Got my eye on a Marlin 32-20 cal and would like opinions on weather this round is suitable for deer and if so, what range?

Not IMO but others will certainly dissagree. I really like the 32-20 but not for deer.

I had one for several years and shot a few coyotes and feral hogs with it. I took it deer hunting a few times while I was living in Colorado and Nebraska , but never got a shot at a deer that I wanted within what I considered to be effective range. For deer, it is probably adequate out to 75-100 yds, but 50-75 was more comfortable to me.

I carried it lion hunting a few times, as it carried well in a scabbard, and most lions are shot at ranges measured in feet as opposed to yards. One of our guests used it to bag a lion that treed in a tall Chihuahua pine, high enough that he wasn't comfortable trying with a pistol. I eventually gave it to my daughter to use as a wall hanger.

They are easy to load for if you can find good cast bullets. I never got into bullet casting and relied upon a friend in Kansas who spends most of his winter time casting bullets in his farm shop.

I have a good friend who killed a good sized doe at about 15yards with a 32-20 in a revolver.Even he considered it mostly a stunt.
Poachers kill deer all the time with 22LR and 22Mag. Just because it can be done doesn't mean we should do it on a regular basis.
If you can shoot well,the distances are fairly short,and the shots fairly open,it will succeed almost all the time,but is still probably not a really good choice.There are few sounds that bother me more than the sound of a wounded deer bawling in the woods.

I have an old Savage .32-20 that has taken a couple of "meat does". Strictly head or neck shots at 50 yds. or less. I have it scoped and zeroed for 50 yds. The load is 95 gr. jacketed soft point at around 1,300 fps.

I shot a small doe fallow deer with my Marlin27-S once, through the lungs went 55yrds. laid down and died, but dont know about whitetails . If so Id keep all shots at 50yrds. or less. John

My cousin took his first deer, a nice little basket-racked 8, with a .32-20 at about 30 yards.

The rifle was re-retired after that.

The .32-20 will kill deer; but unless it's absolutely all you have, I'd not suggest hunting with it.

What Vanimrod said should be considered as gospel.

It don't fare too well when you compare it to deer rifles. But put it next to a compound bow (I've heard people take deer with them.) and it looks like a deer harvesting machine.

If you hunt with it like a archer does, sitting in a tree and waiting for a close shot, why not? I have shot a number of herd reduction does with the 22 Magnum, using head shots, so I can't see why a 32-20 wouldn't do as well on head shots.

Jeff

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />

257 Roberts;

Please, put the coffee down and step very slowly away from the computer... you're scaring me.

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/help.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/help.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/help.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/help.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/help.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/help.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/help.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/help.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/help.gif" alt="" />

If you reload the 32wcf back up to respectable velocities with 100-115 gr bullets it will do the job, but given the anemic stuff that is available as factory loads now days it will do it, but not very well.

Its not coffee.

Sure you can kill a deer with it or a .22 but why should you unless it is eat or die time. It has about the same power as a .30 carbine which I wouldnt use on deer either unless I was desperate. Use it for small game and coyotes like it was intended.

<laughing>

257 Roberts, that explains a lot... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Rember that the Jorden Buck No.2 in the world was killed witha 2520 still theres better deer rounds out there.

Someone (who apparently wants to remain anonymous) PM'ed me and asked if I did not own a saddle gun in a more effective caliber to carry lion hunting. Indeed I do, and my usual saddle carry is a Winchester 94 in .25-35. However, years ago Craig Boddington wrote an article in one of the Peterson publications listing his choice for the very best cartridge for each of the North American game animals. For the mountain lion, his choice was a .32-20!

I thought it a little unusual at the time, but after a near fiasco with a cattle-killing lion that "treed" on a rock pinnacle, leaving us only a 50+ yard shot with a .32 H&R Magnum with fixed sights, I decided to carry my .32 Winchester Special.

The first opportunity I had to do this, I was caught short-handed with only a few cartridges loaded up, so I elected to carry the .32-20. Since it had been carried by the previous owner in a saddle scabbard for many years, it had a lot less finish remaining than the .32 Special, and I ended up carrying it most of the time until I retired it. It worked the one time that I asked it to, and I decided that it had earned a rest.

In Colorado it is not a legal caliber for deer and I wouldn't use it if it was. Yes it's been done but that doesn't make it a good idea. It just doesn't have enough power in my opinion.

Unless your family is starving and that is the only gun you have. There is just so many better options for deer size game!

Camper

When the 25-20 and 32-20 were young they were certainly considered adequate deer rifles and in the iron sight era they did alright at the ranges their bullets could be placed well at. But then there were loadings available that made todays look a little anemic. Also back "then" an all around cartridge was one that you could shoot either a deer or a rabbit without excessive meat destruction.

