Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Anybody ever hunt with a 32-40?

I know it is very marginal for deer but would like to know if anyone had ever taken one out to try on deer sized game.

What bullet, powder if handload etc....

try this thread:

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbth...&topic=0&Search=true#Post1836541

I hunted with one in a Winchester 1894, second year production gun. Man I wish I would have kept that one. I was using jacketed loads for hunting, sparingly due to older steel. I was getting 2000 FPS if memory serves me right out of the 26 inch barrel. I shot two Mule deer with it, a forked horn and a doe and they expired quickly. Range was 50 yds on both. Got full penetration on both, right behind the shoulder. Best loads were from Reloader 7. They are fun to shoot, but the crimping groove on most jacketed bullets won't work. Speers crimping groove is higher on the nose then Hornady and Sierra, I didn't know that until I started loading for my 32 Remingtons. It might be close enough for the 32-40. Ryan

I never hunted with one but my grandfather had a winchester, a rifle, don't recall what model it was. I remember the magazine was as long as the barrel and it held like 8 rounds. we use to hunt the eastern border of maine. family has a camp there
He shot many deer with that old gun. but I'm sure nothing more than 50yds. my uncle Paul has the gun now . we use to laugh at that thing. "you can catch it with a good ball glove at 75yds"
Dad always said .

plab

Well, I wish I had a nice 1899 in 32-40 like Les's to call my own. I've been toying with the idea of taking my Winchester 1885 shown below out on a nice weather doe day. I've been reluctant to because of the caliber and too many choices to choose from.

Yes, I have hunted with the .32-40 but let me tell you why. My grandfather was quite a hunter and when I asked him if he ever hunted for moose he said, "Yes, I got two moose, both the same day." Naturally, I asked what he used to collect those critters and he replied, "A Savage 99." It's too bad that he sold his .32-40 years or decades ago, probably before 1920. That put me on the quest for a Savage 99 in .32-40 and I found a good one. I got my gun back in the 1960s and I've had it ever since. It's a take-down Saddle Gun from 1907 with a Marbles "Flexible" sight on the tang. After I got that gun I knew I'd have to hunt with it, perhaps in honor of my grandfather. So, I gathered all the goodies needed to make reloads and that included the mould to make Lyman/Ideal's #319295, the 175 grain gas check bullet for the .32-40 high power loads. The load I liked used 25 grains of #3031 under the gas checked bullet and that had a velocity of about 1800 feet per second if I recall correctly. I also have the little mould to cast the nose sections to these bullets, so soft point cast bullets can be made. You cast the nose pieces with pure or soft lead, then put them into the standard mould to cast the rest of the bullet around the nose piece. It is difficult to get that nose piece in proper alignment. Rather than use the two-piece soft point bullets for deer, I selected the standard one-piece cast from wheelweight lead. My hunting with it wasn't done until about 1980 and that was for blacktail deer in the neighborhood of Roseburg, Oregon. When I saw the buck I was to get, it was quartering somewhat away from me, running uphill, but I had the opportunity for a broadside shot. The forkhorn buck was at a trot at that moment and I put one of the .32's cast bullets into its chest. That made the buck hit "passing gear" for just a little bit as it kept going up hill. Then it slowed and paused, turning around. At that moment I hit it with another lead bullet, in the chest again but entering from the other side. That brought the buck back down hill and it collapse not far from where I stood. One more shot, from a reduced load using the old short range bullet, at close range removed any chance of having the deer wanting to leave the scene. The two bullets into the chest did not penetrate all the way through and both of them were recovered. They are fairly well expanded and I still have them. Both of those bullets, by the way, lost their gas checks and I don't know if those were lost in flight or in the deer. The gas checks were never found. I've also reloaded jacketed bullets for my .32-40 but those never got used for deer hunting. The bullets I used were from Hornady and I bought a cannularing tool so I could cut a new cannular ahead of the one Hornady gives them so the overall length of the loaded cartridge would be correct. The Savage 99 won't need a new cannular, of course, but my '93 Marlin carbine might also use that ammo. And, both my Marlin and the Savage, plus my High Wall in .32-40, have "smokeless steel" barrels. Now, my opinion about hunting big game with a .32-40 is simply that the cartridge is famous for the hunting that it used to do. Before the .30-30 took over, the .32-40 was our most popular big game hunting cartridge and, like my grandfather's example, it was used for everything. No, it won't knock'em down like a .45-70 or even a .38-55 but it will do the job when put in the right place. I'd be very willing to hunt deer with my .32-40 again and I'd want to do it with cast bullets, you bet!

At 2000fps with a jacketed bullet I don't think there'd be any problem using it for hunting. Not that much less than the 30-30, and no reason you can't do a max load in a Savage.

Would love to get mine out. Got the bullets and dies, but haven't loaded any up yet. Still shooting the cast lead ammo I got with it.

I handled a Winchester Comm. 94 in 32-40 a few days ago,
very handsome rifle. I saw a Savage 99 in that caliber
about 5 years ago for $800, wish I would have bought it.