Thoughts and Photos of the 32 W.C.F. (32-20)

[gamekeeper]

thanks Kirk

I just drooooooolllllled allllllll over my keeeeeeeeeeyboooooard....

I have the same problem....

[w30wcf]

Kurt,
Great looking rifle!
Here's a bit of .32 W.C.F. & .32-20 cartridge history.
1882
Historically speaking, the .32 W.C.F., forerunner of the .32-20, was introduced in 1882 in Winchester's model of 1873 rifle. It was loaded with 115 gr. lead bullets over 20 grs of b.p. at a cataloged 1,177 f.p.s.

1888
Several years later, U.M.C. / Marlin introduced their .32-20 cartridge beginning with the Marlin 1888 rifle although the rifle was marked 32W to honor Winchester. The actual 32-20 marking began with the 1894 Marlin. The .32-20 used the same case as the .32 W.C.F. but used a lighter 100 gr. bullet. Early on it was called the .32-20-100 Marlin Safety. Cataloged velocity was 1,234 f.p.s.



1895
Smokeless cartridges were introduced in 1895 along with "metal patched" (jacketed) bullets. By 1910, velocities had increased to 1,222 f.p.s. & 1,280 f.p.s. respectively in smokeless loadings.


1903
Higher performance .32 W.C.F. W.H.V. (Winchester), .32-20 H.V. (U.M.C. & Rem-Umc), .32-20 H.P. (Peters) cartridges were introduced in the early 1900's. Velocities were 1,610 f.p.s. and 1,640 f.p.s. repectively. Cartridges looked the same as the above (MP bullets) but the headstamp told the story with the W.H.V., H.V. or H.P. added to the headstamp. They were discontinued in the late 1930's.



1925
In 1925, the 80 gr. Superspeed cartridge was introduced by Winchester. It remained in production until 1969 after which is was obsoleted. Initial velocity was 2,050 f.p.s. and was later increased to 2,100 f.p.s.



1946
Up until, 1946, the standard loading for both cartridges remained at 115 gr. for the .32 W.C.F. and 100 gr. for the .32-20. After 1946, only the .32-20 remained with Winchester dropping the .32 W.C.F. moniker and changed to the .32-20 designation which they felt was more popular.

Jacketed bulleted ammunition was discontinued around 1990 leaving only the 100 gr. lead bulleted ammunition which, thankfully, is still available today.

Thankfully, handloaders can replicate the current and historic cartridge loadings of the years gone by.......

w30wcf

[w30wcf]

32-20 fun.....steel targets
"Wind" at the controls. Filmed by "Wet Dog".
120 gr cast bullet / 5.0 Unique

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCe0wiKBNEI

400 yard dinger and penetration testing in water jugs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfpAubkUrhA


w30wcf

[KirkD]

Excellent posts, w30wcf. Thank you for that great information and history. Much appreciated. This weekend I'm going to a gun show and hope to pick up an original BP 32 WCF cartridge for my collection.

[Sixgun]

Kirk,
Another nice one!

The famous cast bullet shooter, Frank Marshall (who Jack Kort turned me onto) said, "There's something to be said about the plain base cast bullet at 1400 fps."

That's what 5.5 gr. of Unique with the Lyman 3118 does and in 40 years of playing with the 32-20, I have never had a 32-20 rifle (1892 W or 89-94 M or 25R) that did not like this load.-------------------6

[ethang]

That is a nice looking rifle. When I was younger I remember reading an article by Skeeter about the 32/20 and his Colt Bisley. His writing about it made me want to purchase one. Your posting about this one makes me want one all over again.

[MacEntyre]

Wow! That's a well preserved shooter, KirkD... I'm ashamed to post pics of my 94 year old '92 in "32 WCF". It's been carried a lot!

[FatJackDurham]

Gorgeous wood. How does one keep wood that nice for 80 years?

[Ysabel Kid]

Sweet!

[piller]

Don't you fellers know that a 32 caliber is just too small to kill a deer, and only 1200 fps, that is so slow that it might not make it out the barrel before it falls to the earth from a lack of energy. Why, just read a current gun magazine, and you will see that it takes at least a 33 caliber and at least 3000 fps to kill anything larger than an anemic cottontail.

Seriously now, that is a nice looking rifle. PillHer has a .327 Magnum revolver and I wish someone would make a levergun in that caliber. It would just about perfectly duplicate the 32 W.C.F. and I can load the straight wall case without buckling any. I buckle about 1 out of every 300 of my .30-30 cases.

[M. M. Wright]

Love the pics of Miss May. I had to look to see what month it was. I still have a Colt SAA in 32-20 and an old Winchester 92 that had to be re-lined. It's a first year of production and had to be refinished. Still doesn't look very good but shoots great.
The 32-20 is the only caliber for which I have all the brass and bullets I will ever need. The kids can worry about where to get more when I'm gone. Well, I still have bullet molds so that's taken care of as long as they can find lead.

[QCI Winchesters]

One of my favourite calibres of all time, I had both a '73 and a '92. Still regret selling the '73. I have killed dozens of raccoons with my old '92, the 115gr. lead bullet stops even the biggest coons with a centre hit. The .32WCF is also one of the best rounds for use with black powder. I attribute the lack of fouling to the small quantity of powder being burned, but it still surprises me how clean the bore stays.