What in the world are you referring to. I do not know how to delete a post, nor do I need or care to. I did though, ask where one of your posts disappeared to? YOU ARE WELCOME TO THE LAST RESPONSE.

If your launch platform is an 1885 Winchester what you need to look at is the chamber pressure potential of the rifle not the cartridge.  Factory ammo as well as published load data keeps chamber pressures quite low for the 32-40 in lew of some of the weaker actions that were chambered for the 32-40 such as the Model 44 Stevens .
The model 1885 is a far stronger action capable of much higher chamber pressures as evidenced by some much higher chamber pressure cartridges that have been factory chambered for the 1885. Modern production model 1885's can use cartridges that go as high as 60,000 psi chamber pressures.  With a vintage 1885 I would top out at about 40,000 psi in cartridges like the 30-30 or 32 special.  There is no reason why you can not safely load a vintage 1885 Win rifle chambered in 32-40 to the same pressures as the 32 special which works at nearly twice the chamber pressure as the 32-40.  With that said saying the 32-40 so loaded would be inhumane for use on deer would contradict the possible hundreds of thousands of deer humanly taken with the 32 special since its introduction. As is so often the case it is the rifle not the cartridge that sets the performance limit and the 32-40 in an 1885 Win rifle has far more potential performance than what factory ammo and most load data would indicate.

Good thing our grandfathers didn't have any power level regulations when they were hunting! They'd have had a heck of a time with numerous cartridge chamberings they took deer with then!

bullshop, I remember an article in a magazine years ago where the author stated that he doubted that a deer could tell the difference between being shot with a 30-30, 30-06, or 300 magnum.  It made me rethink the propaganda that only magnum rounds were worthy of being chambered in big game rifles.   

As a side note, my only 32-40 is a Savage 99 that I bought as a teenager in the 70’s.  I hunted with it a bit, but never got a chance to shoot a deer with it.  It was supplanted as my big game rifle in 1975 when I bought the first Ruger No.1 I ever saw.  I hunted almost exclusively with it for at least 40 years.

Agreed 100 %.    The 32-40 is one of those cartridges that successfully transitioned from black powder to smokeless powder and as such is very likely at its game performance peak with its original form of homogenous lead alloy bullets.  I shoot many such vintage cartridge arms that were originally loaded with black powder and cast lead or swaged lead bullets.  I believe that with such cartridges when loaded to original velocities that the use of pure unalloyed lead will enhance the killing effect of the vintage cartridges.  Using pure unalloyed lead in such cartridges loaded to original black powder velocities has always seemed to be a positive gain in terminal performance .   I would expect much better results with such a load over those using factory ammo loaded with jacketed bullets when used on up to deer size game.