When A .32 Could Kill A Man…The Good Ol' Days

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skb12172
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When A .32 Could Kill A Man…The Good Ol' Days

Post by skb12172 »

What has changed? Antibiotics? Is that really the only difference? Or, is there still a place for this good 'ol vintage SD/CCW caliber? Incidentally, my 95 year old grandmother still carries the .32 My grandfather bought for her back in the 40s or 50s.

What say you all in the peanut gallery?

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skb12172
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Re: When A .32 Could Kill A Man…The Good Ol' Days

Post by skb12172 »

Why was it so popular, then? Concealability?
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PawPaw
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Re: When A .32 Could Kill A Man…The Good Ol' Days

Post by PawPaw »

What Chris said.

As a young cop in the early '80s I remember seeing some older police officers carrying a .32 acp as a backup gun, but they were older guns that were imported before GCA68. Normally those were euro pistols that could fit in a pocket, but we all understood that even in those times the guns were underpowered and not suitable for front-line duty. Hence, they were back-up guns. You'll recall that during that era, the wonder-nines hadn't made the scene yet, and the most common firearm carried by police officers was the .357 magnum revolver, mostly with .38 special +P ammo. Then came the late '80s and the wondernines started coming out, and the police world changed. Suddenly, everyone wanted the latest and greatest. It was about this time that Smith and Wesson came out with their second-generation pistols, and they became more accepted in police use. About this same time, the Glock pistol started making waves. (Yeah, I know that the Glock was designed in 1980, but I don't recall seeing one, or hearing much about it until the end of that decade. It was "new", and wasn't readily accepted by police agencies until the late '80s - early '90s.)

By that time (and they were beady times in pistol design) the metallurgy and design had evolved to the point where a 9mm pistol was light, easily concealed, and the .32 fell by the wayside. I have just exactly one .32 acp, a Ruby pistol made in Spain for the French army. My great uncle carried it as a cop in the '50s and '60s and I inherited it. My any rational standard it's a piece of crap. Compared to my .380 ( a Ruger LCP), it's longer, taller, heavier, and wider, in a less effective cartridge.

These days, the .32 acp is a curiosity and I'm sure that it has its aficionados, guys who tinker with it simply because it's obsolete. It's an interesting part of firearms history and should be regarded as such.
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blackeagle603
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Re: When A .32 Could Kill A Man…The Good Ol' Days

Post by blackeagle603 »

belly gun caliber (or tear duct -- pick your poison).
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BDK
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Re: When A .32 Could Kill A Man…The Good Ol' Days

Post by BDK »

I think much of it also has to do with size - in WWII, they had size minimums for soldiers - and lots of folks didn't make it.
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Re: When A .32 Could Kill A Man…The Good Ol' Days

Post by Aesop »

AFAIK, the only men they ever killed were pointing said weapons at their own temples after transgressing some point of honor, decorum, or competence.

My understanding was they mainly existed in Europe because they wanted to give the various countries' polizei/gendarmes/etc. something that would enable them to let you know you'd been naughty, without any medical complications unduly interfering with your appearance at the trial.

So it was basically Europe's version of the LTL Weapon, before anyone thought to paint them all day-glow orange.

From all I've ever seen, heard, or read, a man without a .32 is like an armadillo without a banjo.
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evan price
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Re: When A .32 Could Kill A Man…The Good Ol' Days

Post by evan price »

I have a Colt's New Police 32 (a transitional to the Police Positive) from about 1907 that was carried by a beat cop all his career. Small gun for a service revolver, and iirc Teddy Roosevelt specified them for NYC police. With my 98gr lead handloads it's not a bad shooter. With my 32 long +p handloads it's almost decent. The vast majority of encounters are no shots fired, and it's about the lower limit of what I would want to carry.
That said my taurus 327 with federal american eagle 100gr would not be a pussycat.
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Rod
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Re: When A .32 Could Kill A Man…The Good Ol' Days

Post by Rod »

The old pocket revolvers in .32 had a lot of names bicycle guns (used to protect you from the dogs chasing you), belly guns (you stuck them in the guy's belly and pulled until empty), suicide guns (fire 4 shots at the opponent then use the 5th up your nose because HE'S going to hurt you), gambler's friend. They're very weak and, as pointed out before, you would most likely die from sepsis after the wound and burn area got infected.
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Re: When A .32 Could Kill A Man…The Good Ol' Days

Post by PawPaw »

Rod wrote:The old pocket revolvers in .32 had a lot of names bicycle guns (used to protect you from the dogs chasing you), belly guns (you stuck them in the guy's belly and pulled until empty), suicide guns (fire 4 shots at the opponent then use the 5th up your nose because HE'S going to hurt you), gambler's friend. They're very weak and, as pointed out before, you would most likely die from sepsis after the wound and burn area got infected.
On the other hand, there are millions of those little pistols out there, and Buffalo Bore is making defensive ammo for them. Good, hard cast bullets driven to about 900 fps while still keeping pressures at SAAMI. I picked up a couple of boxes for my wife's Colt Pocket Positive, and it's easy to tell the difference between the anemic factory ammo and the Buffalo Bore offering.

We started this thread talking about .32 ACP, which is anemic at best. The .32 SW Long offers some folks with small hands the opportunity to use those old revolvers with a credible defense load.
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evan price
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Re: When A .32 Could Kill A Man…The Good Ol' Days

Post by evan price »

PawPaw wrote:
Rod wrote:The old pocket revolvers in .32 had a lot of names bicycle guns (used to protect you from the dogs chasing you), belly guns (you stuck them in the guy's belly and pulled until empty), suicide guns (fire 4 shots at the opponent then use the 5th up your nose because HE'S going to hurt you), gambler's friend. They're very weak and, as pointed out before, you would most likely die from sepsis after the wound and burn area got infected.
On the other hand, there are millions of those little pistols out there, and Buffalo Bore is making defensive ammo for them. Good, hard cast bullets driven to about 900 fps while still keeping pressures at SAAMI. I picked up a couple of boxes for my wife's Colt Pocket Positive, and it's easy to tell the difference between the anemic factory ammo and the Buffalo Bore offering.

We started this thread talking about .32 ACP, which is anemic at best. The .32 SW Long offers some folks with small hands the opportunity to use those old revolvers with a credible defense load.
Absolutely. The 32 S&W is anemic at best but the old breaktops that used it couldn't generally take much more. The 32 Long offers a lot of room for workup with modern fast powders which is why 32 H&R came about.

I don't know why I like 32 S&W Long so much, but I've got (counts on fingers) SIX of them right now, and looking for more.
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