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Winchester 1894 (32 Win Spl) for Long Range Rifle?


Hiram A. Boeuf

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Howdy Pards,

 

Going to be shooting in my first out of state competition at the Eas'dern Shore Roundup in Delaware. They are holding a Long Range Rifle side match (also my first). I was thinking about shooting my (1926-made) Winchester 1894 in .32 Win. Spl.  As far as I can tell from the Shooters' Handbook, this is a legal firearm and caliber choice. Anyone have any comment/suggestion for me? If I can't use this rifle, I might have to buy a new gun...darn it. :D

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170 gr flat point lead bullet with a full case load of 777, no compression, will get the job done with authority.  The 32 Winchester Special was designed to bridge the gap between smokeless and BP.  It's a great little cartridge.

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.32 Winchester Special is basically .30-30 necked up to .32 caliber.  As was mentioned above, it was designed to be able to easily reload with either black or smokeless powder, unlike the .30-30 which is smokeless caliber all the way through.  (Although, I have often wondered if it was possible to load it with black and get decent performance.)

 

In my estimation, the .32 WS and the .30-30 are so similar performance wise that they are almost interchangeable.   That is to say, that what one can do the other can do just as well with no real advantage to either one.  

 

Getting brass for the .32 is fairly easy.  If all else fails, just run some .30-30's in it, and they will be perfectly fireformed for reloading.  At least, that's what I have read and been told.  I have not yet tried it as I have enough real .32 brass for the limited amount of shooting I do with mine.

 

The only caveat that I can offer is that depending on how long the long range is, it might not be useful.  I was at a shoot once where my .30-30 could not reach the "way out there" targets that my .45-70 could.  I'd assume the .32 would have a similar issue.

 

Sometimes I find myself wishing that the long range matches were in two categories, Category one would be 100 yards maximum.  Category 2 would be, well, the way out there distances that some shooters really enjoy.   Nothing against the longer range stuff, I have guns that'll do them, but my eyes are not so much capable of it.

 

 

 

 

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Your good to go with your .32. I can reach 300 yards with factory sights on my .30-30 aiming above the target some. Any farther and I would put on a Tang sight.

Buy another gun anyways! 

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Questions of this nature are best directed to the specific Match Director.  For while SASS legal, ranges exceeding 300 yards become a bit problematic for Winchester 94s... Especially carbines.  The cartridges are fully capable, but the limited sight radius makes fine tuning of your sights almost impossible.

 

Someone will disagree, but... and while there are exceptions to everything, in general, the above is true.

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On 3/13/2020 at 6:50 AM, H. K. Uriah, SASS #74619 said:

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Getting brass for the .32 is fairly easy.  If all else fails, just run some .30-30's in it, and they will be perfectly fireformed for reloading.  At least, that's what I have read and been told.  I have not yet tried it as I have enough real .32 brass for the limited amount of shooting I do with mine.

 

 

You can also just run .30-30 brass through your .32WS sizing die. That's the way I do it for my .32 and it works fine.

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