Need list of .32 DA/SA revolvers made for the past 70 years

[TruthTellers]

Update:

I decided that I'm never going to find a .32 Long or H&R Magnum DA/SA revolver that was worth the money. Charter makes the Undercoverette, but it's a 5 shot and to me that's pointless when I could get the .38 in a 5 shot.

The older Charter's in .32 are rare and I've only seen two on Gunbroker the past few months and both sold north of $250, meaning it'd have cost me over $300 to get my hands on. To me, $300 for a .32 S&W Long revolver is a lot of money for not much gun.

The H&R .32's I don't trust buying unless I've seen and tested them in person. These are creeping higher and higher in price for some reason, almost as much as the older .32 Charter's are.

Because of the high prices I'm seeing, I've been turned off from getting a .32 DA/SA as Armscor makes a .38 for less money and comes with a good warranty.

Well, I came across a Heritage .32 H&R Magnum SAO revolver with a 3.5 inch barrel and a bird's head grip and decided that it was worth the money as it not only shoots a more powerful .32 H&R round, but it's also able to shoot .32 ACP with no safety pressure issues or extraction issues.

Not exactly what I was looking for, but for $290, I had to get it.

[tallball]

Is that a Heritage single action, kind of like a Rough Rider?

I love my Single Six in 32 H&R magnum. It is a very soft and accurate shooter. I'm thinking you will be pleased with your purchase.

[TruthTellers]

Yes, it's a single action, but it's a clone of the Colt SAA, not the Ruger Single Six.

The cool thing about this .32 Heritage is that it's built on the frame of their .22's and when these were made, the frames were steel, not aluminum like the rimfire models. Because these were made on the .22 frames, the .32 Rough Rider also sports the manual safety.

Heritage stopped making the .32 Rough Rider years ago and I doubt they'll ever bother making them again. This was really a bit of serendipity that I came across a .32 H&R revolver that didn't have an inflated price and it also comes with a holster.

[Cosmodragoon]

I e-mailed Ruger last week about just such a gun and they said the[y] do not have any plans to make the LCRX in any other calibers.

I love that the LCRX in .357 magnum was announced like a week after this post.

As per the main topic, I like .32 S&W Long. I have fond memories of splitting a millipede into two equally long writhing segments from as far as I could see as a young man. It isn't a powerhouse but curiously, the cheapest rounds I could find for a while were an SJHP from Magtech.

Those cartridges have only two advantages, low noise and low recoil; under some circumstances those may be very important.

As others have suggested, it is still better than .22 or .25 and accuracy comes easily with it. Inside the house, at night in the dark, without a suppressed modern-caliber pistol and with other people in the house, the .32 S&W Long might not be so bad.

I have a 4.2" Ruger Sp101 in 327 magnum. The trigger is so stiff that I don't like the gun much, but with a good trigger it would be a very nice piece...

The .327 Federal is a wonderful cartridge that's just had a rough time. The trigger on the current SP101 is yet another challenge. With the trigger on their LCR being so amazing, I'm sad that Ruger lets an SP101 leave the factory with a trigger that bad. It's not just the pull but the reset and return. There's a little side-to-side slop in mine too. I had a trigger job done and it helped, but it's still not as nice as my old SP101 in .32 H&R magnum.

[TruthTellers]

As others have suggested, it is still better than .22 or .25 and accuracy comes easily with it. Inside the house, at night in the dark, without a suppressed modern-caliber pistol and with other people in the house, the .32 S&W Long might not be so bad.

This is one of the reasons I thought of the .32 over the .38- lowest noise and recoil available in a centerfire revolver.

[thibaultfelix40]

