.32-40

[richhodg66]

Can cases be made from .30-30 simply by running into a full length sizer or is there more to it than that?

[Frank46]

While i do not have a 32-40 from what I have read is that you can definitely do this. I've made 30-30 from some old 375 win cases I had and it did work. On the assra.com forum it was discussed using starline 38-55 brass to make 32-40 cases as well. Don't remember which case length of 38-55 case they used. Frank

[richhodg66]

OK, thanks. Got good dies and a lot of .30-30 brass, I'll go give it a try tomorrow.

[No_1]

It will work but comes out a tiny bit short. Use a good lube and take your time.

[Reverend Al]

Yes, as mentioned above you can use .30-30 brass, but they will come up a bit short on the finished length. If you are just shooting casual target loads with the original iron sights the accuracy will be more than adequate for "rough" work. Just seat the bullets out to regular .32-40 length in the short cases. If you really want to make some full length cases then try to find someone that bought a Kal Max case stretching jig from Rick in Winnipeg (like I did) and maybe they would be willing to stretch some regular .30-30 cases out to the nominal .38-55 / .32-40 length so that you could make full length reformed cases. (I'd offer to do it for you, but I'm up in Canada and so I can't ship brass across the border to you thanks to your current government regulations regarding reloading components.)

http://kal.castpics.net/CaseStretcher.html

[richhodg66]

Thanks for the information. My new Lyman manual says they used new Starline .38-55 brass, but .30-30 brass is cheap and common. Gonna look around my stash and see if I can find a small lot of some not so common head stamp (not sure what I have) to make a few out of. I'm only looking for light target loads. I have a mold for it, got it to use in my .32 Winchester Special and it works well. I think it's a 165 grain, plain based and flat nosed, oughta do the trick with some Unique or similar.

[725]

+ 1 for what No. 1 said. Easy as pie.

[lotech]

Several years ago, I used re-formed .30-30 brass for all my load development work because .32-40 brass was unavailable. Accuracy was great. When I finally did get the real thing, there was no change in accuracy (nor should there have been).

I had heard that Winchester made .32-40 and other low-demand brass on an irregular basis. In the situation cited, .32-40 was unavailable for about two-three years.

[salpal48]

The trick with 32/40 Is to Remove the shoulder Of 30/30 as best You can. I expand neck to 32 ws, Then expand to 33 winchester. . This will reduce the shoulder a lot. Then carefully run in 32/40 FL die with out Plug. . Thats it

[richhodg66]

Looks like Midway has new Winchester brass available. I think I'm gonna try the .30-30 brass anyway, I don't need very many.

[rr2241tx]

Midway has it cataloged but unavailable. It has been years since the last run. Starline has the 2.125 38-55 cases ready to ship. Those are excellent brass. Anneal, run through your full length sizing die, re-anneal and you're off to the races.

[SniderBoomer]

I found using 38-55 Starline brass a very easy and clean process.

Makes just terrific brass for the 32-40.

[richhodg66]

Well, went out to the barn and found what I thought was a small lot of .30-30 brass, worked great and I now have 27 rounds of .32-40 brass. Only problem was when I brought them in and looked closer, I just used some of my much more limited supply of .32 Winchester Special. Oh well, .32 Winchester Special brass isn't that hard to come by and I have enough to last a while at the rate I've been shooting it lately, I even had a paper tag in the plastic bag it was in, just didn't look close enough.

Now I need to look around and see if I have some suitable bullets cast up.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

It is a very easy job to reform .30-30 brass in the FL size die, but it will be close to a tenth of an inch short. With high pressure and a cast or lightly jacketed bullet it is just possible that the bullet might swell and be squeezed down, with harmful effects on pressure and accuracy. This isn't likely in most use people make of the .32-40 but I suppose that in a strong single-shot action it might be heavily loaded. For the use the OP suggests, it should be fine.

Any question of such problems should be eliminated by the use of the longer 38-55 brass, but it is a bigger forming job. I think it could still be done with the loading dies alone. I believe I would do it in at least two stages, with a neck anneal in between, and might use the seater die for the first step.

[richhodg66]

These look good. I didn't anneal, sized them first in a .30-30 full length die, then in the .32-40 sizer without the deprimer sten in it, then finally with the stem in it which removed the slight hint of shoulder I could still see. I used mink oil for lube and it seemed to work fine. There was a good bit of effort involved, but it's an RCBS Rockchucker bolted down to a strong bench, so no problems there.

They may every one split on first firings, I don't know. I need to cast some more of these bullets and I plan on making them pretty soft and shooting with with 8-9 grains of Unique or thereabouts. Rifle is a rolling block that has been relined at some point, should be a good combination to play with.

[DonMountain]

I bought one of those Winchester Model 94 John Wayne commemeratives in 32-40 that sat in the display case of my local WalMart store for years back around 1985, and it has been stored in the back of my gun safe all these years since ammo was never available. I did buy one box of 20 rounds with it, and never fired them either. So, with at least a few folks on here experienced in forming and loading boolets for this caliber, I thought maybe you-all could offer me some help or recommendations for boolet molds, case forming ideas and cases to convert, and loads that may work in this rifle.

