HL32SPL1
Reloading The .32 Winchester Special
Handloading by John Taffin
The first really successful repeating lever action rifle was the 1860 Henry which came from Oliver Winchester’s New Haven Arms Company. Winchester’s foreman, B. Tyler Henry designed the rifle which bore his name. In 1866 the Henry was upgraded with a wooden forearm and a loading gate in the right side of the receiver and became the first official Winchester. In 1873 the 1860/1866 pattern was further improved by changing the receiver from a brass alloy to iron and then steel and also replacing the .44 Rimfire cartridge with the .44 WCF, a centerfire cartridge we know mostly today as the .44-40.
All of these rifles used revolver-length cartridges and Winchester wanted something more powerful so the basic action was enlarged to become the 1876 Winchester chambered in such cartridges as the .45-75. It was too short to accept the .45-70 so in 1886 the first Browning-designed Winchester arrived as the Model 1886. Browning than basically reduced the size of the action to come up with the Model 1892 which was also chambered in .44 WCF as well as .38 WCF and .32 WCF. Browning’s next design for Winchester is one of the most popular rifles of all time as the last figures I have seen is more than 7 million Model 1894 leverguns being produced. When I was a kid in grade school the 2 millionth 1894 was presented to then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Originally the Model 1894 was chambered for two black powder cartridges, the .38-55 and the .32-40. In 1895 the first American smokeless powder rifle cartridge arrived as the .30 WCF, or as more commonly known today, the .30-30. Shortly after the turn-of-the-century Winchester brought out the 1894 chambered in .32 Winchester Special. This cartridge is not to be confused with the .32 WCF or .32-20 which is a much shorter cartridge. Whereas the .30 WCF has a twist of 1:12 the .32 Winchester Special was given a barrel twist of 1:16. There are a lot of myths surrounding the .32 Winchester Special and the best way to find out the facts is go back to the original information as provided by Winchester. This is from an early catalog: “.32 Special Caliber Rifles For Smokeless or Black Powder. The .32 Winchester Special cartridge, which we have adapted our popular Model 1894 Rifle to handle, was developed to meet the demand of many sportsmen for a smokeless powder cartridge of larger caliber than the .30 Winchester, yet not so powerful as the .30 Army, and which could be loaded with black powder. This cartridge fills all these requirements. Rifles of this caliber can be furnished in styles to meet all tastes.”
My experience with the .32 Winchester Special began with a trip to my local FFL holder, Buckhorn Gun to pick up a pistol which had arrived for test and evaluation. As I was filling out the paperwork, Chris placed a Winchester levergun in front of me without saying a word. I accused him of taking advantage of the feeble-minded. My favorite rifles are leverguns and my favorite leverguns are the short-barrel Trapper Models. Now here in front of me was a pristine Winchester 1894 Trapper Wrangler chambered in .32 Winchester Special. There was no way I could resist so both my test pistol and the .32 Trapper came home with me. It turned out to be a virtually unfired Winchester marked as a Winchester from Winchester Repeating Arms.
Once I got it home I quickly ordered a set of Lee Precision Dies. These are typical rifle dies with two dies one for full-length sizing and de-capping while the other is for seating and crimping. As with most bottle-neck cartridges there is no die included for expand the case mouth. I already had a Lee Universal Expanding Die so I was set there and I also ordered a Lee .32 Winchester Special Factory Crimp Die. The Universal Expanding Die comes with two tapered plugs to handle everything from .22 to .45 caliber. I find both of these invaluable for loading semi-automatic pistol cartridges as well as most rifle cartridges. Once the cartridge is full-length sized I then use the Universal Expanding Die to just kiss the case mouth to allow easy insertion of a flat base bullet. It is also invaluable when loading cast bullets. Without this step trying to load a bullet may collapse the case and with a cast bullet may shave off lead which will probably wind up smeared inside the barrel.
Now the .32 Winchester Special brass is not something to be found on many gun shop shelves. Buckhorn had three boxes of factory Remington Core-Lokt 170 grain .32 Specials and I also ordered 200 rounds of Hornady brass. For bullets I went with 170 grain FN jacketed bullets from Speer and Hornady as well as 170 grain cast bullets designed for the .32-40 from Missouri Bullet Company.
It takes two extra steps to load the .32 Winchester Special and these are the same steps I use for loading the .30-30. Once I have applied the proper kiss to the mouth of the case and used the RCBS powder measure to drop the proper charge I then seat the bullets without crimping. After I have a full loading block of uncrimped brass I then go to the second additional step and use the Lee Factory Crimp Die. Instead of having one ring of metal which squeezes the crimp, the Lee has four collets which squeeze in on the case resulting in a factory-style crimp. The Lee die is very easy to set. It is simply screwed into the press until it meets the shell holder and then turned one half turn more. It is now ready to provide a quality crimp.
Most of my loads for the .32 Winchester Special are easy shooting rounds. The 170 Hornady FP over 34.0 grains of WW748 clocks out at 1,725 fps and groups just under 1 inch at 45 yards. Moving up to 36.0 grains gives the same accuracy and 1,825 fps, while 36.0 grains of BL-C (2) gives the same muzzle velocity as the lighter load of WW748 as well as the same accuracy.
Remington’s 170 Core-Lokts clocked out at 2,165 fps from this short-barreled Wrangler and I duplicate this load with the Speer 170 FN over 30.0 grains of Reloder-7. This is an exceptionally accurate load grouping three shots into 3/4" at 45 yards.
My cast bullet loads are assembled with the above-mentioned Missouri Bullet Company 170 grain hard cast bullet using Red Dot. With 8.0 grains muzzle velocity is just over 1,300 fps and upping the powder charge to 9.5 grains of Red Dot increases the muzzle velocity to just under 1,450 fps. These are very easy shooting and quite accurate. With plain-based bullets I discovered long ago that 1,400-1,500 fps was the upper level for accuracy and also no problem with leading so I see no reason to try to push these bullets any faster.
Factory sights on the 1894 Wrangler are not much use to my eyes for shooting past 25 yards. I have now added a Williams Receiver Sight which more than doubles my acceptable distance. It would be easy to say why bother with the .32 Winchester Special since the .30-30 has such widespread appeal and really not much, if anything, is gained by going to the .32 Special. However, everything doesn’t have to be practical and I enjoy the pure enjoyment of shooting this .32 Special Wrangler Winchester Trapper. That’s enough reason for me. It must also be enough for many other shooters as Winchester announced the return of the .32 Winchester Special Model 94 in 2018.
CAPTIONS
01: For loading the .32 Winchester Special with 170 grain cast and jacketed bullets, John uses the Lee Precision dies as well as the Lee Factory Crimp die.
02: John’s bullets of choice for the .32 Winchester Special are the Speer and Hornady 170 grain flat points.
03: Essentials for loading the .32 Winchester Special include Lee Precision dies, as well as the Lee Universal Expander and Factory Crimp dies.
04: Comparison of great levergun cartridges-- .30-30, .32 Winchester Special, and .35 Remington.
05: John’s most used powders for jacketed bullets in the .32 Winchester Special are WW748, BL-C (2), and Reloder 7.
06: John uses Red Dot for cast bullet loads in the .32 Winchester Special.
07: Missouri Bullet Company 170 grain cast bullets from the .32 Winchester Special at 25 yards with the factory iron sights.
08: Speer and Hornady 170 FP bullets at 25 yards with factory iron sights.
09: The addition of the Williams Receiver Sight more than doubles John shooting distance. These targets were shot at 45.
10: The bottom target shot at 45 yards is John’s factory duplication load.

