My brother in law asked me if I could clean his rifle that was his dad's gun. It is a Winchester model 94 chambered in 32 Winchester Special. That sucker roars and is very accurate as well. He said that his dad bought it in 1940 and that it wasn't new at the time. All I'm gonna do is wipe the rust off. It has a few specks of rust here and there from sitting in the closet for years. His pill poppin' son's girlfriend pawned it for a few bucks one time and the pawn guy had 900 bucks on the price tag before he went to get it. He and his buddy took it and paid the guy what the pawn ticket was for although they had to threaten him with bodily harm, but it worked. I just got it home and ain't taken any pictures yet. Will post one when I get it cleaned. Have any of ya'll ever shot a .32 Winchester Special? It is LOUDDD for sure.
Peace,
gordon

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better have that checked

I have a model 94 32 special that belonged to my dad; I've had it since about 1977. Not much different than a 30-30 ballistically and ammunition is hard to find unless you reload.

I have a '39 vintage 94 in 32 special I hunt with. It hits like a freight train!! I bought 2 boxes of Remington core lokt ammo and still have 35 rounds left! Great caliber.

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Nothing to see here,move along

My parents gave me a 1948 .32 for Christmas when I was 16. If I shot it or my freind's 30-30 I couldn't tell the difference. I like the fact that mine's a .32 Special rather than the omnipotent 30-30. Your BIL has a nice gun there. Hopefully it's old enough to still have a saddle ring, if it's a carbine, that is.

Rounds are a-plenty here in the North and I love mine. It is the only one with a front sight hood.

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Go big or stay home

Very nice, bet you had plenty of meals thanks to it.......I like the Silvertips, but they are HARD to come by.

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Go big or stay home

Nice gun there. I inherited my grandfathers 94 in 32 special. He bought it new in 1950. He wasn't one much on taking care of things and when I got it the best group I could get was 1 yard! at 100 yards!!! That is for real.
I found a 30-30 barrel for it and put that one on and it will group about 2 1/2" at 100 yards.

The 32 special is just a 32 caliber 30-30 case. I could never see the reason for developing the 32 special myself. But it has killed lots of deer.

John

I grew up deer hunting with a model 94 in .32 Winchester Special.

There are a lot of theories about why the .32 Winchester Special was developed. It is based on the .30-30 Winchester cartridge of 1895, but differs from the .30-30 in bullet diameter. More significantly, Winchester decreased the rate of rifling twist in their Model 94 rifle, from 1:12 when chambered for the .30-30 to 1:16 when chambered for the .32 Winchester Special. Winchester used the slower twist to reduce fouling retention when creating a new cartridge for sportsmen who wanted to reload their own ammunition using black powder and cast bullets.

The .30 caliber was still relatively new back then, but .32 caliber arms were very common it was thought that a lot of folks would want to reload their brass and .32 caliber would be more common. It has also been thought that Winchester was still tooled up for .32 caliber barrels (i.e., .32-20) and was able to utilize this with the making of barrels for the new model 1894 in .32 Winchester Special.

Performance of the .32 Winchester Special is not significantly different than the .30-30 Winchester.

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- Change it back -

Faulkner summed it up well. Jack O'Connor (used to be a very famous gun writer; died in 1978) said the same, adding that the .32 rifling wears sooner than a .30-30, and accuracy then falls off more. He thought that blackpowder users were the only reason why the .32 came out.

I wouldn't buy a .32 Special, but if that's what one has, it should work about like a .30-30. If you want more power in a rifle like that, go to the .35 Remington round in a Marlin.

Don't know if the "new" Marlin firm still chambers the .35, but a lot of older ones are still for sale.

I don't understand why some here say the .32 is loud. Compared to a .308 in a carbine length barrel, the .32 shouldn't be too bad on your ears. You presumamably wear hearing protection at the range, anyway.

I've got one from 1950 and I will agree that it is one accurate rascal. I can ring a 100 yard 9" gong all day long with open sights. To me,that's pretty impressive if I say so myself.
f.t.

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South Carolina-God's country

I shot a nice little forkhorn in Wisconsin with my Model 94 in 32WinSpl this past season. Dropped him in his tracks at a whopping 25 yards away with 170gr Remington CorLokts. Love that gun. It is a 1950 version and handles like a dream. Intend to use it again next year even though I have several other choices.

Each of my children were given a Pre-64 Winchester Model 94 by their Grandfather:
#1 Son - .32 Special
#2 Son - .32 Special
#3 Son - .32 Special
#4 Son - .25/35 (Saddle Ring Model)
#5 Son - .30/30
#6 Daughter .30/30
I ordered a case of .32 Winchester ammo (way in the past) thinking a case was 500 rounds. On delivery I discovered that a case of .32 Winchester Special ammo contained 1000 rounds.

Golly jimmy, you raised your own posse!

I think the 30-30, 32special and 25-35 were all brought out as HV, smokeless loaded cartridges for the 1894 and that was their marketing idea.
The era (1895 to 1905(?) was at a turning point from BP to smokeless and Winchester surely didn't want to be left behind. But old ideas are hard to change, still are.
People still liked their BP loads at the time.
The 32-40 caliber was also available in the 1894 and in BP loads it just about mirrors a 32Special if loaded with BP.
Both have 1-16 rifling and .320/321 dia bullet.

They all use the same basic case ,,,30-30, 25-35, 32Sp, 32-40 and the 38-55,, though that latter is a bit longer over all.

High velocity smokeless rounds were the future and all the gun makers knew it.
Not all their offering were a marketing blockbuster.
That's still going on today.

