The .32-40 Ballard / 8.1x54mmR, also known as .32-40 Winchester is an American
rifle
A rifle is a long gun, long-barreled firearm designed for accurate shooting and higher stopping power, with a gun barrel, barrel that has a helical or spiralling pattern of grooves (rifling) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus o ...
cartridge.
Description
Introduced in 1884, the .32-40 Winchester was developed as a
black powder
Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, charcoal (which is mostly carbon), and potassium nitrate, potassium ni ...
match-grade
Match grade frequently refers to quality firearm parts and ammunition that are suitable for a competitive match. Sometimes it also refers to other devices and parts that are made with high precision in mind.
Description
In firearms, the term is ...
round for the
Ballard single-shot
Union Hill Nos. 8 and 9 target rifles. Using a bullet and of
black powder
Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, charcoal (which is mostly carbon), and potassium nitrate, potassium ni ...
(muzzle velocity , muzzle energy ), the factory load gained a reputation for fine accuracy, with a midrange trajectory of at .
[Barnes, p.47.] It was available in
Winchester
Winchester (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs N ...
and
Marlin
Marlins are fish from the family Istiophoridae, which includes between 9 and 11 species, depending on the taxonomic authority.
Name
The family's common name is thought to derive from their resemblance to a sailor's marlinspike.
Taxonomy
T ...
lever-action
The toggle-link action used in the iconic Winchester Model 1873 rifle, one of the most famous lever-action firearms
Picture showing a Volcanic Pistol
A lever action is a type of action for repeating firearms that uses a manually operated cocki ...
rifles beginning in 1886.
Both the .32–40 Winchester and the
.38-55 Winchester were chambered for the Model 1894 Winchester when it was introduced to the public in 1894.
[H. V. Stent, "The Model 94 Winchester," ''Gun Digest'' 1980.] It stopped being a factory chambering around 1940.
It can be used for varmint and predator hunting, including coyotes and wolves. H. V. Stent has said that for a time the .32-40 Winchester and .38-55 Winchester were considered by some hunters to be usable for moose and elk at woods ranges, but sales of the Model 1894 in
.30-30 Winchester (.30 WCF), a cartridge introduced a year later, soon outpaced the two because of its higher speed, higher energy, and flatter trajectory.
More recently, the .32-40 Winchester in a Model 1894 built in 1905 was successfully used by John Royer, from Pennsylvania, to show that it can still be used on whitetail deer at close range. He wanted to keep the shot within . The range at which the .32-40 Winchester is suitable for deer is a matter of debate. Its common muzzle energy of less than is equal only to current and grain flat nose or round nose loadings of the .30-30 Winchester (in a barrel) at about , which is often considered to be the maximum range of the .30-30 Winchester.
[Grits Gresham, "The .30/30," ''Sports Afield'' August 1980. Gresham says PMC tested the MV of its 150- and 170 grain .30-30 Winchester loads from a Model 94 carbine, which resulted in a reading of just under 2000 fps, resulting in about 800 fpe at 200 yards.] However, it has been said that in a modern rifle it can be loaded to equal the .30-30 Winchester up to .
In 2020, a Model 1894 Winchester rifle made in 1912 chambered in .32-40 Winchester was used by David J. LaPell in the Adirondack Mountains of New York to shoot a whitetail buck at the distance of approximately 60 yards. The bullet was a handloaded 170 grain Hornady Jacketed soft point.
The .32-40 Winchester also served as the basis for
Harry Pope
Harry Melville Pope (August 15, 1861 – October 11, 1950) was an American gunsmith remembered for manufacturing precision rifle barrels.
Early life
Pope was born in 1861 at Walpole, New Hampshire. His family moved to Worcester, Massachusetts, ...
's
Wildcat cartridge
A wildcat cartridge, often shortened to wildcat, is a custom-made cartridge (weaponry), cartridge for which ammunition and/or firearms are not mass-produced. These cartridges are often created as experimental variants to optimize a certain ballis ...
called the
.33-40 Pope.
See also
*
8 mm caliber
This is a list of firearm cartridges which have bullets in the caliber range.
*''Length'' refers to the empty cartridge case
Case or CASE may refer to:
Instances
* Instantiation (disambiguation), a realization of a concept, theme, or design ...
*
List of rimmed cartridges
Below is a list of rimmed cartridges (R). Although similar, rimmed cartridges differ from rimfire cartridges (list). A rimmed cartridge is a cartridge with a rim, whose primer is located in the center of the case head; the primer is detonated by ...
*
List of cartridges by caliber
Calibers in the size range of (mm, inches):
*2 mm caliber, 2 mm (.079+ caliber)
*3 mm caliber, 3 mm (.118+ caliber)
*4 mm caliber, 4 mm (.157+ caliber)
*5 mm caliber, 5 mm (.197+ caliber)
*6 mm caliber, 6 mm (.236+ caliber)
*7 mm caliber, 7 mm ...
*
List of rifle cartridges
List of rifle cartridges, by primer type, Caliber, calibre and name.
File:Cartridge Sample 2.jpg, 350px, From left to right: 1 .17 Hornady Mach 2, 2 .17 Hornady Magnum Rimfire, 3 .22 Long Rifle, 4 .22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire, 5 .17/23 SMc, 6 5mm ...
References
Sources
*Barnes, Frank C., ed. by John T. Amber. ''Cartridges of the World'' (Northfield, IL: DBI Books, 1972),
Pistol and rifle cartridges
Rimmed cartridges
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