Deer hunting with a 32 cal

[WinchesterM1]

We have my 5th greataunts BP 32 squirrel rifle and the family story is for a squirrel it’s half a thimble of powder a deer is a full thimble and a bear is 2 thimbles worth of powder, I don’t know who makes it but I got it shooting for the first time in I bet 80 years!

[arcticap]

In Texas, any caliber firearm that loads from the muzzle is legal to use for muzzle loader deer hunting.

As far as the .32, a 125 Maxiball conical may not be much different than a .410 slug which only weighs from 87 - 99 grains and has a diameter of .357.
A .32 ball at close range would be more like a .22 magnum and that may require a head shot.

[Chev. William]

Glad you pointed that out. It's alway best to check your state's hunting manual. TN has some very crazy gun regulations. Like in handguns. The law use to be 38 spcl and up for deer, which I feel 38 is even too light. Now they went and changed it to 25 cal and up with 4 inch barrel or longer. Jesus!, if you can find a 25 or 32 auto matic with that length barrel it's legal here!!!! We all know that's nuts. With rifle they have it 24 caliber and up. Now that I agree with, although there are no restrictions on the rifles. Example: you can you an M1 Carbine here. Again, we know this isn't a choice deer caliber.

Joe

A Custom Ruger .25ACP Standard Auto MKII Pistol fitted with a 8" Barrel sound like it would be Legal in TN to hunt with! Very Interesting!
My Pistol has more Possibilities than I originally thought.

Chev. William

[725]

If, at first blush, it sounds questionable, it's probably questionable. Since we are all most probably in sport mode and not survival mode, I'd have to say figure out what is ethical for the game. Bella Twin killed her world record brown with a .22 Long (not even a long rifle) and her beat up Cooey rifle, but I doubt she opted for that when she started out that day.

[Chev. William]

Now, as to Ethics, and Stalking, that is a completely different subject.

If I am At home, and a group of Thugs Invade my Home, I would use whatever I could to cause them to cease their Illegal Actions, either permanently or at least to abandon their attempt on me.
The typical American Human adult is about 160lbs. according to the FAA when I was Studying for my Pilot's license decades ago.

A .25ACP out of an 8 inch barrel is going about 900fps to 1000fps which would, i believe, Kill an Invading Miscreant just as well as a .22WMR fired from a 6 inch Revolver.

If the shooter's Stalking Skills are up to a similar shot distance against a similar weight Game Animal, I believe that would be an Ethical Game Kill.

Now, if you Are talking about very Poor Stalking Skills, such as 450 yard shots across a canyon or Ravine to "bag" a trophy game animal, that is More Unethical in my opinion.

Also the OP did NOT mention if he were Talking of a Muzzle loader or a Breech loader.

Chev. William

[rodwha]

Does this not depend on the .32? There are those who use cast bullets through less than a .30-30. If the bullet has a lot of mass and a wide meplat, and pushed by plenty of powder. I’d still prefer much more, but something even along the lines of the .32-40 are much more than what I’d imaging discussed here. Not sure if the few more common .32’s are capable of handling those kinds of powder charges and heavy conicals/bullets.

Ive felt a .36 with a nice conical might do nicely for our small Hill Country deer.

[Hi-Speed]

I wouldn’t use anything less than 45 cal using conical, or 50 cal using patch/ball.

[charlie b]

13 years later hahaha

Dam I didn't look. I hate it when old threads come back.

[Texas by God]

I think it would work as well as a 22 long rifle. Probably better!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

[pietro]

.

DANG ! This is the most active zombie post I've seen in years ! .

.

[rodwha]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/.32-40_Ballard

Should work fairly well, and did seem to back then. As I said I’d prefer a bit more, but that’s not to say this wasn’t effective and not just barely so.

[Good Cheer]

There was a fellow posting from Texas about ten years or so ago that hunted with a .32 just doing close head shots.
He was always catching a lot of flack from those of lesser skills and greater ethics.

[rodwha]

I wouldn’t use anything less than 45 cal using conical, or 50 cal using patch/ball.

A .45 cal was nearly unheard of along the eastern board. A .40 cal was rather large and yet all sorts of game were taken with the lowly ball as conicals weren’t a thing back then with the flintlocks. Of course the ranges there tend to be rather short where 50 yds is pretty far. The calibers didn’t tend to get bigger until they moved westward.

[indian joe]

Now, as to Ethics, and Stalking, that is a completely different subject.

If I am At home, and a group of Thugs Invade my Home, I would use whatever I could to cause them to cease their Illegal Actions, either permanently or at least to abandon their attempt on me.
The typical American Human adult is about 160lbs. according ot the FAA when I was Studying for my Pilot's license decades ago.

A .25ACP out of an 8 inch barrel is going about 900fps to 1000fps which would, i believe, Kill an Invading Miscreant just as well as a .22WMR fired from a 6 inch Revolver.

If the shooter's Stalking Skills are up to a similar shot distance against a similar weight Game Animal, I believe that would be an Ethical Game Kill.

Now, if you Are talking about very Poor Stalking Skills, such as 450 yard shots across a canyon or Ravine to "bag" a trophy game animal, that is More Unethical in my opinion.

Also the OP did NOT mention if he were Talking of a Muzzle loader or a Breech loader.

Chev. William

On about his third or fourth post he talked about a 70 grain charge of FF sending a PRB at 2200fps - said he would never load the little gun that hard - but its a fair assumption that he was talking about a 32 cal MLoader at the start .

[obssd1958]

Newtire, you've done it again!!!!

[charlie b]

Folks, the last time the OP posted was in 2009.

[fixit]

Perhaps, but this is an interesting post line. With that, I will voice my thoughts from the 70s. When Thompson center introduced its Seneca rifle in 36 caliber, they posted their ballistics with 36 caliber Maxi ball, and I always thought those ballistics would have made it an adequate deer rifle, if state laws would have allowed.

[Beeks]

Holy Thread Resurrection!

[Hi-Speed]

I fell for it...1st place for oldest thread resurrection in history! But it was fun

[obssd1958]

Nothing to "fall for" - it's still a great discussion topic, as proved by the continuing conversation.
One of the nice things about CastBoolits, is that sometimes the conversation takes an interesting turn, just like sitting around a table in a coffee shop!