Okay you guys were right... I got another Colt!

[kawasakifreak77]

Seriously guys I thought one would be enough! My first Colt, the '62 NM I showed off a couple months back now has a little friend for company...

https://picblaze.com/thumbs/n2130n/20160704202939.jpg (https://picblaze.com/user/n2130n/album/20160704202939.jpg)

The numbers come back from 1917, now my oldest gun & this little guy shoots great! I've actually carried it a bit... I'm a little dude so carrying around what I consider a 'real' gun has never been an option for me. I can drop this in my front pocket & it barely prints! It'll rip off 9 rounds fast as I can squeeze the trigger & the sights hardly leave target. I love it.

I really don't see me bothering to load for this though... seems like a lot of effort for such an itty bitty round. What's ya'lls favorite plinking ammo? Favorite carry loads?

Oh & where do I get a couple more freakin' mags??

[Scharfschuetze]

I like the Boker knife in the photo too!

[Bigslug]

Your magazines, Sir! https://www.triplek.com/product/colt-pocket-m-1903-1926-32acp-8-rd-magazine-or-grips/

The Triple K's work great: pretty straight line feed on those guns - not much of a challenge to get 'em in the chamber.

We launched the group buy for this one and it's .380 big brother to feed all the little pocket pistols of the world: http://noebulletmolds.com/NV/index.php?cPath=31_383&osCsid=n93gqm8quiad6qe1nb1s2pcla7 and Al made plenty of extras. Got a nice meplat, and while it wouldn't be my first choice for Steven Segaling my way through hordes of coked-up Cartel members, it wouldn't be my last, either. And it's tumble lube - so no time spent individually sizing each one.

Nice thing about it from the "effort of handloading" perspective: it only takes 75 grains of lead and about 2 grains of powder to practice your skills. (Starline makes brass! *enable! enable!*:bigsmyl2: )

[kawasakifreak77]

Thanks for the link.

Do people really mess with loading these little mouse calibers? The smallest round I've loaded was 38 special. I figured I'd just buy a couple cases of the euro ammo & I'd be set for awhile! Of course... as fun as this little guy is I might need a lot more ammo than that!


I like the Boker knife in the photo too!

Thank you sir. Its a 1 in 500 limited edition with ironwood handles.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

You've got good taste in guns! Congratulations on the purchase.

[DougGuy]

Jeez I would NOT stake my life on such a mouse fart round! You could empty the magazine into a bad guy and he frowns while he pulls out his gun and shoots YOU.

[tejano]

Me like. I have a WWII version.

[kawasakifreak77]

Jeez I would NOT stake my life on such a mouse fart round! You could empty the magazine into a bad guy and he frowns while he pulls out his gun and shoots YOU.

Thanks for your imput..

[Bigslug]

Do people really mess with loading these little mouse calibers?

The attitude I've been developing is that if you don't load for them, you don't shoot them, and these little guys consume so little resources in the loading and are so non-fatiguing to shoot that - at least if you have a decent progressive to turn them out on - that you can make a lot of them. It's your .22 for the time of not being able to find .22. Probably cost you less, actually.

And while Doug Guy's got a point - it ain't exactly the Hammer of Thor - it will reliably drill 6 gallon milk jugs and its such a slim little beast that it greatly enables obedience to the first rule of gunfighting: HAVE ONE!

[charlie b]

My wife has one and she loves it. I also like to shoot it so much that I do reload it. Not as bad as you would think. A progressive needs to be well set up to load it, but, it does work.

Ours is very accurate too. Surprised me. Since it was refinished I also put better sights on it.

And, yes, sometimes I use it as my carry gun too.

[rintinglen]

Jeez I would NOT stake my life on such a mouse fart round! You could empty the magazine into a bad guy and he frowns while he pulls out his gun and shoots YOU.

In February of 1992 one Compton Democrat shot another twice with a Lorcin 32. Result: near instant civic improvement. Not my first choice, but a long ways from throwing marshmallows. Jeff Cooper did the world a disservice by exaggerating the effectiveness of some ammunition choices while denigrating the effectiveness of others. Bigger is better, but not that much. I am not volunteering to be shot with anything. Accuracy is more more important than power.

[charlie b]

Jeez I would NOT stake my life on such a mouse fart round! You could empty the magazine into a bad guy and he frowns while he pulls out his gun and shoots YOU.

Being hit with a .50BMG round does not guarantee that someone will be stopped instantly. Center of mass (if you don't hit the spinal column) means the guy can keep moving for at least several seconds, maybe even minutes, no matter what you shoot them with. Bullet placement is far more important than caliber.

OTOH, normally I like to carry a .357 or .45ACP not a "wimpy" .40 S&W or 9mm or .32 :) :) :)

[Rattlesnake Charlie]

Cast and reload for it. You'll smile knowing that you rolled them yourself. And, they likely will be more accurate than the factory stuff. My smallest is .380 ACP, and I shoot them a lot. They are tiny, but doable.

[kawasakifreak77]

Bullet placement is far more important than caliber.

OTOH, normally I like to carry a .357 or .45ACP not a "wimpy" .40 S&W or 9mm or .32 :) :) :)

And thats where I'm at. No this isn't a cannon but I can put half a mag of brass in the air, keeping my hits in a softball area. Plus it holds three more rounds than my regular carry, so theres always that.

[Plate plinker]

Just aim for the eyeball or throat.

[Petrol & Powder]

In February of 1992 one Compton Democrat shot another twice with a Lorcin 32. Result: near instant civic improvement. Not my first choice, but a long ways from throwing marshmallows. Jeff Cooper did the world a disservice by exaggerating the effectiveness of some ammunition choices while denigrating the effectiveness of others. Bigger is better, but not that much. I am not volunteering to be shot with anything. Accuracy is more more important than power.

/\ Thank You /\

Caliber discussions come up all the time and people tend to get lost in the tall weeds when they talk about the effectiveness of handgun cartridges.

Handguns in general suck at stopping human adversaries. While there are there are means to improve your odds of surviving a deadly force encounter when using a handgun, cartridge performance is only a part of improving those odds.


There are 3 ways to rapidly incapacitate a human with a firearm:

1. Reduce the supply of oxygenated blood that reaches the brain to the point that the subject loses consciousness. This is achieved by damaging the vascular system to the point that blood flow to the brain is severely reduced.

2. Damage the central nervous system to the point that motor control is lost. If the attacker is armed with a firearm, the CNS damage must be high enough that it impacts motor control of his/her hands.

3. Damage the large bones needed for mobility such as a femur or pelvis. If the subject maintains control of a firearm the person may still be able to harm the defender.

Of those 3 means to incapacitate a human; rapid blood loss is the easiest to achieve with handgun rounds. (large target area, fragile blood vessels, lack of shielding of those blood vessels). A CNS hit is the most effective but the target is relatively small and well protected by bone. Immobilization by skeletal damage is difficult to reliably achieve with light handgun cartridges.

So, to reliably achieve rapid blood loss (and the accompanying loss of profusion of the brain) the projectile must penetrate deep enough to reach a major blood vessel or the heart and it must damage those structures enough to impact blood flow to the brain.


A 32 ACP round is more than enough to put a nasty hole in the aorta or heart and that type of damage will put an end to the fight very quickly. The only real difference between handgun cartridges for self defense is how reliably they can reach deep enough to inflict the needed damage and how much damage will it do when it gets there.

rintinglen stated: "I am not volunteering to be shot with anything" and I agree with that statement. Firearms do BAD things to humans and I've seen it first hand.