Senior: Thanks very much. I'll be writing this one down for my future reference as I do plan on doing some shooting with this one! Is 1800 ok since mine doesn't have the nickel steel barrel? I would think they'd be a decent deer cartidge, but I read they didn't sell that well....
No they didn't sell that well, the 32-40 was primarily designed as a black powder target cartridge but as soon as the .32 special came into existance it killed the 32-40 for those looking for a more powerful hunting round.
As for strength, yours made in 1920 may not have the Nickel Steel stamp but did have better metalurgy involved from the early 1910-20s. Since the rifle & cases are basically the same as the .32S, I personally would feel quite same pushing the 32-40 up to 2000fps in that gun. The .32s should be able to shove 170 out of a 26" barrel at 2400fps so your still well under the 32 special pressures.
BUT, as with all load work up to it, if you see any sign of pressure back off, those old guns are to valuable. It's hard sometimes to tell pressure on a 94 & I've never really pushed one to be that familiar. I know lots of them show primers backing out but that's not necessarily pressure. Maybe some-one can pipe in here with some help? I know 86s & 71s will start to pop the action open when your pushing the limits, maybe the 94 is the same?
As I said I'd feel fairly safe pushing the 170s to 2000fps but even 1800 is a huge improvement over factory stuff & certainly lots of Umph for deer & black bear
