O/T- Another Rifle Question

I own a very early Marlin lever action rifle in .32-40 caliber. This rifle belonged to my great-great grandfather. It has an octagon barrel and is cleary stamped "For Black Powder" on the barrel.

Naturally, you haven't been able to buy any .32-40 black powder factory-loaded cartridges for years and years, so, other than if a person wanted to get into reloading, this rifle's basically just a wall-hanger.

Recently there's been companies offering .32-40 cartrides for the "cowboy action" type shooting, but they're only available with smokeless powder.

A fairly knowledgable friend told me these cartridges would only be loaded to produce the same chamber pressures as the old black powder loads, so they'd be safe to shoot through my rifle.

Naturally, I don't want to destroy a peice of family history(the rifle or myself!), so I thought I'd ask on here and get some second opinions. Tried emailing some of the cartridge manufacturers but never got any response. Thanks for any info anyone here can provide!

Yep, it's a Model 1893. Wish it could talk- great-great grandad ran a trading post in Ponca NE way back when and went on hunting trips through the then-unsettled parts of western NE and wyoming with the Pawnee indians, even fought with them agains the Sioux, so I'm sure the old rifle would have some great stories to tell, although he might have acquired this rifle later in life.

Last winter I spent several hours online and did come up with a place that'd sell me the cartridges loaded with black powder(different place than the one Rauville linked- I'll have to check that out too, thanks!), but they were kinda pricey and the modern "cowboy" loads are much easier to get so I just was curious whether they'd work. I'll try again to contact some of the manufacturers to get the specifics on chamber pressures and what powder they are using. It's not that I don't "want" to go to some of the shooting websites, just that I hardly get time to read everything here and at a couple other sites I visit regularly. And, I guess to be honest, price of the cartridges doesn't matter too much since it's not like I'll be packing that thing around on a daily basis and putting alot of rounds through it anyway.

You know what you're talking about but you didn't catch the typo in your post. Should be one more zero on 16-1,800 psi. Smokeless powder loads for 32-40's that can shoot them develop 25,000 to 29,000 cup. I know cup isn't exactly the same as psi, but it's in the same range. I'd guess that 1,800 psi might be what you'd get if you forgot to charge a reload and the bullet had to try to get past the end of the barrel on nothing but what the primer could do for it.

I've stuck one or two in the barrel of a revolver while trying to come up with a light target load using Herc 2400 which I happened to have a lot of, instead of a little dab of some fast burning powder like Bullseye, which I didn't. There's a real case of false savings for you. Try to save .8 cents per cartridge, risk putting a second bullet up the barrel with the first one still in there and bulge the barrel of a $400 gun.

All the best, Stan

After you have had your rifle inspected, and are ready for shells; check the link below, and contact those folks with your specific request. You can even get black powder loads, to be truly authentic.

Good Luck

• 32-40 Cartridges

I've got a .32 rim fire Steven's that I was in the same boat with. While the cartridges do say 'smokeless powder' on them the actual 'smokeless powder' used is pyrodex (black powder substitute used in muzzleloaders). Its far from smokeless just a shipping rule since it isnt black powder.

What I'm really looking for here is someone who has the actual resource material available to them that would tell the chamber pressures of the new smokless loads versus the original black powder loads. Along with that, your suggestion of taking the rifle to a gunsmith for evaluation is sound advice as well. The rifle "appears" to be in sound condition with relatively little use considering it's age, but I'm no gunsmith by any means and won't hesitate to seek a qualified opinion as to it's true useablility before I actually shoot it.

Unless someone can tell me for certian that the two loads have similar chamber pressures, I'm going to play it safe like the post below says and not risk it, regardless of the rifle's condition.....So, anyone out there with the data to compare these two loads?