What cartridge is this?

Pictures?

.32 Winchester special is the proper name for the .32 special. It was "the other cartridge" that was loaded for Model 94 lever action rifles.

Bfh_auto said:

I was digging through a box of my Grandfather's brass. I found brass stamped 32 win spl.
It has been resized to a tapered cartridge that is either 32 or 33 cal. Brass is the same length as 32 spl

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Not sure what you're asking Bfh_auto. Winchester 32 Special brass does have a slight taper and it is 32 caliber.
Edited to say - Oh, okay. I didn't see the picture when I first replied. In that case, I have no idea what that brass is, but it's interesting!

idk bout measurments but that looks like a 32-40 to me.

Bfh_auto said:

I have a 32 win spl. This is a 32 win spl that was resized to a tapered case.

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Your photo was posted when I was typing. It is probably the .38-56 shown 2nd from left below or the .32-40 as listed above by ridgerunner.

32-40. 30-30, 32 Win Special and 38-55 all share the same basic cartridge. There was also a 375 Winchester that has almost the same case dimensions but was loaded to much higher pressures than the 38-55

Could be a 32 resized to fit a 7.62 nagant revolver. The bullet is seated below the mouth of the cartridge and the action pushes the round forward into the barrel to get a gas seal. Lee made a die set to reform 32-20 brass to fit the Nagant.

my gpa used to reload 32-40 with a old lyman? tong tool.

it ended up looking more tapered almost like the 38-55 after a reload or two.

I have some new 32-40 loaded rounds and they show the slight shoulder much more distinctly.

Bfh_auto said:

I guess I need to start watching for a 32-40 rifle.

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That cartridge leaves a lot to be desired. Plus I've never seen one for sale.

I have some of the same brass. It is formed for the 32-40 cartridge.

The .32-40 was very popular in single shot rifles, besides the l/a's. It was originally a black powder cartridge, and used extensively in the Shutzen style target rifles. It still has a stellar reputation for accuracy.
The case was the progenitor of the .30/30.

I have a 32-40 Marlin. I needed some brass to start reloading it, so I ordered up some reloads from Old Western Scrouger. I very was disappointed to find they were made from 30-30 cases (stamped). They shot fine and performed as advertised- no gripe there.
Having never reloaded 30-30, that was when I found 30-30 cases are 0.1” shorter than 32-40. So they’re not the perfect candidate for 32-40.

I'm sure it is the .32-40, which probably most fairly called Winchester and Ballard, as Ballard used it first. It was actually chambered in the 1894 Winchester before the .30-30, since although they had the design for the latter in mind as its main cartridge, they weren't ready with the nickel steel a smokeless cartridge needed. It is indeed one of the same family as the .38-55, .30-30 and .25-35, but not the .38-56, which is totally different cartridge with a .504 head diameter, used in the larger 1886 Winchester.

It is actually nearly a tenth of an inch longer in the case than the others, so if you want to form the case, a counsel of perfection would be to make it from the .38-55, which will lengthen a little more, as it is narrowed, than the others. But at the pressures used, a short case is unlikely to do any harm. It was noted for fine accuracy, and one of the cartridges used by scheutzen shooters, often with the bullet separately loaded from the muzzle, who for many years achieved higher accuracy than any conventional rifle.

At moderate ranges it is a thoroughly effective deer cartridge, capable of using heavier bullets than the .30-30. I've got mine, never used on game, which in the UK is an antique if made up to 1939, and subject to no legislation whatever until you want to use it. It spent most of its life in Australia, and is a button-magazine rifle, which I trust more for accuracy than one with a magazine dovetailed into the front end.

Mr. Standfast said:

I've got mine, never used on game, which in the UK is an antique if made up to 1939, and subject to no legislation whatever until you want to use it.

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Would you clarify that, please.
It sounds like you can own it but not shoot it. Am I reading it correctly?

If I wanted to shoot an antique rifle, I would have to negotiate it onto a licence. (You can put shotguns into use and resume antique-only ownership as you like.) They would probably refuse for something absurd or dangerous, like using it to shoot field-mice, or someone who had only ever used .22s on an indoor range who wanted to eliminate urban foxes. There are also velocity and energy requirements, different in England and Scotland, for shooting deer, and they can refuse when a gun doesn't measure up. But with my .40-82 Winchester I had no difficulty at all when I produced internal ballistics printouts showing that I could achieve the velocity with .41 revolver bullets. While civil servants aren't always totally logical, the pointlessness of trying to control gun use by someone they can't stop from having the gun, is just about capable of penetrating their intellect.

Thanks for the response. That law is just crazy.