OK, I am going to give you some straight skinny. I am not a 32 nut, I am a 32 slut. When I was a kid I decided that my plastic water pistol was a 32. The first pistol I ever bought was a surplus Spanish (Star?) 32ACP. It was a jammomatic.Since then I have bought and used extensively the following 32's: several Colt Police Positives, S&W prewar handejector, S&W post war pre I frame, H&R 732, Heritage 32 H&R single action, Beretta 81 Couger, Taurus 327 magnum, some Iver Johnson break tops and one nobody mentioned a Russian Nagant.I will give you my opinions:
1) Colt Police Positive( not the Police Positive Special) The PP's made between sometime in the 1920s and the start of WWII are the very best 32's I have encountered. I like the 4" barrel. The are really strong and smooth. When I first got into the 32 SWL I got some bad reloading data and loaded 50 PROOF loads. The bore was so leaded that I could barely see the grooves. I reduced the load and shot 1500 rounds through my PP of 90 grain loads that cronyed out at 1135 fps which is magnum performance. I have since given up that nonsence but the PP seems to be no worse for wear. The Colts make their final lockup às the trigger is pulled. This makes people who don't know think they are out of time and sell them cheap.
2) Taurus 327. This is a nice little gun but I find that the round does recoil and is obnoxiously loud.
3) S&W I frame. I like the 3 1/4 " alot better than the 4".
4) l didn't cotton to the single action but H&R Magnum is OK and the Heritage pistol worked fine.
5) The Beretta 81 is a jewel.
6) I like the Nagant as an outdoorsmans gun. It is of a good size and the round can be reloaded to H&R magnum levels with Lee dies and Starline 32-20 brass. These pistols are notorious for hard trigger pulls but I developed a pull using both index fingers.
7) I haven't had any trouble with my H&R 732.

All my modern 32 revolvers perform very well with 32 ACP ammo. I like having the break top 32's but they are novelties. When I shoot them I use a single naught (0) Hornady buckshot pellet over one grain of fast pistol powder. I never have used a 32 on a living critter but I have shot a lot with a 22, they all dropped or ran off. To me this may be the essence of defence.
I often see and sometimes buy Colts and S&W's for less than $300 on the net, at shows
and pawn shops.

[TruthTellers]

^ Huh, I also innovated a double finger trigger pull for a NAA mini revolver I have. I guess great minds think alike!

I can't wait to try the Heritage, but it's good to hear that yours worked well. Truth be told, I haven't heard or read anything about the Heritage revolvers being junk, maybe just looking like cheap junk abortions of a Single Action Army. If I do have any issues, I don't know what the customer service is like with Heritage, but they're owned by Taurus now, so...

The Colt Police Positive, to me, is the best of and epitome of the.32 S&W Long revolver.

The H&R 732's... I bought one and had to send it back as it had bad timing on two chambers. I love the way the look and how small they are, but there's a lot of back and forth between internet forum people about whether or not they're Saturday Night Specials. My concern with ever paying to own one again would be, even if it were in mint condition, how long it would actually last and once an issue did arise, who would I send it to for repair? The H&R factory is no more, unlike Charter Arms. With older Colt and S&W's, there are certainly plenty of gunsmiths familiar with them that would know how to fix them. The H&R's? Doubt it.

[Driftwood Johnson]

The Colt Police Positive, to me, is the best of and epitome of the.32 S&W Long revolver.

Howdy

While I agree a Police Positive 32 is a very nice little revolver, I prefer the S&W 32 Regulation Police.

Top to bottom in the photo below are a S&W 32 Regulation Police, which shipped in 1924; Colt Police Positive 32, which was made in 1917, and a Colt Pocket Positive chambered for 32 Long Colt, made in 1908. The Police Positive 32 is marked 32 POLICE CTG, meaning 32 Colt New Police, but it is basically the same as the 32 S&W Long with a flat nose.

I prefer the S&W gun because it has a lighter double action trigger pull.

However, I doubt you will find one of these for less than $300.


The little Pocket Positive is chambered for the 32 Long Colt cartridge. This is an obsolete cartridge with a heeled bullet that is not manufactured anymore.




P.S. Regarding gunsmiths that know how to fix these guns, the Smiths are easier to work on than a Colt. There are still plenty of gunsmiths who can work on an old Smith, parts are still available. Old Colt DA revolvers, not so much. The mechanism is much different than a Smith, parts are not readily available, and there are not as many smiths who are familiar with the old Colt DA revolvers as there are guys who can work on a Smith.

[thibaultfelix40]

I have read that most of the pocket positives were in fact chambered in 32S&W long and marked 32 Colt New Police. It is not uncommon for revolvers to be offered as being 32 Colt when they are in fact chambered in the S&W round. They can be reamed out to take 32 SWL.

[Driftwood Johnson]

I have read that most of the pocket positives were in fact chambered in 32S&W long and marked 32 Colt New Police. It is not uncommon for revolvers to be offered as being 32 Colt when they are in fact chambered in the S&W round. They can be reamed out to take 32 SWL.

Howdy Again

You have to be a little bit more specific when you say 32 Colt. There were the 32 Short Colt and 32 Long Colt which used heeled bullets and the 32 New Police which did not. See the photo down below.