If you handload, and if you can get really close, and if you can shoot, and if you can pass up long shots, and if the .32-20 is legal where you hunt, yes. OTOH, Marlin makes the same rifle in several other calibers, all of which are more powerful and use ammo that is both cheaper to buy and easier to reload.

I guess it's like that sport-cute TV commercial a couple of years ago, where some boys are playing polo in their daddies' hunting cars: You wouldn't, but you could.

Doesn't the 20 in .32-20 represent the number of grains of powder in the original loading?

Regardless whether the 20 grains of powder were blackpowder or smokeless, that loading is below the bottom end of what would be considered a deer load today.

It would have referenced the grains of BP for the load. The .32 could have been the caliber.

VAnimrod is correct...

The ".32" was the caliber (although the jacketed bullet diameter was/is .310 inches) of the old black powder cartridge... and the "20" was the number of grains of black powder the cartridge was designed to use.

With a factory-loaded cartridge's muzzle velocity of only about 1300 fps with a 100 grain bullet, the 1� inch long round (with bullet) isn't a cartridge for hunting deer-sized game in today's world.

However, back when it and it's "little brother", the .25/20, WERE popular cartridges, it was often used for deer with mixed results. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />


Strength & Honor...

Ron T.

+1

When I got my (new) mod 94 25-35 last year, I took it out of the box, looked at it, looked a piece of brass for it, and said, "that's an Arizona lion rifle!"

Regards,

Sycamore

The .32-20 was a little more of a round in the early 20th century than in the 19th or in the 21st. The BP round was a small game load, and the present factory ammo pretty much duplicates that load. But "HV" high velocity cartridges were made in the early smokeless era that propelled a 115 gr bullet around 2000 fps. You can make them now, if you handload. The manufacturers dropped the HV loads a long time ago, because they were only useful in strong rifles like a Winchester 92, Marlin 94, and Savage 23. Problem was, people persisted in shooting them in revolvers, Winchester 73s, and the like, with poor result.

Similar HV loads were made for the .38-40 and some others. A .38-40 in BP mode launches 180 gr at around 1200 fps, which is pretty much a pistol round, but bump that to 1750 fps with a load of Reloader 7, and it almost becomes a 100 m deer rifle.

"Cartridges of the World" reproduces part of the 1906 Winchester catalog, with some ballistic data, and it includes both standard velocity and HV loads for several of the old BP cartridges. Also, interestingly enough, some BP cartridges were still loaded. IIRC, the two rounds with the highest muzzle energy were the .50-140 BP round, and the smokeless .30-03.

The 32-20 is pretty close to the 30 carbine in power when reloaded to potential and that would make it a 50 yard deer cartridge in the hands of a good shot. These cartridges were what made the 30-30 look like the latter day super cartridge that in was thought of back around the turn of the century.

Last night I was reading the 1999 Peterson's Hunting Annual and I found that article that you mention. Craig Boddington lists the 32-20 as the perfect round for hunting cougars. I know that lots of people used to use a 22 pistol but now in Colorado they put a minimum caliber on cats to stop that practice. I think that the minimum now is a 22 Hornet.

"back "then" an all around cartridge was one that you could shoot either a deer or a rabbit "

True. Rickt. another part of the all-around thing was that the cartridges could be used in either a saddlegun or a revolver.

My Grandad used a 32-20 for deer and my Mom claims most of them were shot through a knot hole in the wall of the barn... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Shootin' out, or shootin' in?


<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />


Sycamore

good one, syc. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

The 32-20 is not a good deer cartridge by today's standards. It was OK years ago when deer were plentiful and your conscience did not bother you about wounding a deer! Today, you have to put the deer down quickly!

Especially if you hunt on public game lands!

Larry Koller shot his first deer with a .25-20, the same rifle he had been hunting rabbits with, so he could hit with it. He upgraded to a .30-40 when he got the chance tho, and never looked back.

the caliber of deer are the same . the caliber of rifles are the same. but the caliber of hunters are different. thats why the 32-20 is no longer a deer cartridge...un skilled hunters...

Can a 32/20 kill a deer/? Yes. Is it a good deer cartridge? No

Hubert;

Does that mean that my great uncle who used a .22 Short for deer was the greatest hunter in modern firearms history?

No, it means he shot them in the head, off a horse, wagon, or truck, and sometimes at night.

Saying that the .32-20 is no longer an adequate deer cartridge because hunters today are unskilled is pure, unadulterated BS.

The .32-20 is not an adequate caliber for deer. It wasn't then, it isn't now.

The ONLY reason that it was used on deer back then was: 1) it's what the guy had, and all he had, and 2) it happened to use revolver ammo, so the guy who owned a rifle/carbine and a revolver only had to remember to buy one type of ammo.

thats only your opnion and it don't count.. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Neither does yours... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

BTW - I'm still checking on things down here for ya... things move slow in the south, ya know... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Maybe we should have the Pot gun Vs Pop gun debate again. that was good for a laugh. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />