It is my opinion that you have a 32 Special barrel that was incorrectly marked at the factory. Based on what I saw in 1980's factories, production flows were awful and parts were mis placed, may have been put into the reject pile, and somehow "resurrected" back into the production. Also, you must consider the cynicism of factory managers. Maybe they had a bunch of barrels that were mis marked, and decided to put them on rifles, to let the customer figure it out. This happens all the time, and even now, factories ship defective equipment, knowing it is defective, but they make more money selling the defective equipment, than scrapping it. The logic is, scrapping all the defectives is a guaranteed 100% monetary loss, but shipping it is not. Because never are 100% of the defectives are returned for repair or warranty. And if the customer is upset, well, that's tomorrow's problem. And here you are, thirty years later, and they were proven right. They got their profit, but the current incarnation of Winchester tells you "that's not our problem". Might as well rage against the moon for what they did to you, but, its your problem now.
I recommend fire forming lubricated 30-30 cases to your chamber. This is something I did with new 30-30 cases in this 30-30 Marlin
Shot well
Even factory was not bad when greased.
The primary reason was, the chamber is huge. If I had not greased the rounds and fired them greased, with this much shoulder movement, it is likely I would have had case head separations, if not on the first firing, then not for long. It takes about the same amount of grease to perfectly fireform a case to the chamber, as it does, to size the case.
I sort of over did it with these 35 Whelen rounds. I dipped these cases in a hair gel, which is mostly vasoline and pleasant smelling perfumes. These are 30-06 cases necked up to 35 Whelen. Too much grease can cause shoulder dents, just like it does in a sizing die. So, keep the layer thin.
I also recommend, after necking up your cases, and before priming, you anneal the necks. I had a lot of case neck splits before I learned to anneal the case necks. I use a torch, in the inky shadows of the garage, figure out how much time it takes to get a red color, and stay under that. I have over annealed cases to the point they won't hold a bullet. So, keep the case neck just under red, twirl the case in your fingers in the torch flame, and count as you are doing that. This is actual a good safety mechanism, by the time you have over annealed the case, your fingers start to burn! Twirl the case, counting to three, for example, and drop the case in a pan of water. The quick quench does nothing other than preventing the hot case from melting the carpet or charring anything.