According to The Standard Catalog of Colt Firearms, the Pocket Positive was chambered for 32 Short Colt, 32 Long Colt, 32 Colt New Police, 32 S&W, and 32 S&W Long. I have no figures for how many were chambered for each cartridge.

The little Pocket Positive at the bottom of this photo was made in 1908. It is simply marked COLT D.A. 32 on the left side of the barrel, and Pocket Positive on the right side of the barrel. It is not marked for a specific caliber.

The chambers are bored straight through with one diameter without any chamber throats. The only box of cartridges I have that will fit into it is a box of 32 Short Colt. If I had a box of 32 Long Colt, they would most likely fit too, as long as the cartridges were not too long for the cylinder.

The larger gun at the top of the photo is a Police Positive 32, made in 1917. It is marked POLICE POSITIVE 32 POLICE CTG on the left side of the barrel, meaning 32 Colt New Police. Colt simply did not want to mark S&W on their revolvers, so they came up with the 32 New Police cartridge which is the same as the 32 S&W Long, with a slightly flatter bullet.








The 32 Short Colt and 32 Long Colt were cartridges that used an outside lubricated heeled bullet, meaning the outside diameter of the bullet was the same as the outside diameter of the cartridge case. 32 S&W, 32 S&W Long, and 32 Colt New Police cartridges will not chamber in this particular revolver because they use a bullet that that fits inside the cartridge case, like most modern cartridges. In other words, the cases of these cartridges are too wide and will not fit into the chambers. I suppose yes, if the chambers were reamed for 32 S&W Long, then it could fire all three of those cartridges, but I have no intention of doing that.

The cartridges in this photo, left to right, are 32 Short Colt, 32 S&W, 32 S&W Long, and 32 Colt New Police. You can see that the 32 Short Colt case is the same diameter as the bullet, whereas the other three cartridges have slightly wider cases. The cartridge case of the 32 Short Colts is running around .315 in diameter. The cases for the other three cartridges are all running around .331 - .333, so they will not chamber in this gun.

[thibaultfelix40]

Listen to Driftwood here, he is spot on. Prior to the Police Positive Colt made the Colt New Pocket which would fire if dropped on the hammer. As much as I love the Police Positive I would have to advise noobies to buy a post war S&W if they just want a 32 to shoot. You can find them in the $300 area sometimes. Colt parts are hard to get and Coltsmiths are rare and busy. The 38 special is by far the best centerfire revolver round to start with. Ammo is available and cheap, the guns are available and cheap and it is an effective round that is fairly easy to shoot.

[TruthTellers]

Holy cow, this Heritage .32 Rough Rider with the bird's head grip and the short barrel is crazy awesome. It points and handles so well I've almost been unable to put it down since I picked it up today. It's a tad bigger than the snub .32's I was interested in, but it's not that much bigger.

I think this is a far better buy than the H&R 732 or Charter .32 are selling for these days and am very happy with this purchase.

[Real Gun]

Intend to use as a plinker to test reloads in and use as a stashed home defense gun hidden in a hiding place.

Testing reloads for what other gun? Not making sense of this. Why not have a quality gun in a quick-access lock up and in a more serious caliber? My lockup bedroom gun is a 4" Glock 40 S&W with light and laser sight.

I paid dearly for my Smith 30-1 and don't expect many others are remotely comparable.

Now that you like the Heritage so much, you wouldn't care to have that one stolen either, so price is merely economics and a rush toward gratification of a desire for a new gun. Seems like you did, however, do a good job of meeting your criteria.

[9ballbilly]

I.N.A (Brazil I think) made one.

Don't know how many are around but they made a six shot .32 S&W and a five shot .38.

IIRC they were commonly called the "Tiger" revolver because they had a tiger stamped on the side-plate.

[75218ron]

I have an H&R 633 model 32 S&W long.

[Glenn E. Meyer]

I don't think anyone posted the North American Arms prototype in 32 HR mag

http://naaminis.com/smf/index.php?topic=2715.0

[dgludwig]

1) Colt Police Positive( not the Police Positive Special) The PP's made between sometime in the 1920s and the start of WWII are the very best 32's I have encountered.

If I was asked to name the "very best 32s I have encountered", it would doubtless be the fine Smith & Wesson K-32; a revolver designed for Bullseye competition, a shooting sport where extreme accuracy is the only goal.

[Soclosenotnear]

I have what I believe is a Rossi model 28 in .32 long.