32-40 Win Load Data

[High Country]

Do any of you reloaders have any data on this cartridge.Ive been shooting Laser Cast 170gr round nose but want to switch to 170gr Hornady jacketed round nose.The rifle is a 1894 winchester and the bore is not in the greatest shape the cast bullets do not shoot well at all, most of them key hole at 50yds.I was thinking of using Hornady's 8mm 170gr, which are .323 in diameter. The cast bullets are .322. Do any of you have any experince with these old lever guns.

[billc_sbio]

Go over to sassnet.com and ask this question on their "Wire" forum...

There are plenty of Cowboy Action Shooters that shoot this round in Long Range Side matches.

BTW, (out of a good barrel) the .32-40 is an incredibly accurate round, even (especially?!!) shooting Lead bullets.

In fact if was one of Harry Pope's favorite accuracy cartridges (I believe some of Pope's shooting records, using Blackpowder, remain unbeaten ).

[pnwcoast]

Hello High Country!
Don't want to hijack your thread but here goes anyway!

"Sure good to see you here on ifish."

Lots of folks may learn from you and who knows... maybe you can learn something about this ol' 32-40 yer mentioning.
Welcome to ifish, pnwcoast (Mike)

[baltz526]

i have some old manuals, i'll look up your 32-40.

[baltz526]

in the hodgdon #25 all i find is 32/40 170gr bullet 25gr pyrdex ctg = 1193fps 30gr pyrodex ctg = 1350fps.in the black powder section 32/40 165gr lead bullet fffg 40gr = 1450fps. if you need a lot of information i would go to the cowboy action people.

[billc_sbio]

About accuracy and bullet choice...

I don't know IF you'd want to spend the $$$, but you could get your original barrel relined!

There are some smiths that do some really GOOD work on making old barrels shoot like new!

The work is so good you have to look REAL close(ly) to even see that it's been done.