.32wcf for deer

[bubba15301]

anyone use a 32wcf (32/20) for deer? i have an 1889 marlin i plan to use this season

 

[Clifford L. Hughes]

]Don't do it.

 

[Mike Irwin]

Kind of on the light side for deer, unless you are able to place your shots with absolute precision.

 

[Win73]

I also say don't do it. I shot a doe three years ago with my .38-40. It has a larger diameter bullet and twice the powder charge as the .32-20. After following the blood trail over 500 yards I lost it and could never find the deer. It probably eventually died or at least suffered from a long and painful wound. So if a .38-40 is too light for a deer, a .32-20 definitely is.

 

[W.E.G.]

It will kill deer.

In training for your hunt, you should practice walking downhill great distances, and retrieving 100# plus objects from the bottom of the hollow, and then back over the ridge you started on. Be sure not to detour around any thorny spots.

I'll trade 5# of "ruined meat" for a "great survivalist adventure" any day.

30-06 always makes an exit wound the size of a softball.
They bleed out fast if the shock of the bullet passing through-and-through doesn't just bowl them over right there.

32-20 is good for killing beaver still alive in a steel trap.

 

[jimbob86]

It will kill deer.

So will a pointy stick- that does not make it the best tool, or even a good tool, for the job.

Use enough gun. That ain't it.

 

[jmr40]

Read the whole post. It was sarcasm.

 

[Hawg]

30-06 always makes an exit wound the size of a softball.

Ummmm, mine doesn't, not even with factory ammo.

 

[Art Eatman]

If I just out-and-out had to use the .32-20 on a deer, I figure I'd only take a close-in head shot.

But it surely would not be my choice. Way too many much-better cartridges available.

 

[bubba15301]

farthest shot would be 75 yards

 

[jimbob86]

Loaded as hot as it can be, you are looking at a bit over 400 foot pounds of energy by 75 yards ..... with a tiny bullet, that lacks enough speed to generate much hydrostatic shock ....

 

[22-rimfire]

I would choose something else unless you don't have a choice. If you don't, then take careful shots. I would choose a shotgun over the 32-20 and I don't particularly like deer hunting with a shotgun (slugs).

It sounds like you are planning on using it just because you "want to".

 

[kilimanjaro]

The .32/20 could properly be called a garden or rook round....

 

[Old Grump]

It may not have enough power where you hunt so you might want to check that out first. It will certainly work but as good as I am with a rifle I would hesitate a lot unless I was really desperate for that deer. Beats a 22 and it is way better than my old 25-20 which has a few deer to its credit by my old stepfathers grandfather but I won't use it if you can get another gun. Your old gun comes from the same era as mine did and we have learned a few things since then. Save it for coyotes and coon hunting.

 

[Sure Shot Mc Gee]

The 32-20 I consider it an antiquated cartridge. But if the 32-20 is indeed legal to take a deer in your hunt area with? Your well within your Rights to use that (1889) Marlin of yours. I would advise: Place your first shot well and consider the necessity of a follow up shot without hesitation and perhaps more than two even may be required to harvest your deer with. Good Luck with your aspiration Sir.

S/S Mc G.

 

[jhenry]

It is not a round I would opt to use if there was the ability to use a more adequate cartridge.

 

[bubba15301]

any centerfire cartridge is legal in Pennsylvania

 

[Win73]

any centerfire cartridge is legal in Pennsylvania

Just because it is legal doesn't make it adequate. Here in Alabama the law just says rifle or pistol shooting a centerfire expanding bullet. That means my Ruger LCP .380 pistol is a legal deer gun. But would I ever try to kill a deer with it? No! I do carry a pistol during gun deer season but it is a Ruger Blackhawk in .45 Colt. I once passed up a six foot shot at a doe with the Blackhawk because I had seen a nice buck just a few minutes before and was hoping to get a shot at it. (I would have shot the buck with my .30-06!)

 

[bubba15301]

Pa law says all lead or expanding bullet

 

[Strafer Gott]

I popped a racoon in a leg trap right in the head with a ,32 and thought it was done, but after a while it woke up and required a couple more .22s to put paid to it.
Of course it waited until I got it home and dropped it in the yard to wake up. If it hadn't tanged the trap anchor chain, it probably could have got past the dogs and vamoosoed. If you must use a .32, the .32 Winchester Special is the ticket.