There should be no reason the 8mm checks wouldn't work for the .32 Spl.

I've had an itch for one for decades. They just don't pop up that often. One of my uncles has one that is his go to deer rifle. A shirt tail relative of my wife's gave me a bunch of once fire brass which included a good number of 32 Special cases. I think there's still some that escaped the great 25-35 case forming experiment of '95, just need to dig around the cache and see if I can locate them. The projectile issue, that may be a problem in today's market, just like it is for a number of other oddball calibers.

I hope you keep us abreast of developments. Folks who use it tend to be partial to it.

Aaron, I have been using these to good effect, they are from an NOE mound. They are a plain base design.

Dave

I don't load the .32 Winchester, but I do have a Remington 141 in .32 Remington, which is essentially the same cartridge without a rim, although there are minor dimensional differences. Reloading data seems interchangeable. I use Hornady 170 grain flat points in it, because that's what the local gun shops had available when oddball stuff was still on the shelves. I'd certainly consider the Hornady 165 grain FTX bullets if I could find them, but I'd want to make sure cartridge OAL would be short enough to work through the action.

If there's a nickel's worth of difference in the effective range and killing power of a .30-30, a .30 Remington, a .32 Winchester and a .32 Remington, I sure have never been able to find it. I don't pretend to know what the manufacturers were thinking when they offered so many similar cartridges, but they must have had their reasons and all of them sold well enough to last for decades. Not a bad result.