.32 H&R Mag fading or rising

[Mikeyboy]

I friend of mine asked for a recommendation for an "in the nightstand" gun for his mother who is recently widowed. She will probably never see a range, and he basically wants something that is easy to use, low recoil but effective.

We agreed a Revolver was the first choice because it is easy to use. I mentioned a .38 however she has arthritis and a .38 may be too much recoil. I mentioned a .22 has no recoil but bad stopping power. Then I told my friend about a .32H&R Magnum. His eyes lit up and he was interested. Stopping power and low recoil. "Why haven't I heard of it, someone can make millions selling those" he said. I went into my tale of how I became interested in .32 revolvers and since it was too hard to find ammo I switch back to .38. For some reason it never became popular, and I could not explain why. He really didn't care about ammo cost or availability since he only need one box of ammo. I pointed him into the direction of Taurus and S&W and off he went.

My question is the .32 H&R magnum fading away, or is it slowly gaining popularity. I cannot tell. There was talk that NAA was going to introduce a .32 revolver, perhaps that will breath new life into the round similar the Kel-tec P-32 and the price reduction of the seecamp breathed life back into the .32acp. There is this big gap between .22 and 9mm & .38 that it makes me wonder why gun companies are not taking advantage of it.

 

[Doug.38PR]

S&W 431 PD released in 2004 didn't last a year and was pulled from the assembly line. I would say it is going down. I prefer 6 shots to the 5 shot .38 Special Chief Special so I bought one, but the .32 caliber just never seemed right, so I sold mine and bought what I really wanted all along, a .38 Special Colt Detective Special 2cond issue (even though they don't make them anymore either)

 

[Bob79]

Cor Bon is supposed to be making a 32H&R round for the release of the NAA 32 mag mini. Also Black Hills has a round, along with Federal & Georgia Arms. But S&W discontinued their 32 H&R revolvers for now, and I don't think Taurus makes them anymore either. You're right, its not a bad little round, but to me it looks like it just isn't going to catch on. I think it will end up remaining a sort of "specialty round".

Your friend could get a .38 revolver and load it up with 148 grain wadcutters, they don't perform that great. But they will make a wide wound channel, and they pretty much have no recoil in any all steel revolver.

 

[Doug.38PR]

your friend could get a .38 Special and load it with some .38 Long Colt or .38 Short Colt or .38 S&W. Hard to find, expensive...not as much stopping power as the .38 Special or .38 Special +P but certainly less recoil and better than a .22 while still creating an even larger cavity than a .22 or even .32

EDIT: Or, now that I think about it, get a .38 Special and load Standard .38 Special Hydrashoks 110 gr. VERY LITTLE recoil from those especially if fired from a 4 inch barrel

 

[krieger11b]

Doug, the 38S&W is slightly larger than .357 inches. Don't know about the others you mentioned.

 

[Rimrod]

The .32 mag is a great cartridge, but not enough people know it.

Marlin even brought it out in a lever action rifle which should be a neat little rifle to own. The problem is when some manufacturer brings something out they don't sell.

The .38 long and short Colt will shoot out of a .38 spl. The only problem there is your back to 5 rounds in a small frame gun.

Look on Gunbroker.com or somewhere to find a used .32 if you can't find a new one and I'm sure you can find a box of ammo for it somewhere.

I have a Davis Derringer and a Taurus 76 both chambered for the .32 mag. The Taurus is accurate, pleasant to shoot and fun to reload for. It is a medium frame though.

Stay away from the H&R and NEF models, their triggers were terrible on the ones I looked at and were very heavy to pull.

 

[walter in florida]

Well if she bought a used 32 H&R (32H&R mag) and ammo got hard to find, still could go to the 32S&W long. I know how it is, I went to revolvers, because I even have a little trouble racking the slide on a 32 ACP simiauto.

 

[Mannlicher]

buy the gun and 100 rounds of ammo. For all she will shoot, its a lifetime purchase.

 

[liliysdad]

I carry a 431PD every day, either as a primary or a BUG. Where I am, these little guns sold like hotcakes, and I was lucky to get one when I did. My dealer could not keep them on the shelf.

I love the extra shot, I love the round. It is as good as a standard pressure .38, which is all I would shoot anyway, out of the short barrel of the J-frame.

