1921 32 Spl 94 SRC Range Report

[TXGunNut]

Today was one of those almost magic range days, almost everything worked and the weather was quite pleasant. My shooting buddy is recuperating quite nicely from a few recent surgeries and his company made things even better.
I bought (stole?) this old Winchester from the Gun Library several months ago and haven't had many opportunities to shoot it. It has a pretty tight throat so the RD boolits that my newer (1969) 94 like wouldn't work unless I jammed it into the rifling. I ordered a 322-170A from Accurate and it slightly engraves the nose of the boolit when chambering, good enough for me. After the last range trip I decided it needed a tang sight so it was wearing one today. First round impacted about 1/4" from the center of the target and the rest landed pretty close by. Barrel got a little warm and a couple went high but other than that this old rifle shoots as well as I do, probably better. 130936

[tdoyka]

good shootin!!! i wish i still had my 32 spl(win m94)

[TXGunNut]

Thanks. Pretty sure this one's not going anywhere but the other one may be trade bait someday.

[35 shooter]

Nice shootin rifle there. Wonder what the history on it is? Sure looks like it wants to go hunting!!:-)

[yooper]

That target coulda come from anything. Where's the pics of the gun? :kidding:
yooper

[TXGunNut]

That target coulda come from anything. Where's the pics of the gun? :kidding:
yooper

No recent pics, this is from an earlier trip. She's sporting a tang sight these days.
131093

[TXGunNut]

Nice shootin rifle there. Wonder what the history on it is? Sure looks like it wants to go hunting!!:-)

Wish I could say. I picked it up too cheap @ Cabelas awhile back as you may recall. It's been a safe queen and quite possibly a museum/display piece for awhile. I'm not a Cody member but my shooting buddy is, should have him do checks on my older Winchesters.

[Scharfschuetze]

Sweet lookin' 94 carbine. I sure like that rear ladder sight.

[yooper]

"Wish I could say. I picked it up too cheap @ Cabelas awhile back as you may recall."

When it comes to earlier guns, Cabelas usually doesn't have a clue. I picked up an early '94 carbine with two special order features, a 2/3 mag and a hard-rubber buttplate, for a song a number of years back. But for current guns they are usually through the roof for prices.
JMHO.
yooper

[TXGunNut]

Sweet lookin' 94 carbine. I sure like that rear ladder sight.


Thanks, what aggravates me is that I can almost use that sight to good effect. For some reason I can use that sight better than a std buckhorn but it's going into a carefully marked bag in my parts box as soon as I get a couple fancy sight blanks in from Brownells. Youth is indeed wasted on the young, I wasn't interested in good iron sights when I could see them. Sure glad I had a tang sight lying around, guess I should have ordered a spare. Never know when another old levergun's going to follow me home.

[TXGunNut]

"Wish I could say. I picked it up too cheap @ Cabelas awhile back as you may recall."

When it comes to earlier guns, Cabelas usually doesn't have a clue. I picked up an early '94 carbine with two special order features, a 2/3 mag and a hard-rubber buttplate, for a song a number of years back. But for current guns they are usually through the roof for prices.
JMHO.
yooper

Even the other clerks were shocked when I bought that old 94 for that, said it was way under the customary margin. I didn't really want the rifle and made a lowball offer. He either didn't hear me or ignored me and countered $50 under my offer.:shock: 4473 time!
I stole a 95% Savage a few weeks before that, mainly because they seem to know or care little about Savages. It was much less than the last several well-worn specimens.
If you'll bring in some trade bait and offer it to them you'll learn about their pricing structure but that's the only hint I'll give you on an open forum.

[RU shooter]

That carbine looks like the older twin except for buttplate to mine ladder sight and all my was made in 1928 sure has killed a lot of Pa deer over they years it first belonged to my dads uncle , sure is smoooooth when you work that action .

[TXGunNut]

There is indeed something about these old leverguns, RU shooter. This one is indeed smooth and there is almost no play in the action, I like working the lever and watching it load a round. Trigger is even better than most. Your family is smarter than the folks that let this one go, that's OK with me tho. ;-)

[Scharfschuetze]

Thanks, what aggravates me is that I can almost use that sight to good effect.

