.32 Win Special

[versifier]

Dies on the way to load these for grandpa's M94 for a friend's son who inherited it. Hunting and practice loads, 170-175gr RNGC cast bullets. Fairly soft WW alloy to give some expansion, and I could hollow point them if I was worried about it. I'll start with 3031 and probably will get what I want with that. Never loaded this round but have been loading .30-30's for M94's forever and sources say to use .30-30 data for the 311041 bullet as it is pretty much the same weight/same capacity case and I have loaded many thousands of them.

Anybody here shoot it and/or hunt with it?

Sizer recommendations? I am not going to try to slug someone else's lever gun and I prefer to hear from actual breathing persons on what range of sizers has worked for them. I have a lot of .30 cal range sizers, few in this larger bore.

The mould is a 2cav Lee 8mm that drops a bit over .325 with WW alloy and my 8mm sizer to seat the gas checks is pretty close to .324, maybe a hair smaller.

I had been thinking about opening this sizer die up a tad bit (so it just crimps the checks at the mould's drop diameter without needing to size the bullet much if at all) for better accuracy in the old Mausers I shoot and load for, but I will wait as it might be really good for this .32 as it is and if I make it too big it might cause problems in the theoretically tighter .32 bore. Jbullet size for it is listed at .321. I have no idea what the actual bore and groove diameters in these, the .30-30's vary a few thou within specs so I assume the .32's do also. That means try what I have first and see what happens. In theory it ought to be a good size match but while I can measure and adjust the bullet size easily I can only infer the barrel's inner measurements from how it behaves as the bullet diameter increases or decreases.

Your thoughts would be appreciated.

[Mike in tx]

You should slug the barrel. Mine slugged 323. Mould drops 324. Works great. fun shooter as I use only cast and light loads. 3031 is the powder to use.

[versifier]

Thanks Mike, what I figured, but I don't always figure it right the first time.

If it were my rifle I would have thought seriously about slugging it, but it has been over twenty years since I took a m94 apart, and even with today's YouTube resources I am not eager. When I slugged the family .30-30 I remember having to remove the bolt assembly to get the slug out of the bore, and it was not fun getting it back together. I really don't want to go there with a rifle I don't own.

I think I will simply roll the dice and see what happens when I try the cast 8mm's I have over some 3031. I will be satisfied with 4MOA for a 100yd deer rifle, the young hunter will be able to pieplate with a load like that offhand no problem. I have a ton of .30-30 brass too, so there will be no shortage of cases (they don't have a .30-30 so they can't get the two confused). I can always ream out a new sizer if I'm not happy with the results.

I have no idea what the rifle is capable of yet, either. It hasn't seen a lot of use (I doubt if it has had 100 rounds through it) and it's been very well maintained, so it ought to shoot reasonably well. I have owned and shot several M94's that were capable of approaching MOA with their favorite loads, others not so well after too much use and minimal care. I expect I can get 2-3" groups at the bench without a whole lot of testing. I'm also not sure how much he will want to shoot it the rest of the year. First I will see if he can bring me back some groups on paper with the factory stuff he's been scrounging and some with the first cast attempts.

Anyone else, please speak up with your experiences. I'll update this when the dies get here.