[richhodg66]

I have a few molds I got for my .32 Winchester Special, and the one I plan to try first is the Ideal 321232, which is a plain based bullet designed for the .32-40 (it works well as a target bullet in the .32 Special as well, functions fine through a lever gun). For a hunting bullet, I used the NOE 325-180 FP which is a gas check design and worked real well on the one deer I shot with it. I had some of those cast up, but I kind of want to try the bullet designed for it.

You might want to keep that unfired Winchester unfired. I have a couple of commemorative '94s, fortunately, both had been fired and didn't have boxes when I got them. Still haven't gotten around to really shooting them yet.

[Le Loup Solitaire]

That unfired commemorative 32-40 ammo is worth a lot more than you might think. You can ask around in the collector circles to verify that. Over ten years ago I was given several unopened boxes of it in a trade and when I went to sell it I was offered and took quite a bit of cash on the barrel head for it. If I had hung on to this day I would have gotten more. LLS

[GOPHER SLAYER]

I use 32SPL brass for my two 32-40 rifles. Just run it thru the 32-40 sizer. It never splits a case since they shoot the same diameter bullets. I just read on another post that Winchester will no longer make brass for the 32-40 as well as many other vintage cases. Another post said that Winchester will no longer sell brass at all.

[rpludwig]

Rich...there's a post I started in the lever section of the forum regarding the 32-40 from 30-30 brass...I have found 30-30 brass very easy to form in a standard 32-40 die using imperial sizing wax, 2 or 3 trips into the die eze does it. The very slight shoulder remaining goes away on first firing.

The issue I had was crimping since the brass comes up short of the crimp shoulder in the seating die. Found a 30-30 seating die puts a nice roll crimp on the reformed brass.....32 spec die would also provide the crimp.

I'm sold on using 30-30's as cheap and plentiful. I load a 32 spec boolit, 170g fngc over 21g IMR 4895, maintains proper OAL and yields dime size grps or better @ 50yds out of an old 1894 mfgd in 1902, with a skinner tang sight.

Good luck with yours, great old, fun caliber IMO...

[Team Termath]

In 1981 Winchester produced its Model 94 John Wayne Commemorative Rifle chambered in the venerable albeit obsolete .32-40 WCF. ( That is a .32” diameter bullet propelled by 40 grains of black powder in a Winchester Center Fire cartridge. ) Well, John Wayne is Cyndi's favorite hero only second to her dad. It indeed was a no-brainer for me to decide to buy one of these rifles for her, thus maintaining my third place ranking on her heroes list. I remember that it was a rainy day and Joseph, then only seven or eight years old, was on spring break. We went to my favorite gun store, a little shop in Lawndale own by Dan Reeves the renown shotgunner and gunsmith. We drove my little '64 Austin-Healey Sprite convertible, of course the top was down, why else would one have a convertible? I did have the tonneau cover snapped on and Joe was tucked under, snug and dry. I told Dan of my intentions and asked, “Cash or gold?” Dan said, “I got cash. Let's do gold.” We looked up that day's spot price and settled on the amount in bullion coin. “We'll be right back!” Joe and I were off to make a withdrawal from my stash. I've forgotten the exact amount but it seems like it was about three coins, one-ounce, a half-ounce and a tenth-ounce Krugerrand. I handed them to Joe and said, “Here you carry 'em.” His eyes got real big and he exclaimed, “But dad, what if we get robbed!?” I assured him that wouldn't happen. Never the less, after sticking them deep into his pocket his hand never stopped clinching those coins until we were back in the store and paying for Cyndi's new present. That rifle's been in storage ever since. It's gone up in collector value, as can be imaged, but the fun factor has been grossly ignored for the past thirty-four years. I've been ruminating on this and it just doesn't seem right.
Now, from time to time Cyndi and I enjoy visiting places like Old Tuscon, Mammoth Hot Springs, Melody Ranch and the Alabama Hills near Lone Pine just to name a few. What these places all have in common is that these are where some of our favorite John Wayne western movies have been filmed. When we're watching these old flicks and recognize the backdrops it adds another level to our entertainment experience. So, I'm thinkin', “It's time to dust of that ol' J.W. large lever loop '94, shoot off some rounds through it and further enhance our enjoyment. When watching The Duke shoulder his Winchester and dispatch the bad guys as fast as any modern AR totin' warrior, we can say, “Yeah, been there, done that.” Let's do this!
Whoa, pull back the reins on the big roan of yours. Where we gonna get some .32-40 ammo? Looking online I couldn't find hide nor hair of that antique ammo. But wait! One time when Cyndi and I were traipsing 'cross country we came across nine boxes of John Wayne Commemorative ammo on clearance sale at some drug store in some podunk hamlet in Arizona, of all places and we snagged 'em. Well, there ya go. I don't think so Bucky! Those boxes of twenty rounds each are now selling for eighty-five smackers a piece. We can't shoot those, that's too rich for our plinkin' blood. I guess I'll just have to build some. Hee, hee, hee the fun begins. First, nobody but nobody has .32-40 brass cases available. Fine, but the competitive Schutzen rifle guys are converting .30-30 cases and using 8mm 170 grain cast bullets. If they can do it, I can do it too! I ordered a set of Lee Precision .32-40 dies and 8mm bullet mold and fifty Hornady .30-30 brass cases.
Now let's put all this together...



