsy table, a low water bridge with enough running water for proper and clean examination, but not too much to wash the animal out of your hands, after cleaning, throw deer in upstream side of bridge, a small pool of clean cold water about 3 ft deep, shot deer Sat morning, leave till hunts end Sun evening, they really bleed out good and stay super cool for the trip home to the butcher.

My thought was a clean rib hit with the little 32 cal 178gr hard cast flat nosed bullet may require a lengthy tracking job, as you said, 'long' wound channels hurt, with the added bonus of punching near every vital they have.

Wish I could do that but all it would do is feed a gator!

Had a death in the family that's going to set me back for shooting time with the 32-40, but the 38-55 is sighted in and always ready in a pinch. I still plan on getting out with the 32-40, come hell or high water.

Keepin it real.

Well damn pacecars, gators edible?

Condolences on the family death FB.

TTT for any other 32-40 shooters/hunters.

Can we blow the case out straight, add a 30 degree shoulder and call it the 32 Creedmore Rimmed and get the youts (yes I spelled it that way on purpose) shooting it? Might reignite the love of lever rifles...

PS, that's pure sarcasm

Sighted in the 32-40 for 100 yards shooting 170 grain Sierra fp bullets. Lots of fun to shoot. It's in the truck in the garage ready to go.

FB can you give the specifics of that load? How does it shoot for you? I’ve only used cast in my 99 but thought I might like to use jacketed bullets at some point.

Thanks,
PennDog

Hey PennDogg, 30 grains IMR 4895 170 Speer, not Sierra, my mistake. Shoots good. Feels about like a 30-30 hunting load.

Using my 1885 Traditional Hunter with a 28" barrel, I've loaded the 170 Hornady jacketed bullet to around 1850 fps. At 100 yds., point of impact is very close, within two inches, of the load I shoot most, a 160 grain plain base cast bullet from a Lyman mould. Muzzle velocity of that one is only around 1400 fps.

I shot some 160 cast and they did the same as yours.

Will a 38-40 get you in the club until I can find a 32-40??

Thanks FB......I’ll have to give it a try! I got to digging trough a bunch of old reloading supplies and actually found 50 original Remington 165 grain .32-40 bullets - now should I use or save for a collector? (Ha I’ll load them up!).

PennDog

You're in! Go kill a fat hog hanco!

Going out for an afternoon bear hunt today with the 32-40. Hotternhell here but you can't win if you don't play.

Made 1884, have killed a couple deer, and a good many piggies with it. I can do a 2” group at 50 yards with it. Better eyes could do much better.

That’s sweet hanco - what loads do you use in that one? Always wanted a .38-40 lever - had the opportunity to pick up a deluxe 1873 in awesome shape about 10 years ago but it was way outside of my price range.

Did you find a bear today FB? Can’t wait to see some pics this fall!

PennDog

PennDog, the bears are very active in the area we went today, but with the heat are staying low until dark I suspect. Mostly we're waiting for the acorns to ripen on the live canyon oak bushes. We are seeing LOTS of sign. It's going to be red hot in 1-2 weeks.