1894 Win 32 Special

[geobru]

I recently picked up a 1907 era 1894 Winchester rifle in 32 Spl at the local candy store. It was a consignment gun that had been in the rack for a couple of months, during which time I looked it over pretty closely. Generally the gun was an honest gun, but the mag tube was dented, the front sight was a newer Marbles, the lever safety didn't function, and the trigger was REALLY heavy. All of which reduced the value of the gun in my eyes to be a lot less than what they were asking. The gun did have a lot of character and was definitely NOT a safe queen!

One day I dropped by and saw that it was gone and asked the proprietor if he got his price on that rifle. He said he had it sold but they couldn't load ammo through the loading gate into the magazine. He lost the sale and pulled it off the rack. He brought it out so I could take a look at it. I diagnosed the problem as either the lifter or the lifter spring. I made a tentative offer that was more in line with what I thought it was worth, considering there were parts and repairs that would need to be done before this old girl would be up and running. He said he would talk to the gun's owner, but it was over a month before I got a call from him that the owner was interested in my offer.

By then, I had had plenty of time to think about my offer and the difference in the cost of parts from the worst to the best case scenario. I asked the shop keeper to get permission from the owner to allow me to come into the shop and tear the gun down to see what was actually wrong. (I would NEVER give a stranger that permission!!! EVER!!) All I can say is that the shop keeper must have given the gun owner a pretty good recommendation of me, because he agreed!

I figured that if the carrier spring wasn't broken, that the contact point on the carrier was probably worn keeping the spring from pushing the carrier down to the correct position. I went in a couple days later but had decided that if I could get the rifle for my price out the door that it was worth the risk without taking the gun apart. The short version is that it went home with me.

I completely tore the gun down and cleaned it from stem to stern. I don't think the internal workings had ever been cleaned judging from the crud on the inside and the pristine condition of the screws. After cleaning, the lever safety worked as designed, and a few turns of the spring adjustment screw solved the heavy trigger. A new old stock carrier and a replacement magazine tube finished off the parts needed. It was finally time to shoot this old girl!!

Long story short: she shot ~8" high with no elevator in the rear sight. It needed a taller front sight. I wanted to get a vintage sight for this rifle, but was unsure of the height it would need. I could've done the calculations, but I wanted to salve my insecurity over trusting calculations, so I concocted a strategy that enabled me to settle the sight height question by shooting the rifle with different sight heights.

I cut a business card into strips and folded each strip in half. I then trimmed each strip so that the height from the bottom of the sight to the top of the paper was close to the height of a replacement sight. The paper was held in place with a bobby pin. The result of that shooting session was that I needed a sight that was 0.5" high.

37W front sight and sight height extensions.JPG

After buying a vintage sight, I mounted it on the gun and shot it about 10 times at 70 yards. I had tapped the sight over to set the windage, and had a group at the 6:00 position that was about 1.25". When I tried to adjust the elevator to raise the POI, I noticed that the blade had fallen out of the sight....
In spite of this setback I was encouraged by the size of the group. It appeared that this gun was going to be a good shooter!

1894 32 SPL - Target - Flat top and Vintage sight RESIZED 092316.jpg

Since I was planning on taking this gun hunting, I wanted a sight that wouldn't fall apart in the woods somewhere! So, I bought a new Marbles front sight, removed the flat top rear sight, and added a vintage Marbles tang sight. Those tang sights get the most out of these old Winchesters, especially when the shooter is handicapped with old eyes!

Receiver Rt - Marbles W2 Tang Sight Resized.jpg

This is the final target I shot at 65 yards before calling it good enough. I tapped the front sight over a bit after the first two shots. The last 3 shots are 0.8". All of these targets were shot out the side window of my rig with my left hand on the side mirror and my right elbow on the steering wheel. Not as good as a lead sled, but pretty solid!

I did take her hunting, but couldn't find a horn. I'll post some pics of that trip later.

1894 32 SPL - Target - Marbles tang RESIZED110716.jpg

[walks with gun]

Congrats on your find,I too have a 07 94 in .32spl. I inherited it from my grandfather years ago and have taken several deer with it. Somewhere along the line before gramps bought it, someone has shortened the octagon barrel down to 20" and shortened the magazine tube to three quarters length. And changed the sights. I could care less if it's all original, it was gramps and now it's mine. That's collector value enough. OH, happy Thanksgiving to you and your's.

[Sixgun]

Hey Bro....good move....ya got that baby up and running. That's a great idea on the front sight thingy...with the paper gadget.....I never thought of something so simple but after years of playing with this stuff I just keep 40-60 sights laying around and can usually tell by eye what I need.


