32-40 win

crooked barrel jed

crooked barrel jed

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Hello people, is anyone here shooting a 32-40win of any description? A guy I work with has an old Marlin 1893 rifle that was his dad's that we just replaced the firing pin in(after sitting around broken for 20+ years) so now he would like to shoot a deer with it. is there any ammo available? I have seen some of that John Wayne stuff in the past,but not recently. even a source of brass would help. Any info would be appreciated.Thanks
 
I shoot a few single shots in .32-40. You can occasionally find brass, but if you run Winchester .38-55 brass through a .32-40 full length sizer it will come out at pretty much the prefect length. I did that for one of my original 1885's until I ran across some .32-40 brass at a gun show

Edit: you can definitely use .30-30 brass as a starting point ( the .32-40 / .38-55 cases are the "parent" cases of the .30-30 round ). It will be a bit too short though.

Chris.
 
I used to shoot that caliber a moderate amount. It is easy to reload for; anneal 30-30 cases, run them through a 32-40 die with the neck expander removed and fireform them. You will probably need to square up the mouth of the case. Jacketed bullets in .321 used to be and I think still are readily available. I shot mine almost always with cast bullets at targets

cheers mooncoon
 
I shoot 32-40 in an old Win 1894 that I relined - works like new gun! Cast boolits for it and reload. All the reloading supplies are available in Calgary ...
 
It's not hard to find 32-40 brass if you look around. The speer jacketed bullets work but you won't be able to use the cannleure, just seat them deeper. The jacketed bullets aren't really made for 32-40 velocity and they will act like a FMJ with no expansion.
 
There's a reason the 32-40 held the 200 yd. bench rest record for 50 yrs. It's a beauty lead boolit cartridge
when carefully loaded in a good rifle & with a good shot behind the trigger. When talking 32-40, it should actually be in the Precision Rifle forum under Schutzenfest rifles.:)

Look up Harry Pope and George Schoyen along with C.W Rowland for some nifty history.:)
 
Last edited:
SHELL SHUCKER said:
There's a reason the 32-40 held the 200 yd. bench rest record for 50 yrs. It's a beauty lead boolit cartridge
when carefully loaded in a good rifle & with a good shot behind the trigger. When talking 32-40, it should actually be in the Precision Rifle forum under Schutzenfest rifles.:)

Look up Harry Pope and George Schoyen along with C.W Rowland for some nifty history.:)
Click to expand...

Interesting history lesson! Thanks for sharing. My 32-40 will now deserve more respect than I gave it in the past thanks to your input!!!!
 
Shell Shucker is right. The .32-40 was, and still is, an excellent cartridge for target shooting. There are guys still using it in competition today that shoot groups that you'd have to see to believe. Same with the .38-55.

Chris.
 
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