.32-20 Winchester

The .32-20 Winchester, also called the .32 WCF for Winchester center fire, is an American rimmed cartridge that Winchester introduced in 1882 as its first small-game lever-action intermediate cartridge. It began as a black-powder round intended for small game, varmints and deer. The name records a .312-inch (7.9 mm) bullet over a standard charge of 20 grains of black powder. Colt produced a single-action revolver chambered for it a few years after the rifle round appeared, so the cartridge served in both long guns and handguns. It was sometimes used on deer in the past, but is now widely considered too light for that and better suited to small game and metallic silhouette shooting, and it has a good reputation for accuracy out to about 100 yards. Because most guns chambered for it are older Winchester Model 73 and Model 92 rifles and older Colt and Smith & Wesson revolvers, factory loads are kept at reduced pressures.