[5150]

I need a little help with this one. Which of the old Colts can safely handle the .32 S&W and/or the .32 S&W Long cartridge? I'm guessing the Police Positive can, but not sure if there are any others. I'm more interested in the .32 Long cuz that's what I reload for. Some of the stuff that I've been reading has me wondering. Thanx.

Sent from my Commodore 64 running Windoze 95

 

[SilverAnn]

I have the .32 Police Positive and shoot both. I don't think Colt wanted to put S&W on the barrel so they put 32 police.

 

[5150]

I have the .32 Police Positive and shoot both. I don't think Colt wanted to put S&W on the barrel so they put 32 police.

Thanx. Yeah, I've heard that story about Colt not wanting to put S&W on their barrels. I'm also wondering if there are any other Colts that can handle the .32 Longs.

Sent from my Commodore 64 running Windoze 95

 

[bearcat6]

I have this Detective Special in .32 New Police, same as S&W .32 long.

 

[jeepnut]

If it says 32 Colt it will not shoot anything but that cartridge. My Pocket Positive is like that. It is a heeled cartridge.

 

[BlackBat242]

The term "New Police" comes from when Teddy Roosevelt was Police Commissioner for NYC in 1896. He decided that the random assortment of guns that the officers were using was causing the poor level of shooting in the department.

He ordered the department to standardize on one type for general issue (for the first time in NYPD history), and selected the .32 S&W Long cartridge as being more-powerful and more-accurate than any of the similar options.

He also specified the Colt revolver... which Colt produced as the New Police Revolver, which was replaced by the Police Positive revolver in 1907. Colt also produced their own cartridge for it, with a special bullet.

Here is the wiki on the round:

The Colt New Police is a double-action, six-shot revolver (which can also be fired single action). This gun was chambered in the .32 New Police, which is dimensionally identical to a flat-nose version of the .32 S&W Long, except for the nose shape. In addition to the .32 New Police cartridge, the revolver was available in 32 Colt. The diameters of the two cartridges are not the same, with the 32 Colt being approximately 0.020 inches smaller in diameter than the New Police. Although the 32 Colt can be loaded and fired in the New Police chamber, it is not recommended to do so. It is impossible to load the .32 New Police in a 32 Colt chamber. The later .32 New Police chambering was more popular than the 32 Colt chambering.