32-20 is a
rifle round that was also offered in some revolvers.
Picky, picky. Yes, you are correct. You could say the same for 44-40, 38-40, and 25-20.
Anyhoo, sometime back around 1975 I wandered into a local shop and found this Marlin Model 1894. It was chambered for a cartridge I had never heard of, called 44-40.
The actual caliber marking on the barrel was simply 44W, but the guys in the shop told me that stood for 44-40.
They even had a couple of boxes of ammo to go with it.
I am not a hunter, never have been, but I have always liked old guns. So I walked out of the door with the old Marlin and two boxes of ammo. No idea what I paid for it back then.
Much later I looked up the serial number and it turned out the rifle had been made in 1895. I fired most of the two boxes of ammo, and put the old rifle in the back of the closet where it sat unused for about 25 years until I heard about Cowboy Action Shooting. Yup, the old Marlin was perfectly acceptable as a 'pistol caliber' rifle for SASS competition so I went off to my first cowboy match with it. The problem was after firing one shot it jammed and I could not free it. Another cowboy got the spent case and the remaining ammo in the magazine out and I finished the match with a borrowed rifle.
I found a gunsmith who was good with old guns and brought him the old Marlin. It turned out the hook on the lever, that pulls down the bolt, had gotten so worn over the years that it would not reliably pull down the bolt, which was why the gun had jammed. In fact, the smith told me everybody including the village blacksmith had been inside that old rifle over the years, and somebody had even welded some bronze onto the hook at one point to make it function OK for a while. The smith removed all the bronze, welded some steel on, and filed it to shape to make the gun work properly again. By the way, the smith winced when I told him I had been shooting that old High Velocity ammo through it, but it turns out that stuff was OK. It really was not all that fast, and it did no harm to the old steel.
Not long after, I came across this Winchester Model 1892, made in 1894. Also chambered for 44-40. It had been nicely refinished, so the price was very affordable. This rifle became my main match rifle for a few years.
Eventually the Black Powder bug hit. I had read that Black Powder and pitted old bores did not mix, too much trouble to clean all the fouling out of thousands of tiny pits. I have since found this to be untrue, if you know what you're doing, but life is a never ending learning experience, right? Anyway, I found a nice used Uberti Winchester 1873 replica for a good price. It had a nice, shiny-like-new bore and I was off and running down the Black Powder trail. Also chambered for 44-40 so my love affair with the cartridge continued.
I soon realized that everybody and their brother was shooting 1873 Ubertis in CAS, so I decided to get something different. This Uberti replica iron frame 1860 Henry, also chambered for 44-40 of course, has been my main match rifle for the last ten years.
Over the years a few more pistol caliber lever guns have made their way into my safe. This 38-40 Winchester Model 1873 was made in 1886. Yes, the magazine is a replacement, but the rest of the rifle is original. This was my first adventure with 38-40.
A couple of years ago I walked into a local shop and the owner, who knows I am a sucker for Winchesters, smiled as he handed me this Model 1892, chambered for 32-20. This one has a lovely octagon barrel and it left the factory in 1911. Of course it came home with me that day.
The same dealer twisted my arm another time to buy a lovely little Winchester 1892 Carbine chambered for 25-20, that left the factory in 1928. It seems to be camera shy right now.
Am I right that in the post-Civil War West it was fairly common to carry a pistol and rifle shooting the same cartridge?
Technically, you are correct that having a rifle and a revolver chambered for the same cartridge was probably a good idea, but I have to wonder how many low paid cowhands could actually afford a revolver and a rifle, much less a pair chambered for the same cartridge. Don't forget, Colts and Winchesters were not cheap.
Another thing you may not be aware of is rifles were
never chambered for 45 Colt in the old days. That is a modern development, going back to the 1980s. Mostly because of the popularity of the 45 Colt cartridge with us Cowboy shooters. There are a couple of reasons I can go into at another time.
Now let's talk for a moment about the difference between a rifle and a carbine. It is not just barrel length. In the old days, Winchester marketed their lever guns in three different configurations; Rifle, Carbine, and Musket.
Take a look at this photo of my Winchester Model 1892 rifle and a Winchester Model 1892 Saddle Ring Carbine.
The distinguishing characteristics are the rifle has a deeply scalloped, crescent shaped butt plate, the magazine is supported by a magazine hanger dovetailed into the underside of the barrel, and there is a metal cap on the for end. There is also another magazine hanger dovetailed under the barrel underneath the fore end cap.
The carbine has a different shaped butt plate, much less deeply scalloped then the rifle. The carbine butt plate is a formed piece of heavy sheet metal, the rifle butt plate is a casting. There is no fore end cap on the carbine, and the magazine is supported by two barrel bands. The front sight on this one is brazed to the barrel, sometimes the front sight was brazed to the front barrel band. That is the way Winchester used to market their lever guns as either rifles or carbines.
Rifle barrels were standard as 24" round barrels, although octagon barrels were available for the same price. Half round/half octagon could be ordered too. Barrel lengths were commonly made in 2" increments. Short rifles with barrels as short as short as 14" were made, although they were usually special order. These were sometimes known as Trapper models. Not carbines. Rifles could also be had with pistol grips and an accordingly bent lever. Carbine barrels were standard at 20" but could be ordered in a variety of different lengths.
Carbine barrels were also more sharply tapered than rifle barrels. These lever guns are both chambered for 44-40, but notice how much thicker the barrel wall is on the rifle on the left than the carbine at the right.
Wait a minute, what about muskets? The top two lever guns in this photo are both 1873 rifles, the third is an 1873 carbine, the one at the bottom is a Winchester Model 1873 Musket. No, it is not a smooth bore, it is rifled. That is just what Winchester called them. The Musket was sort of an extra long carbine. Thirty inch round barrels were standard. The butt stock was configured the same way as a carbine. The barrel sported three barrel bands instead of two, and the fore end extended most of the way to the muzzle. The Musket models were not very popular, something like 36,000 1873 Muskets were produced. Most were sold to foreign governments under military contracts, so many were equipped with bayonet mounts.
Are these all truly 'pistol caliber' lever guns? Aren't 'pistols' semi-automatic handguns usually shooting rimless ammo? Well, back in the late 1800s it was fairly common to call a revolver a pistol. In fact in SASS competition we always refer to our handguns as pistols. We never call them revolvers. So from our perspective at least, pistol caliber is a correct term. It merely means a cartridge short enough to be loaded into the cylinder of a revolver. We call cartridges such as 45-70 rifle cartridges, because there are very few revolvers that have a long enough cylinder to chamber them.
Bottom line for me, nothing is as much fun as blasting Black Powder cartridges out of my Henry as fast as I can work the lever. On windless days I have to bob and weave to see the targets through the smoke, but that just adds to the fun.
