I was given a Winchester 94 carbine from my father-in-law who has retired from hunting. Based on the s/n 14492xx it ws manufactured in the early to mid 40's. He told me that it was a .30-30 but the barrell is clearly stamped 32 W.S. Is it possible to fire a .30-30 cartridge in the 32 W.S.?

I wouldn't want to do it. They are very different cartridges. (32 vs 30 caliber) The 32 Winchester Special is a great old gun. Enjoy it, but you won't find much in the way of ammunition available. If you're looking to shoot it, you'll need to load your own. All the best.

It will go bang and not break anything.

It will also go "somewhere" and not HIT anything!

32 Winchester Special ammo is still available, but is losing popularity fast. You can find the ammunition at most gun shops in rural areas where deer are still hunted with rifles but not at a lot of department type stores like Walmart or K-Mart. Stock up when you do find it. I don't think it'll be around for long. There is a lot of it for sale on auctionarms.com or gunbroker.com.

I was given a Winchester 94 carbine from my father-in-law who has retired from hunting. Based on the s/n 14492xx it ws manufactured in the early to mid 40's. He told me that it was a .30-30 but the barrell is clearly stamped 32 W.S. Is it possible to fire a .30-30 cartridge in the 32 W.S.?

Tom,
Congratulations on obtaining a fine vintage '94. In answer to your question, yes, you can fire .30-30's out of it but the bullets would tumble and be very inaccurate since they are smaller than the bore.

Winchester still shows .32 W.S. ammunition in their catalog so I would think that they will be offering it for some time to come.

As one of the fellows mentioned, you could reload your own if the factory ammo became obsolete. It would be a good idea to save your fired cases in case that day comes.

Enjoy.

John

Some friends and I were sighting in before deer season a bunch of years ago and one friend was shooting more of a pattern than a group. I knew he was better than that and it turned out he was shooting 30-30s in a 32. He had fired about 10 rounds and the brass showed no signs of stress such as splits. At 100 yards he was shooting about a 16 inch group. Not bad for a bullet that was bouncing down a barrel.

I was given a bag full of 30-30 brass a while back and after I reloaded a some I noticed that one of them said 32 WS on it. It went through the sizer die no problem at all. I seem to remember having one that needed a little extra trimming out of that lot so that musta been it. I made sure I fired that one right away so nobody would get it mixed up.

If you will pick up the latest Handloader Magazine, they have a good article on the .32 Winchester special, along with some good loads listed. The original purpose behind the .32 Special was to be able to load it with Black Powder. Winchester loaded the cartridge with smokeless powder, but advised the general public from doing so. They sold primed cases for reloading with 40 grains of FFG black Powder. The old mercuric primers of the time were corrosive with smokeless powder and caused the brass to become brittle and to fail.

The .32 Special is nothing more than a necked up 30-30. New brass can be formed using 30-30 cases, but should be marked in some way that they don't get mixed up and fired through a 30-30. The groove dia. for the 30-30 is .308 while that of the .32 Special is .321, and could cause preassures high enough to wreck a 30-30.

I was given a bag full of 30-30 brass a while back and after I reloaded a some I noticed that one of them said 32 WS on it. It went through the sizer die no problem at all. I seem to remember having one that needed a little extra trimming out of that lot so that musta been it. I made sure I fired that one right away so nobody would get it mixed up.

I wouldn't worry about it. If you don't also have a .32 Win around the house to get this mixed up with, it won't be a problem.

The 32 won't chamber in a 30-30. The bullet is too big. I tried it a long time ago. You can form 32 brass out of 30-30. just run them through the dies as you normally would.