There's not many of those old Winchesters that are full of crud anymore. That means you got yourself an original gun that was used for hunting before a member of the "collector world" grabbed it up, cleaned it, molested it, refinished the stock, whatever and then made a profit. These type of guns go from guy to guy to guy to guy and each one makes his changes. I know these things....used to be a part of it myself before I wised up.

Your gun will love cast....better than a 30-30......not always but usually.......slower twist......run em 14-1600......even up to 18........I just prefer that magical velocity of 14-16

You want to shoot all day for cheap???? 30-30 cases.....18 grains of 5744......some type of a gas checked cast bullet.......maybe 12 cents a round if you cast them yourself.

Good going bro and don't forget......good guns are better than money in the bank.------6

[Pete44ru]

.

I luv it, when a plan comes together.

FWIW, when I mount a tang sight on a rifle, I always switch out the rear barrel iron/open sight for a folding rear sight, so the rifle is set up the rifle for dual zeroes: the barrel sights for short-distance snap shots (say, 50yds), and the tanger for longer-range deliberate shots (say, 150yds).

I've found that, when hunting with the barrel sight, there's usually ample time after game is spotted to lower the rear bbl sight & raise the tang sight for the shot.


.

[geobru]

Congrats on your find,I too have a 07 94 in .32spl. I inherited it from my grandfather years ago and have taken several deer with it. Somewhere along the line before gramps bought it, someone has shortened the octagon barrel down to 20" and shortened the magazine tube to three quarters length. And changed the sights. I could care less if it's all original, it was gramps and now it's mine. That's collector value enough. OH, happy Thanksgiving to you and your's.

My brother has my Dad's 1894 30-30. It has the 26" barrel, but someone cut the magazine back to 3/4 length. That gun hopefully will always be in the family. It is a tack driver and accounted for some very nice mule deer and one of the biggest elk that I have ever seen. I am watching my grandsons to see which ones will have that sense of attachment that comes with guns that are passed down through the generations.

[Rusty]

Sounds like ya done good bro.

And thanks Sixgun for the information on the cast bullets. As I was reading the reports I was thinking in the back of my mind that I remembered reading that the .32 was generally a better cast bullet shooter than the .30-30.

[geobru]

Your gun will love cast....better than a 30-30......not always but usually.......slower twist......run em 14-1600......even up to 18........I just prefer that magical velocity of 14-16

You want to shoot all day for cheap???? 30-30 cases.....18 grains of 5744......some type of a gas checked cast bullet.......maybe 12 cents a round if you cast them yourself.

Good going bro and don't forget......good guns are better than money in the bank.------6

I bought a bullet mould for my 64 32 SPL that will work just fine on this one too! Once I am through the jacketed bullets I intend to use cast only in my 32s.
Both of my 32 SPLs are really accurate. More so than the 94 30-30 carbine. That could be the result of the difference in the design of the rifles?

Good idea on using the 30-30 brass and the 5744. Just would have to keep 30-30 brass that is resized to 32 SPL separate from the brass for the 30-30.

[OldWin]

Nice one! I have a 1907 mfd 94SRC in 32W.S. also. It has a tang sight and a Marbles flip down on the barrel. Bought it 20yrs ago from a 90 year old guy for 300 bucks.
He hunted with it all his life. His wife used a Savage model H in .303. Should a bought that too.

Averaged across a bunch of rifles in each chambering, I've usually had a little better luck accuracy wise with the 32 over the 30-30's.

[OldWin]

Double, sorry

[cshold]

Mar. 30, 2007

"30-30 vs. 32 Winchester Special?
The .32 Special..... an oldie but a goodie. I am partial to the .30-30 myself and because of its faster twist, it has the ability to shoot heavier bullets accurately (up to 220 grs.) for superior down range performance.

Historically speaking, the .32 Special was first introduced in the January, 1902 Winchester catalog.

"The .32 Winchester Special Cartridge, which we have just perfected, is offered to meet the demand of many sportsmen, for a smokeless powder cartridge of larger caliber than the .30 Winchester (.30-30) and not yet so powerful as the .30 U.S. Army (.30-40), which could be reloaded with black powder and give satisfactory results. The .32 Winchester Special Cartridge meets all of these requirements. Loaded with Smokeless powder and a 165 gr. bullet, it has a muzzle velocity of 2,057 foot seconds. With a charge of 40 grs. of black powder, the .32 Winchester Special develops a velocity of 1,385 foot seconds, which makes it a powerful black powder cartridge ."

And the saga begins...........

w30wcf"

[piller]

Never shot a 32 Special. I have heard good things about them. There are a lot of good old cartridges which get the job done without a lot of noise or fuss. 3000 fps is not necessary for anything I have hunted, and 1600 fps would probably have done the job on everything I have hunted.