Howdy pards,
From a historic perspective, George Madis in his Winchester book references 1895 as the inception date of the .32 Special, but in reality, it did not appear in Winchester's catalog until January 1902.
In that catalog, Winchester gave their reason for their new cartridge.........
“The .32 Winchester Special Cartridge, which we have just perfected, is offered to meet the demand of many sportsmen, for a smokeless powder cartridge of larger caliber than the .30 Winchester (.30-30) and not yet so powerful as the .30 U.S. Army (.30-40), which could be reloaded with black powder and give satisfactory results. The .32 Winchester Special Cartridge meets all of these requirements. Loaded with Smokeless powder and a 165 gr. bullet, it has a muzzle velocity of 2,057 foot seconds. With a charge of 40 grs. of black powder, the .32 Winchester Special develops a velocity of 1,385 foot seconds, which makes it a powerful black powder cartridge .”
One thing that I have trouble believing, which I have seen in print many times, is the lack of accuracy in the 16” twist barrel when the rifling gets worn. Worn how? All of the rifles produced in this caliber have barrels made of special smokeless steel, that with any reasonable care, would be accurate to at least 10,000 rounds and beyond, if the barrel is properly cared for. At least that has been my experience with the .30-30.
No doubt, more barrels have lost accuracy because of muzzle wear from an improperly used cleaning rod than anything else, except, maybe for neglect. Several years ago a friend of mine purchased an old Marlin in .32 W.S. He was ready to sell it when the first few shots went through the 50 yard target sideways. I checked it out, and it turned out that muzzle wear was indeed the culprit. It shot fine after 2” was removed from the front of the barrel and it was re crowned.
Sincerely,
John