Winchester's Model 1894 32 Winchester Special Part II

Before launching into a 32 Winchester Special handloading odyssey, I thought I’d better mention that it is a cartridge that has meaning to folks who like old time rounds and the sense of nostalgia they bring. It also has meaning to folks who just like to work with other than mainstream cartridges. For those who don’t fall within these categories, the Model 1894, including this Sporter version, is available in a number of other mainstream and nostalgia chambers. On that note…

There are cartridges made for handloading with incredible flexibility in component selection and level of performance. There are cartridges where handloading is primarily ammunition supply assurance; sometimes the sole supply, sometimes supplemental. I would suggest that handloading the 32 Winchester Special falls into the latter category.

There are currently four popular brands of 32 Winchester Special factory ammunition readily available from discount retailers, some in brick and mortar stores, but mostly on line. The brands are Federal, Hornady, Remington, and Winchester. Hornady offers a 165 grain Flex Tip… pointed soft tips that are designed for use in tubular magazines, the other brands offer one type of proprietary flat nose soft point or another, all in 170 grains.  Ammunition prices run from $23/20 to $34/20. With the exception of Hornady product, they are all rated at 2,250 fps, the Hornady round at 2,410 fps.There will be no shocked and amazed expressions on the faces of 32 Special shoppers at Cabelas.

Handloading is always an option, however, combinations of components are somewhat limited. Setting aside fired factory ammunition as a source of brass, Hornady and Winchester offer 32 Special brass. Hornady is a little steep at $40/50. Winchester is 25% less, but it usually only a seasonal run and often out of stock. Of course it is easy to make 32 Special brass out of 30-30 WCF brass.

There are only three bullet types generally available, jacketed and cast combined, and the weights are the same as available in loaded ammunition, 165 and 170 grains… Hornady offers two, Speer offers one. Some specialty bullet makers like Hawk Bullets offer a 170 grain pure copper jacket bullet and 200 grain on special order.

Factory ammunition, handloaded ammunition, the 32 Winchester Special is a deer and black bear rounds for the typical woodland hunter, and a good one at that. It can not be stuffed full of powder and deliver 308 Winchester like performance, but it can be a light kicking, accurate and inexpensive to shoot hunting season companion. Handloading may restore that 10% increase over the 30-30 WCF once intended.

About that scope…

My sense is that the Winchester Model 1894 Sporter is intended to be shot through its metallic sights, or some other enhanced version of metallic sights… peep, FireSight, etc because that use is consistent with the effective range of this combination and its feature of being fast handling.

Deer are magicians with a highly evolved disappearing act. They often present only a small portion of themselves to a hunter and are often gone in the time it takes to turn and see what caused a twig to crack. Subsequently, breaking out the lead sled, setting up the rifle and gazing through a scope is not usually in the cards, unless you hunt from a tree stand, wear deer urine cologne and are surrounded by automatic deer feeders.

Unfortunately, reviewing a firearm with metallic sights speaks more to the shooter’s talents than the rifle’s potential. Mounting a scope is an approach to minimize my skill influence, such as it is, on the rifle’s performance and to illustrate what a better marksman can aim for…. aim for, get it? Tough crowd.

The mount hole spacing on the Winchester’s receiver is approximately 4″ for fasteners, but extending the front mount forward of the receiver to keep it away from the ejection port brings the dimension between ring centers to 4.6″. Consequently, I had to grab a ladder and climb up in the loft to dig through my box full of not recently used scopes to find one with a longer tube that would put the objective bell out ahead of the rear metallic sight to avoid removal or use of a low magnification small objective scope.

I could not remember exactly when I bought the scope. Apparently it was when I was on a budget scope kick and mounted it on a 9.3x62mm CZ and left it on when the rifle was changed over to 375 Ruger. The scope was removed when I sold that rifle and relegated to the loft scope box. Interesting that they are still being sold for about $70 new. Crystal clear, bright image, sharp reticle focus, good adjustment tracking and it can sure take a beating from recoil over the long term without being any the worse for wear. No, I do not recommend it for the Winchester. I just enjoyed putting it to work, before again putting it away.

Really not a big deal, but the rear sight elevator is as far forward as it can be adjusted, the rings are relatively low and scopes of interest had either a 40mm or 44mm objective4 lens.

Oh! Right… handloading the 32 Winchester Special

I selected two bullets for handloading, the Hornady 165 FTX and the Winchester Power-Point because I felt they were representative of what is available. The Hornady 170 grain is very much like the Winchester bullet in terms of construction. The Speer bullet is more of a protected point design with a jacket running to the flat tip, laterally protecting the core, but still generating exterior ballistics similar to the Winchester bullet.

The most notable difference between the Hornady FTX and Winchester flat nose is the location of the cannelure. The Hornady’s sharp ogive moves weight from the nose and relocates it at the shank. Subsequently, the seated shank is considerably longer than the blunt ogive Winchester bullet and reduces net case capacity by approximately 3 grains. Depending on powder selection, that can prevent use of some slower powders or reduce velocity potential, or can mean nothing at all. None of the loads listed below were compressed.

Handloading for non-rotating locking lug lever guns is not like handloading for a bolt action rifle as the operating pressures are not really significant enough to show signs of high pressure: sticking bolt, hard extraction, popped primers, excessive case head expansion or separation, etc. so I tend to defer to other indicators like exceptional report or velocity. The latter is a SAAMI specification, by cartridge and by bullet weight.

The spec for a 165 grain bullet is 2,410 fps and 170 grain 2,235 fps, fired from a 24″ test barrel. The 165 grain velocity is predicated on Hornady LeverEvolution ammunition or the use of LeverEvolution spherical powder. The 170 grain velocity represents standard industry ammunition and generally available handloading components. Without using LeverEvolution powder, I did not set 2,410 as a goal for handloads, but I did use the 170 grain velocity as a point of reference. I did use two more recent powder releases along side Win 748 as an old standard.