I really wish I could buy a 4 inch K-frame in .32 H&R. Be a great woods bumming gun.

 

[Mikeyboy]

I just find it odd how some things just flop. Perhaps it came out at a bad time. I had shot a 32 H&R magnum once, and I briefly owned an old .32 S&W long revolver that I got rid of simply because it was so hard to find ammo for it. It was neat to shoot, little recoil but a little more bang than a .22. According to their website, I seen that Taurus has only one revolver left out of 3 they original produced. If he can't get the Taurus I told him he will have a tough time finding a good used one. The problem with the .38 is the gun is either going to be too heavy or the gun is going to have too much recoil. Arthritis can really stink for a shooter. I recommend the Federal low-recoil rounds too. The last ditch option I guess is to get a .22 magnum.

 

[skeeter1]

What about a .22 Magnum or .38 Special wadcutters? Neither have all that much recoil, and have been around for years and aren't going away. I doubt the .32 Magnum has any advantage over either of these cartridges.

 

[gak]

Great round

A very good question--really is hard to tell. From some industry (gun availability) signs it's dropping. On the other hand, outfits like Corbon(mentioned) and Georgia Arms have farily recently come up with decent SD and/or "hot" loads. It is obviously still a topic of discussion, with a lot of folks (who own them) singing praises for the caliber and the guns that shoot them and I'd have to say I'm one of them. I say it's going through a (market) confusion complex of sorts. And that's nothing new for the caliber except in recent years there's been a modest amount of interest by the cowboy action shooting crowd. In general, there are lot of accolades by those who have and use them, a lot of derision by those who haven't (and a small number who have). Enough interest by some manufacturers (Marlin) and rumor has it Armi Sport (their new Win 92 copy) if a recent Taylor's catalog is any indication (then again, the Taylor's new/revised site no longer shows!) ...and for quite awhile S&W, Taurus (with their J frames plus a recent teaser to bring out a lever which they dropped), Ruger certainly, and then not... it comes and goes. Very strange. No fault of the round or the guns that shoot them really. Strictly a market thing..a very fickle buying public...and again not nearly enough publicity by the right mags or other venues at the right time to generate or perpetuate industry and buying public interest. Ruger wouldn't have made the recent Single Six (along with the nifty birdshead option) for as long as it did if it wasn't a decent round. They thought there was a market and then decided--for their purposes--there wasn't enough of one. But originally there was a reason why they thought it a good idea.

Unfortunately, from the very start the gun and round are the victim of apathy from a bigger is better gun-press/industry that's been so prevalent for so long (the .17 craze and perennial interest (for good reason) in the good ol' .22 notwithstanding) and then the over-impressionable readers who read them and either believe them (or don't question why certain guns/rounds aren't covered more). To me it's a great round. A lot of people have asked why the round? And I ask why the plethora of so many other like (38-357-9mm-10mm-40-41-44-45, etc) rounds that are--to a degree--redundant/fairly closely-spaced (relatively speaking) when you think about it in terms of basic function ...and then to criticize the addition of a round to fill a huge gap where there are no calibers?....and you do realize there's a huge gap between the .22 and the .38...Someone decided to fill it and people ask why? Really decent pop with very low recoiling/modest blast (even in snubbies, compared to "comparable" 5 shot/J .38s) in a format that can still take 6 shots - is why. Not really a new round either...been around since the early 80s, first introduced by H&R (agree with the comments here regarding the firearms but thank them for invention of the round), and then Ruger with it's adjustable sight Single Six in '84. I had one of the first of those and it was and remains one of the most enjoyable guns I ever shot...and ditto the current (recent) crop of Single Sixes. So it does have a history, just a rocky or at least roller coaster one.

It is amazing to me that more people haven't caught on to the little bugger. I have .44 Mags, .40 S&Ws, .357s and .38s and there's a decent use for all of them, just as there is for the next one down the line, the nifty .32 H&R Mag. For an industry (and reading public--just check out the TFL!) that seems so clammoring for new this and that in calibers, it is confounding the apathy the (mass) gun public has given this really decent round. I have three - two Ruger Single Sixes ("Vaqueritos") and a Smith 431PD and they're all great. There should be three times as many models on the market rather than the other way around.