A shame the old eyes don't see like they used to. I use a Lyman aperture sight on all my lever action rifles, including my 32 Special. With a Merit variable iris disk, I'm still able to shoot the rifle as well as it will shoot. A blade front sight instead of the normal bead will also help get things lined up.

My Winchester in 32 Special.

[TXGunNut]

Nice rifle, Scharf! I had a chance at a 64 in 32 awhile back but it had too many issues, had to pass on it. It was still in the rack a week later, was tough to pass on it again but I did. I used a ladder sight on a buddy's vintage 1873 awhile back and it works almost as well for me as a full buckhorn in the right light. I like the variable iris sights but I'm well served by the apertures that come with the Lyman sights...for now.
I have receiver sights on a couple of Winchesters and they have served me well, come to think of it my 1969 vintage 32WS wears a Williams sight these days. My old 32 is tapped for a tang sight and I like the looks of a tang sight on the old girl.
Guess I need to take another picture of her.

[BrianL]

Scharf,
What year is your rifle, and what was the load? I just picked up a 1953 that looks just like it. I have a 1954 carbine that shoots well and I hope that the 64 does as well. The weather is making it hard, very hard

[Scharfschuetze]

BrianL,

The factory records are a bit vague on the actual year due to World War II's impact on manufacturing in the USA. The best the references give is either 1941 or 1946. That load is my plinker load for up to 200 yards and is a 170 grain plain base boolit over Unique powder for a little over 1,200 fps. This boolit, surprisingly, over 4759 will get up to 1,700 fps with only some minor lead wash and keeps its accuracy well.

I'm currently working up loads with an NOE 200 grain gas check design sized to .324 that is showing promise. So far I'm up to 1,600 fps with it and it really clangs the gongs at 200 yards and holds about 3 MOA at that range. I'm almost satisfied with it and since I'm in largely unknown territory with this weight boolit in the 32 Special, I'll probably stop with my next session as far as the charge goes. I was a bit surprised that the 1 in 16" twist rifling actually stabilizes this weight and length of boolit, but it seems to handle it well.

Hope your weather in the Northeast moderates somewhat. We've had a very mild winter here in the Northwest. So mild in fact that my duck season was a bust and I haven't even tried to go skiing as there just isn't any snow to speak of.

Good luck with that 1953 vintage Model 64. What a cool rifle, eh?

[salvadore]

Hi Tex, that's beaut of a shooter. I may have already mentioned this, but my late 40s '94 has the same throat problems. Had to lean on the lever to close the action with all the casts I tried including the RD. The Accurate mold 32-160g allows me to close the action with a one gazillionth of an inch off the rifling and pretty accurate for a blind guy

[TXGunNut]

Thanks, Sal. My shooting buddy has a couple of older .32's, pretty sure one was about the same vintage as yours. I sent ten rounds home with him to see it they fit his rifles. The 170A has generous lube grooves so he can shoot BP in them if he wants. 160G? Will have to look at that one.

[Scharfschuetze]

Thought that I'd take my Model 64 32 Special out today as it was fairly warm and only a light wind. Shot at 50 yards and of course the obligatory 12" gong at 200 yards.

Here's the 50 yard results that I fired to confirm the base zero before moving on to clang the gong.

The Lyman sight makes it a snap to change zeros for different ranges although I still think that ladder sight on the OP's is the cat's meow.

[BrianL]

Thought that I'd take my Model 64 32 Special out today as it was fairly warm and only a light wind. Shot at 50 yards and of course the obligatory 12" gong at 200 yards.

Here's the 50 yard results that I fired to confirm the base zero before moving on to clang the gong.

The Lyman sight makes it a snap to change zeros for different ranges although I still think that ladder sight on the OP's is the cat's meow.

What was the bullet/load used? I have only the RCBS mold but am looking at the NOE 130 for plinking. I was thinking about using a folding sight for the lighter bullet

[Scharfschuetze]

BrianL,

It's the NOE 32-200 boolit designed for the 32 Special. It's a "l o o n g" boolit and I had doubts about it stabilizing in the 1 in 16 twist of the 32 Special, but it seems to do fine and carries a lot of foot pounds with it at the longer ranges.

