The .32 Winchester Self-Loading (.32SL / .32SLR / .32WSL) or 8.2x31mmSR is an American
rifle
A rifle is a long gun, long-barreled firearm designed for accurate shooting and higher stopping power, with a gun barrel, barrel that has a helical or spiralling pattern of grooves (rifling) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus o ...
cartridge.
Description
Winchester
Winchester (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs N ...
introduced the .32SL and
.35SL cartridges in the
Winchester Model 1905
The Winchester Model 1905 (also known as the Model 05), is a blowback-operated, semi-automatic rifle produced by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company beginning in 1905 and discontinued in 1920. This rifle loads cartridges from a 5 or 10-round c ...
self-loading
A semi-automatic firearm, also called a self-loading or autoloading firearm (automatic firearm, fully automatic and selective fire firearms are also variations on repeating firearm#Autoloading, self-loading firearms), is a repeating firearm who ...
rifle, a
centerfire
Two rounds of .357 Magnum, a centerfire cartridge; notice the circular primer in the center
A center-fire (or centerfire) is a type of metallic cartridge used in firearms, where the primer is located at the center of the base of its casing (i. ...
version of the
Winchester Model 1903
The Winchester Model 1903 was the first commercially available semi-automatic firearm made by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company.
History
The Winchester Model 1903 was designed by T.C. Johnson, who had joined Winchester in 1885 and had become ...
. The .32SL never gained popularity as a
hunting
Hunting is the Human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, and killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to obtain the animal's body for meat and useful animal products (fur/hide (sk ...
cartridge, although it may be suitable for the largest small game such as fox and coyote at ranges under 150 yards. Both the .32SL and .35SL were soon superseded by the introduction of the more powerful
.351SL in the
Winchester Model 1907
The Winchester Model 1907 is a blowback-operated, semi-automatic rifle produced by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company beginning in 1907 with production ending in 1957. It fired a cartridge of intermediate power, cycled through a semi-automatic ...
.
When first introduced, however, the notable firearm expert
Townsend Whelen
Townsend Whelen (March 6, 1877 – December 23, 1961), called "Townie" by his friends, was an American hunter, soldier, writer, outdoorsman and rifleman.
Whelen was a colonel in the United States Army, and a prolific writer on guns and hunting, ...
noted the .32SL cartridge as displaying similar
ballistics
Ballistics is the field of mechanics concerned with the launching, flight behaviour and impact effects of projectiles, especially weapon munitions such as bullets, unguided bombs, rockets and the like; the science or art of designing and acceler ...
as the
.32-40 Winchester black powder
Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, charcoal (which is mostly carbon), and potassium nitrate, potassium ni ...
, low-pressure cartridge. He further suggests the best use of the .32 SL as being for rapid-fire
target shooting
Shooting sports is a group of competitive and recreational sporting activities involving proficiency tests of accuracy, precision and speed in shooting — the art of using ranged weapons, mainly small arms (firearms and airguns, in forms such ...
for ranges up to 300 yards. Within such ranges, it is quite an accurate cartridge.
In October 1940, an Army Ordnance circular suggested development of a light rifle using a .30 caliber cartridge similar to the "Winchester Self-loading Cartridge, Caliber .32" to replace the pistol and submachine gun. This led to the production of the "
Caliber .30 SL, M1" cartridge directly based on the .32 SL in February 1941 and, after a design competition, adoption of the Winchester-designed
M1 carbine
The M1 carbine (formally the United States carbine, caliber .30, M1) is a lightweight semi-automatic carbine chambered in the .30 carbine (7.62×33mm) cartridge that was issued to the U.S. military during World War II, the Korean War, and t ...
in October 1941.
[Larry Ruth, ''M1 Carbine: Design Development and Production'', The Gun Room Press, 1979.]
Dimensions
See also
*
8 mm caliber
This is a list of firearm cartridges which have bullets in the caliber range.
*''Length'' refers to the empty cartridge case
Case or CASE may refer to:
Instances
* Instantiation (disambiguation), a realization of a concept, theme, or design ...
*
List of cartridges by caliber
Calibers in the size range of (mm, inches):
*2 mm caliber, 2 mm (.079+ caliber)
*3 mm caliber, 3 mm (.118+ caliber)
*4 mm caliber, 4 mm (.157+ caliber)
*5 mm caliber, 5 mm (.197+ caliber)
*6 mm caliber, 6 mm (.236+ caliber)
*7 mm caliber, 7 mm ...
*
List of rifle cartridges
List of rifle cartridges, by primer type, Caliber, calibre and name.
File:Cartridge Sample 2.jpg, 350px, From left to right: 1 .17 Hornady Mach 2, 2 .17 Hornady Magnum Rimfire, 3 .22 Long Rifle, 4 .22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire, 5 .17/23 SMc, 6 5mm ...
*
Table of handgun and rifle cartridges
This is a table of selected pistol/submachine gun and rifle/machine gun cartridges by common name. Data values are the highest found for the cartridge, and might not occur in the same load (e.g. the highest muzzle energy might not be in the same ...
References
External links
.32 W.S.L.
.32 Winchester Self Loading7.65x33R: Kynoch; .32 Winchester Self-Loading
{{DEFAULTSORT:32 Winchester Self-Loading
Pistol and rifle cartridges
Winchester Repeating Arms Company cartridges