The first John M. Browning-designed Winchester arrived as the Model 1886. Browning then basically reduced the size of the action to come up with the Model 1892 which was chambered in .44 WCF as well as .38 WCF and .32 WCF. Browning’s next design for Winchester is one of the most popular rifles of all time with more than 7 million Model 1894 leverguns being produced. When I was a kid in grade school the 2 millionth 1894 was presented to then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Originally the Model 1894 was chambered for two black powder cartridges, the .38-55 and the .32-40. In 1895 the first American smokeless powder rifle cartridge arrived as the .30 WCF, or as more commonly known today, the .30-30. Shortly after the turn-of-the-century, Winchester brought out the 1894 chambered in .32 Winchester Special. This cartridge is not to be confused with the .32 WCF or .32-20 which is a much shorter cartridge. Whereas the .30 WCF has a twist of 1:12 the .32 Winchester Special was given a barrel twist of 1:16.
There are a lot of myths surrounding the .32 Winchester Special and the best way to find out the facts is by going back to the original information provided by Winchester. This is from an early catalog — .32 Special Caliber Rifles For Smokeless or Black Powder. The .32 Winchester Special cartridge, which we have adapted our popular Model 1894 Rifle to handle, was developed to meet the demand of many sportsmen for a smokeless powder cartridge of larger caliber than the .30 Winchester, yet not so powerful as the .30 Army, and which could be loaded with black powder. This cartridge fills all these requirements. Rifles of this caliber can be furnished in styles to meet all tastes.
My experience with the .32 Winchester Special began with a trip to my local gun store, Buckhorn Guns, to pick up a pistol which had arrived for test and evaluation. As I was filling out the paperwork, Chris placed a Winchester levergun in front of me without saying a word. I accused him of taking advantage of the feeble-minded. My favorite rifles are leverguns and my favorite leverguns are the short-barrel Trapper Models. Now here in front of me was a pristine Winchester 1894 Trapper Wrangler chambered in .32 Winchester Special. There was no way I could resist so both my test pistol and the .32 Trapper came home with me. It turned out to be a virtually unfired rifle manufactured by Winchester Repeating Arms.
Once I got it home, I quickly ordered a set of Lee Precision Dies. These are typical rifle 2-die sets, with one die for full-length sizing and de-capping while the other is for seating and crimping. As with most bottle-neck cartridges there is no die included for expanding the case mouth. I already had a Lee Universal Expanding Die and I also ordered a Lee .32 Winchester Special Factory Crimp Die. The Universal Expanding Die comes with two tapered plugs to handle everything from .22 to .45 caliber. I find both of these invaluable for loading semi-automatic pistol cartridges as well as most rifle cartridges. Once the cartridge has been full-length-sized I then use the Universal Expanding Die to just kiss the case mouth to allow easy insertion of a flat base bullet. It is also invaluable when loading cast bullets. Without this step, a bullet may collapse the case, while a cast bullet may shave off lead which will probably wind up smeared inside the barrel.