Here are the original J.W. Commemorative .32-40 WCF cartridges.
http://i552.photobucket.com/albums/jj358/Team_Termath/Snapshots/Boolits/JW01.jpg


Notice the “DUKE .32-40” special edition head stamp. That's what kicks up their value so much.
http://i552.photobucket.com/albums/jj358/Team_Termath/Snapshots/Boolits/JW02.jpg


On the left are the .30-30 bottle neck cases. On the right are the sized .32-40's.
http://i552.photobucket.com/albums/jj358/Team_Termath/Snapshots/Boolits/JW03.jpg


The .32-40 uses a full tapered case so we have to remove the shoulder. Then we re-size the mouth to beyond where the shoulder was from .30” to .32”.
http://i552.photobucket.com/albums/jj358/Team_Termath/Snapshots/Boolits/JW04.jpg



Our shinny new 170 grain 8mm bullet mold. We cast a batch of lead peanuts.
http://i552.photobucket.com/albums/jj358/Team_Termath/Snapshots/Boolits/JW05a.jpg



Perfect! But we can't use 'em 'til they're wearin' their little coats.
http://i552.photobucket.com/albums/jj358/Team_Termath/Snapshots/Boolits/JW07.jpg


We've coated some with liquid Alox lube. When it dries it's kinda like a waxy varnish.
http://i552.photobucket.com/albums/jj358/Team_Termath/Snapshots/Boolits/JW08.jpg


And then we poly coated some. It's not very traditional but they're pretty and Cyndi's favorite color is... Dodger Blue!
http://i552.photobucket.com/albums/jj358/Team_Termath/Snapshots/Boolits/JW09.jpg


Putting it all together with 6 grains of Trail Boss smokeless powder. This will replicate the original black powder ballistics. Oh, what fun!
http://i552.photobucket.com/albums/jj358/Team_Termath/Snapshots/Boolits/JW10.jpg


Voila! The original and our finished .32-40's. Oh, Cyndi's gonna love finding these little beauties in her Easter Basket. See... Duke is the Easter Bunny after all.
http://i552.photobucket.com/albums/jj358/Team_Termath/Snapshots/Boolits/JW11.jpg

[No_1]

Welcome aboard Team Termath. Where did you get your mould?

R.

[Team Termath]

We purchased the MOLD DC C324-175-1R directly from Lee Precision. Here's the link...
http://leeprecision.com/mold-dc-c324-175-1r.html

[DonMountain]

I had never thought about shooting 8mm boolets out of my John Wayne Commemerative. I have one of the heavier Lee boolet molds with a generous flat nose that just might work in the shorter 30-30 converted brass. What boolet sizing die diameter does the 32-40 take since none of my reloading manuals have listings for the 32-40 WCF?

[Team Termath]

32-40 WCF bullet diameter SAAMI specs: .3210"-.0030"
Molded from recovered range lead using the Lee 8mm mold and once completely cooled, these measured .3210" which fortunately, didn't require sizing. Looking closely at the loaded cartridge we can detect the bullet seating depth by the slight case expansion.

[turtlezx]

i use the same 8mm mold shoot as cast at .325 dia
A 321 bullet would tumble in my 1893 marlin.
So the oversize boolit was just what the gun needed to shoot straight

[hockeynick39]

Gives me one heck of an idea! Just going to need the dies and that's it. I already have a Winchester 32 W.S. mold that I use for my .32 Win SPL and have a bunch of "extra" brass for that and my .30-30 Win. Won't be able to get it going for a wee bit due to a move coming shortly.

[lotech]

May be worth it to try .323" cast bullets as well as the .321"s.

[CWME]

I run the Lee 175 gr round nose in my Marlin 1893 32-40. I use a .325 sizer to get the lube on. I also use formed 30-30 cases for the old girl. A little 2400 gets them down range with enough power to put a hole in the paper or skeet. Barrel is soft and the two generations that shot it before me were not very kind to it. A .321 bullet wont group inside 12" at 25 yards.

[marlinman93]

When I purchased my first .32-40 back in the 70's I began reloading for it using .32 Win. Spl. brass. Back then I could find lots of it at the range, so I grabbed it for my Marlin 36 in .32 WS. Later got some correct head stamped brass, but still have numerous cases I reformed 40 years ago, and still in good shape.