32 colt /32 s&w

[milltownhunter]

i found some brass i a pawn shop that is labled peters 32 colt np will they work in a a s&w 32 long i heard that the 32 colt and the smith are the same?

[bob208]

yes .32 colt new police is the same case. the load in the colt uses a 100 gr flat nose lead bullet and the s&w uses a 95 gr. round nose bullet. it was all marketing back then.

[gunfan]

Remember, .32 Long Colt will chamber the .32 Short Colt, but not the reverse. The .32 Colt New Police will chamber in the .32 S&W Long, .32 H&R Magnum and .327 Federal Magnum revolvers as well.

bob208 is right. The Colt N.P. came first (Police Positive, and later Pocket Positive) the .32 S&W Long came later. The 1890-1903 period was an exciting time of handgun development. First the Colt .32's then the S&W .32's then the S&W .38 Special (1899.)

The .32 Colts had the first swing-out cylinders (Theodore Roosevelt liked their accuracy and speed of reloading so much that he ordered 177 of the Colt Police Positives for the NYPD.)

Scott

[Green Frog]

See also my comments in the nearby thread about the 32 Colt. I have fired precisely one (1) round of the old type Colt 32 Long in a S&W revolver. Upon firing, the empty case took on a funny appearance with the top 2/3 the same diameter as the 32 S&W/Colt NP, and the bottom 1/3 noticeably smaller. Since I needed the 32 (old) Colt for another application, that was my only foray into that usage.

Froggie

[Shooter]

For anyone interested, I have 2 boxes (100) of new Peters brass for a .32 Colt New Police. I once had a "Dick Special" in that caliber.
I will trade it for new .32 S&W long, or .38 S&W brass if you want headstamps on your brass to match your gun as I did.

[gunfan]

I tend to chuckle (just a bit) at Colt. In their "salad days" they seemed to concentrate on "different" bullet diameters to separate them from S&W and the other manufacturers. They finally realized that their "heel-type" bullets would be relegated to rimfire cartridge, after that, Colt finally came to grips with the fact that they had to conform with the "mainstream" of S&W and other gun makers.

Now their pieces have become hard (read: expensive) to feed and handloading seems to be the only way to handle it. Good cast bullets and propellants are the only way to make shooting these older revolvers financially feasible.

Scott

[rintinglen]

Actually,the Smith and Wesson 32 long predates the 32 Colt New Police. Yet the Colt New Police Revolver predates the S&W 32 Hand Ejector Model, which predates the Police Positive which predates the Police Positive Special. Confused? Well, the 32 colt revolvers made prior to 1907 were chambered for the 32 Long Colt, a antique, rebated-heel cartridge of pitiful accuracy dating from the 1870's. S&W was selling loads of their 32 Hand Ejectors in the excellent 32 S&W Long cartridge, which was a fatter case than the Colt offering and had a full diameter bullet. Colt, stern competitors that they were, realized that the S&W cartridges were better designed, decided to chamber their new Positive Safety Action Revolvers for the S&W ammunition. But there was no way they were going to put their rivals name on their guns. So, rather than the round-nosed boolit used by Ammunition Manufacturers to load the 32 S&W Long, Colt put a round-flat bullet in their version of the Cartridge and called it the 32 New Police, and went on to sell a pile of revolvers chambered for that cartridge.

If you run across an old Lyman or Ideal mold marked 299-153, that was the design for the 32 Long Colt. The 313-226 was the right bullet for the S&W, back when Grandad wore short pants.

There were 4 32 caliber Cartridges, not counting the ACP, back then. there was the 32 Short Colt, the 32 Long Colt, the 32 S&W, and the 32 S&W long. Nobody has made a gun for any of the first 3 since before WWII, but they still pop-up now and again.

[gunfan]

There were 4 32 caliber Cartridges, not counting the ACP, back then. there was the 32 Short Colt, the 32 Long Colt, the 32 S&W, and the 32 S&W long. Nobody has made a gun for any of the first 3 since before WWII, but they still pop-up now and again.

I beg to differ when it comes to the .32 S&W. While the .32 Short Colt and Long Colt haven't seen any new revolvers manufactured since WWII, the .32 S&W has had a large number of revolvers manufactured by H&R as well as one or two other outfits. H&R made revolvers chambered for the .32 S&W well into the 1960's.

The .32 S&W isn't dead. Two years ago I spoke with a man whose father routinely used a .32 S&W revolver to slaughter 300 lb hogs by placing a single 88-grain slug from a snub-nosed H&R Model 732 at the base of their skulls. Lights out.

Scott

[9.3X62AL]

The .32 S&W isn't dead. Two years ago I spoke with a man whose father routinely used a .32 S&W revolver to slaughter 300 lb hogs by placing a single 88-grain slug from a snub-nosed H&R Model 732 at the base of their skulls. Lights out.

Scott

Hmmmmm......THAT seems rather "sporting" of him. I like light-tackle fishing, but that sort of "light-for-application" mode doesn't always translate well to more final work of hunting or dispatching. Sola mi dos centavos......

[gunfan]

This wasn't a "hunting" application. These were domestic boars being slaughtered for what their bodies will yield. (No adrenaline-fueled rages here.) Nope, these were "food" animals.

Scott