Yes, it's like everything else--not enough buy the gun and the ammo price stays up and availability down...and the price does not suggest it is a range pistol for shooting hundreds of rounds -- unless you have the jingle -- Too bad, 'cause I can speak from experience when I have "bit the bullet" on the price to shoot a few hundred rounds and can tell you it's a heck of a lot more pleasant afte a few hours of shooting than similarly packaged .38s--even they can get obnoxious and wearing after awhile. So, you gotta do the range thing a lot (and concerned about price), get a 9mm or .38... But for a really decent, compact SD/carry weapon, especially for those with small hands or otherwise recoil shy....like the poster said about the grandmother, just suck it up on a couple boxes of ammo and forget about it. I'm holding onto mine, and my prediction is that it will come back strong (again) from the market doldrums.

 

[Alaskee]

38

Get her a good used (light enough for her to handle) 38 special revolver if she is never going to take it to the range. Arthritis will be the last thing on her mind if she ever does experience a break in and she'll always be able to get ammo.

 

[gak]

Alaskee makes a good point too. To me, hard to go wrong with either answer...it's just that the .32 might be a bit less intimidating to her if she does practice (at all) with it and experiences the considerably less blast and recoil of the .32. Yes, if confronted with a true SD/emergency situation, recoil and blast are the last things on your mind...unless perhaps you've experienced it on the range and don't like it in that particular (whatever) gun you have...and therefore don't really feel comfortable with or look forward to handling it in the first place.

 

[deanadell]

My wife has suffered from Rheumatoid Arthritis for 12 years. She can not hanlde the recoil from a .38 Spl, even with light loads. She also does not have the wrist strength enymore to effecitvely fire most semi-autos ("limp-wrists it and stove-pipes the next round). 10 years ago I bought her a 5-shot NEF revolver in .32 H&R Mag (I think now they call it the "Lady Ultra" or somehting like that. Firing 98 gr. 32 S&W Long ammo from it is very comfortable and controlable.

You are all correct, in my opinion, when you say that the recoil of the .38 wouldn;t be noticed in an adrenalin pumping situation.....but let me tell you, the mind has a good subconscious memory, even if your adrenalin is pumping to the point you don't "feel" the recoil, your brain is still going to subconsiously remember it's coming, and you will flinch.......I'd rather come down on the size of the caliber and have someone with this medical condition shoot straight and confident with a .32, than shoot shaky, scared, and erratic with a .38

 

[Rimrod]

Obviously the "bigger is better" rule is widely accepted, which is one reason why it is struggling. Another is that while many people want to use it for cowboy action shooting, it isn't always allowed. Some of the rules only permit calibers that were available for the time period and the .32 mag isn't that old. While most .32 mag firearms will fire .32 S&W shorts and longs, they may not have the power to knock down the targets. And the Marlin catalog only lists the mag cartridge for their rifle meaning it will only feed the longer round properly or because factory ammo for the shorter rounds use round nose bullets they do not recommend their use.

But it is the fact of using the lower power rounds that makes it such a good caliber. How many people buy .357 or .44 mags and shoot light loads at the range? The .32 mag is probably the best choice for a starter handgun their is, especially if you are a starter reloader too.

A cartridge doesn't have to be chambered in a plastic, high capacity auto with a luggage rack and fog lights to be good. The .32 mag fills a gap and fills it very well. And I do not have to wait until Sig or Glock makes a gun for it, or for Hornady to neck it down to a .25 to know that.

 

[wyrdone]

For a revolver that will shoot .32 H&R Mag's the old WWII Nagant Revolver will handle the .32 H&R just fine.

And at $60-100 they are a nice peice for range plinking.

 

[azzhandler]

why not a side by side shotgun or a pump gun in something like a 410 not much recoil available ammo easy to load and alot more intimidating to look at

 

[FLA2760]

Re .32

Hi
Check this out.

http://www.taurususa.com/products/product-details.cfm?model=731SSULC&category=Revolver

 

[DobermansDoItGoofy]

I like my SP101 in .32.mag...

People seem to buy a handgun as if they plan to be shooting it in a self- defense situation at a 'perp' who is 25 yards away...when in reality the 'perp' would likely be less than 10ft. away... The .32 packs a punch. I get 6 shots instead of 5. If it's used indoors there will be less worry about 'overpenetration' and there will be less muzzle blast... I also have a .38 and a 45/454...but the .32 is probably the most nicely balanced firearm and the most fun to shoot...