I've always thought it was a way for Winchester to use the barrels intended for the .30-30 that turned out oversize when the drilling was complete. Instead of scrapping them they reamed them to .32 caliber and rifled them. I really don't have a clue why anyone would bring out a round almost identical to an existing one in the same bullet weight and the same rifle with the same energy level.
Ballistically there's nothing special about the .32 Winchester special.
The .32 Special was developed by Winchester in responce to backwoodsman at the time who either thought smokeless powder was a fad or had a lot of black powder laying around and couldn't do anything with it. It was developed to shoot either smokeless powder and jacketed bullets or black powder and lead bullets. Hence "Special". It allowed them to "roll their own" with the components they had. I cast 150 gr. scrap lead bullets for mine and shoot them with Unique pistol powder and a toilet paper wad. It is accurate enough to shoot squirrels and rabbits out to 50 yd. When my "bunny loads" are on at 25 yd. the jacketed deer loads are on at 100. I can shoot it for about the same price as a .22. It is a fun caliber to play with.
The .32 special was brought out during a period that smokeless was available to manufactures only-or at least smokeless was so much more expensive than bp and not nearly as widely available, it was sold as a smokeless factory round but could be reloaded with blackpowder, the .30-30 fouled too quickly with it's 1:12" twist and lead/bp loads, the slower 1:16" .32spcl alleviated this problem-more evidence is the fact that winchester offered an extra-high standing rear sight for the 1894 .32spcl, the standard sight for factory ammo and the extra sight for bp loads.
It and the .30-30 were introduced at the same time, so the special was a way to introduce two rounds without producing two types of brass-make .30-30 brass and simply neck up-which was also advantageous to the reloader.
It's also debated that the equipment available for the feeble .32-40 barrels could be used to produce bbls for the more potent .32special, produce a brand new IMPROVED round (big selling point) without buying new equipment.
At the time of introduction, the .32 bore was more popular than the .30bore that rules america today, so introduction of the .30-30 AND the .32spcl gave them a standby .32 as well as a new 30cal.
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The .32 Special had a unique property when it was introduced back in 1902. While the contemporary .30-30 cartridge was designed exclusively for use with smokeless powder, the .32 was a smokeless powder cartridge that, according to Winchester advertising, was designed to be reloadable with black or smokeless powder. To ease the problem of black powder fouling, the rifling twist in Winchester .32 Spec. Rifle barrels was 1 turn in 16 inches, rather than the 1-in-12 twist of the .30-30. That is what made it "Special."
The .32 Special could be said to be based on a .30-30 case necked-up to accept .321 inch diameter bullets. Actually, both the .30-30 and the .32 Special are based on a necked-down, bottleneck version of the rimmed .38-55 case. The rim diameter is .506 inch, and the shoulder angle is about 14.5 degrees. The case is 2.04 inches long, and the maximum overall cartridge length is 2.565 inches. The SAAMI maximum average pressure is 38,000 cup.
I've always thought it was a way for Winchester to use the barrels intended for the .30-30 that turned out oversize when the drilling was complete. Instead of scrapping them they reamed them to .32 caliber and rifled them. I really don't have a clue why anyone would bring out a round almost identical to an existing one in the same bullet weight and the same rifle with the same energy level.
Ballistically there's nothing special about the .32 Winchester special.
NOT EXACTLY! .32 Special barrels had .32/40 bore dimensions and slow 1/16" twist ON PURPOPSE!! It was a way for Winchester to offer .30/30 equivalent ballistics in the M94 rifle, using barrels with the same bore and rifling as the .32/40 barrels, so with the 1/16" twist, folks could reload cases with black powder, which did not work at all with the 1/12" twist of the .30/30! .30/30 cases had to be reloaded with smokeless powder. Otherwise, the .30/30 could only be fired two or thrtee times before crudding up so bad you couldn't hit anything with it!!
Some have said the reason was to use up .32/40 barrels that were rendered obsolete when Win. introduced the .30/30, but there is no proof of this. Even in 1895, Winchester (and others!!) could make barrels that were not accidentally oversize!!
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I had a couple of the 32 Winchester special. I just traded the last one off a few months ago. They performed just like the 30-30. Niether of the ones I had were as accurate as my 30-30's.
Vapodog, Winchester didn't bring out a cartridge almost identical to the .30-30, they were introduced at the same time-and as I mentioned before, the .32bore was more popular than the .30bore in that era, the .32spcl was a considerable improvement over the .32-40, so Winchester got a Standby .32bore that was better than what was available, but still offered a "hot new" .30bore.
In all actuality, the .32spcl DOES indeed have more muzzle energy than the .30-30, but as far as practical applications go, their performances are too close to call, they perform almost identically in the field, while results on paper may not be so.
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"When you tell a fellow to go to hell, you had better be sure you can get him there."--LBJ
32 special