Hi:
All the Sons are LEOs and the Daughter married a LEO.
Sometimes I ask my Wife, "Honey, what happened? We planned for them to be Doctors and Bankers!

My Winchester SRC dates to 1927. Previous owner hunted deer in Virgina ith it. I just punch holes in paper. I love shooting it and the action is smooth as butter.

I took my first buck with a Win, 94 30-30 back in 1953. I've had several 94's in all calibers, 25-35,30-30, 32 Spec., 32-40 & 38-55. All were good shooters.

My dad had a winchester model 64 in .32 special. We were hunting in northern wisconsin back in the mid 1950s. We came on a guy that had just missed a nice buck with it. He blamed the gun and dad bought it off him for $50s! It looked almost new. Dad later traded it off, darn it!
I have these two. The 94 30-30 I bought new back in 1956 or 1957. I added the foolproof peep and pad for LOP right after buying it. Never had to change the zero. Once shot a nice buck with it at 220 yards!
The model 64 is also in 30-30 and was made in 1952. I dont think it was fired, and if it was, probley less than a box. I lucked into it for $200s about in 1975.

I never was a fan of the short tube, but that is a fine looking 64 feral. Along that thought, I would about give my teeth for a '71 carbine .348.

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Go big or stay home

The trick to shooting a carbine is to get a peep. Also for me, is a pad for length of pull. They will shoot. I think I can get about a little under 2"s at 100 yds. I dont like the looks of the peep either, but they are functional and stay zero`ed. I still have the original sight stashed. Dad also put a peep on his 64. Dad never scoped a gun. I have a remington punp 30-06 that he put a peep on too. It sat in the back of my safe for 8 years so I thought I would bench it last year. I got a big surprise! I doubt I could have got a much better group with a scope. He also put a peep on a war bring back K-98 mauser he sporterised. He shot many deer with it. He shot his last buck with this remington at 87 years old! I intend on packing this remington on my quad.

Look forward to seeing your pictures GT Smith. This is my first pre-64 Model 94. It is a .32 WS.

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Miss My Buddy crsides!!

Does anyone have a manual for break down and cleaning. Unfortunately I am newbie when it come to gun cleaning and my father in-law handed down his fathers Winchester 32 special to me and I want to clean it and possibly refinish it. I am not worried about the worth going down since it will stay in the family. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I t has some scrapes on the wood and some on the barrel and it is also missing the front sight ring. So any help with parts would also be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance

According to Barnes (Cartridges of the World) the .32 Special was developed in large part to provide a smokeless powder rifle/cartridge combination that would be better suited to black powder reloading than the .30 WCF (.30-30). Little bit larger bore, slower rifling twist, etc, that was less prone to fouling with black powder loads. The .30-30 cartridge appeared in the then-new Model 1894 rifle in 1894-95, which was only a couple of years after smokeless powders had been introduced, and many people continued to reload with black powder out of either necessity (remote areas in which supplies were limited) or personal preference (suspicions about new technologies).

Lyman had been producing their "tong tool" reloading devices for some time, and many featured built-in bullet molds, thus providing people with a simple and portable means of keeping themselves supplied with ammunition as long as primers, powder, and lead could be had.

Try this link:

Winchester Model 94 Disassembly

Funny Story:
A friend stopped in at a Gun Store in a small town to purchase a box of .32 Winchester Special ammo for his M94.
The clerk/owner stated that he didn't stock pistol ammo.

I've got one made in 1902 or 1906 (for some reason I have several guns with each of those birth dates-get them confused). Shot it once and nothing stood our from the 30-30s I have had.

My parents gave me a used 1947 or 48 flat band carbine for Christmas around 1972. The front barrel bands were flat one year only. A scarce little detail that doesn't seem to effect the value higher. It's strange that a caliber far less popular than the 30-30 yet so close to it ballisticaly lasted so long.
EDIT: Hey. I didn't notice this post was so old and I responded twice.

I have my Gpa's Mod 64 in .32 spcl. Love that gun and remember my Dad telling me that Gpa wanted to have the "big bore" instead of .30.
Always thought that was funny but back then ( 40's ) it was considered the big bore.
Never had a prob. yet finding ammo for it. Even have a bunch of Hornady Leverevolution rounds for it which gives it a new life.
I really would rather carry my Win. 94 in 30-30 though if I'm hoofing it very far.

When smokeless powder was first developed (cordite) it required a hot primer to set it off. Mercuric primers were needed & used but in using mercuric primers, the brass was rendered unsafe for reloading. This was true for all calibers that were using smokeless powder in the late 1800/early 1900's. In that time period, smokeless components were not available for reloading for safety reasons so to reload, black powder was used.

The slower twist rate of the 32 special was used to keep fowling with BP to a manageable level, the increase bore size made for a shorter than 30 cal bullet so it would stabilize better in the reduced twist barrel.

My first rifle was a pre '64 Winchester 94 in 32spl. I still have it and will as long as I'm on this side of the grass.

This a picture of my doxie (a wirehair) Fred on guard duty with my M94 32Spec takedown

mfg. date is 1914 +/-

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We still hunt with my dad's Mdl 94 in 32 WSP (made in '49). Easiest carrying rifle there is & still plenty accurate.

I have a box of the new Hornady Leverevolution, but the only thing I've shot with it is paper. The Winchester PowerPoints have always done the trick for me.

Shot my first two deer with my mothers 94 32 spc. I have another 94 32 spc. that I found on used gun rack. Small detail of 32 spc is you can use 30 30 ammo if the need be, but not the other way around.

I have its twin brother from 1948 complete with the flat ban, in 30wcf