I'm using a European pull down powder from FN 30/06 military ammo, so I hesitate to give the charge, but the powder acts like it's in between 4895 and 4064 in burning rate.

I have the the RCBS 32-170FN mould which will probably be my default boolit for the calibre.

Here's the current boolit at 197 grains with lube and gas check.

[TXGunNut]

The Lyman sight makes it a snap to change zeros for different ranges although I still think that ladder sight on the OP's is the cat's meow. -Scharf

Good shooting, hope to sneak a little in this weekend. I like that ladder sight myself but it's coming off soon, it slightly interferes with my sight picture when I use the tang sight. I'll mark the bag carefully so my heirs can match it up with the correct rifle someday. ;-) I got some of the "fancy" sight blanks from Brownells in the mail today for this rifle and the 1901 vintage 94 in 38-55.

[Char-Gar]

By reading your target, that appears to be 16/2400. I would expect the groups to shink considerably if the velocity was bumped up another 300 to 500 fps. The 32 Special loves to run full bore with cast bullets.

Mine is a 1959 carbine.

[Scharfschuetze]

I'll mark the bag carefully so my heirs can match it up with the correct rifle someday.

Good plan Tex. I've done the same as most my rifles wear aperture sights, but came with barrel mounted sights. I have a 50 cal can dedicated to iron sights as a result.

:) Of course I guess this means you aren't going to send me that ladder? :)

[BrianL]

Nice looking Boolit. I only have the one mold so far. Has anyone tried the 32/8mm NOE 130 in either PB or GC?

[TXGunNut]

By reading your target, that appears to be 16/2400. I would expect the groups to shink considerably if the velocity was bumped up another 300 to 500 fps. The 32 Special loves to run full bore with cast bullets.

Mine is a 1959 carbine.

16/2400 is my 30-30 plinker load, figured it would be a good place to start. Suspect it's around 1800fps but neglected to chronograph it. I've considered a faster load, that's why I opted for a GC design. I've read it likes to go fast with the right boolit. I don't know whether to kick it up to 18grs 2400 or maybe move on to 3031 or LVR or Rx7. Just haven't given it a lot of thought, any suggestions? I didn't buy this rifle as a hunting rifle but suspect it will go at least once so I might as well come up with a hunting load for it.

Nice carbine, BTW. Looks like a nice oil finish on a handsome Walnut stock.

[TXGunNut]

:smile: Of course I guess this means you aren't going to send me that ladder? :smile: -Sharf


Terribly sorry, sir. No need to PM me your mailing addy; this little trinket is staying close by. ;-) I can almost use this sight under perfect conditions so I'm hopeful I can find a use for it someday. Quite honestly it was one of the selling points of this rifle and why I like rifles and carbines of this era.

[richhodg66]

I have a late '40s vintage Marlin in .32 Special that's slowly coming along. I didn't have many mold options and the first one didn't work out. I later got a plain based mold of an old design for the .32-40. It shoots well at plinking velocities, but it's plain based. I now have a NOE 325-180, which I think is a Ranchdog copy so I'm betting it's good. I have cast some and even have loaded ammo, but haven't had a decent day to go to the range with it yet to see how they shoot.

Some DPO, besides cutting the stock off, which I replaced, drilled and tapped that nice waffle top, but since it had already been done and I hade a good vintage 4x Weaver with a post reticle, I scoped mine. I'm thinking it'll get shot from a bench just enough to develop a deer load and zero it and then it'll be offhand only.

[TXGunNut]

I have the Lee version of the RD 323-170 (180), looks like a good hunting boolit. If you think my Accurate boolit will work PM me an addy and I'll send you a handful. I think you're on the right track with that NOE mould if it's a version of the RD boolit.

[41special]

Here's my 94 carbine in 32 special. Hopefully get a cast bullet load worked out by summer time, like to get some low impact (ears, shoulder) plinking time in.



http://castboolits.gunloads.com/asset.php?fid=114044&uid=38824&d=1421704652

[TXGunNut]

Couldn't get the link to open. :-(

[TXGunNut]

Got the rear sight removed, sight blank installed. So much for "no fitting required". A bit of peening and the notch holds the blank nicely. Same with an older (1901) 38-55. I hate moving metal on a museum piece but they're shooters to me.