Need advice on an old Colt

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9ballbilly

New member
One of the local shops here has a Colt pocket positive revolver 3 1/2"bbl. It is stamped " .32 colt" on the barrel. It appears functionally sound with most of the original finish gone, but no pitting and a good bore. I'm sort of considering it as a mate to my police positive special .32-20 but need some information first.

What caliber is it actually chambered for? .32 short colt? .32 long colt? .32 S&W? I have no idea. I know Colt hated to stamp S&W on anything.

Is ammo currently manufactured for these calibers?

Is $300 OTD a reasonable price?

I'm hoping some of you Colt folks can give me some input on this old girl.
 
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Bob Wright

New member
That revolver is for the .32 Long Colt. Not the same as the S&W Long round, and not interchangeable.

From what I see on most forums any Colt is worth $300!

As to ammunition, it is scarce, but as far as I know still available.

Bob Wright
 
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michael t

New member
That revolver is for the .32 Long Colt. Not the same as the S&W Long round, and not interchangeable.
Click to expand...

I found this on search


The .32 S&W long and .32 Long Colt are not interchangeable. The .32 S&W long and .32 Colt's New Police cartridges are.

That clears everything up right. :confused:

For me just another reason to buy S&W and not Colt in older revolvers
 
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Bob Wright

New member
michael t said:
The .32 S&W long and .32 Long Colt are not interchangeable. The .32 S&W long and .32 Colt's New Police cartridges are.

That clears everything up right.
Click to expand...

Well, there are many such caliber designations that are confusing. The .32 Long Colt was a very early cartridge developed from the .32 R.F. and as such was a heel crimped, outside lubricated round. As ammunition developed, the .32 Long Colt (Inside lubricated) replaced the older round. The .32 S&W (Long and Short) cartridges were introduced by S&W, and Colt prevailed on some of the cartridge makers to make the same round, with flat point bullets, and the .32 Colt New Police. The same was done with the .38 S&W and .38 New Police, with the British adding their .38/200. Same too, for the .38 S&W Special and .38 Colt Special, now just .38 Special. Then Winchester introduced the .38 W.C.F., now called the .38-40, which is nowhere near .38 caliber, but like the .41 Long Colt, is a .40 caliber.

See?

Bob Wright
 
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Mike Irwin

Staff
As Bob notes, keeping the Colt designations straight can be something of a chore.

Colt was never really able to compete with Smith & Wesson's offerings in the small-frame handgun market. They had comparable models, but for whatever reason S&W's guns, and their .32 S&W, .32 S&W Long, and the .38 S&W, were far more popular than Colt's .32 Short Colt, .32 Long Colt, and the .38 Short Colt.

That forced Colt into a move they didn't want to make -- in order to compete with S&W, they would have to offer guns chambered for S&W cartridge. But, they didn't want to put the S&W name on their guns, so, they developed the New Police line of cartridges.

In reality, it was only the .32 S&W Long and the .38 S&W Long. Colt never chambered any guns in a .32 S&W cartridge analog.

While these were 'new' cartridges, it was far from a hidden fact that they were interchangeable with the S&W rounds, the only real difference being the bullet profile.
 
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Bob Wright

New member
As to confusion in cartridge designations, I beleive the British .577/.450 Revolver cartridge about the most confusing, as it takes a bullet of appx. .600" diameter.

What? you say incredulously!

This revolver cartridge came about from the original British .577 Enfield rifle. Some where along the way, the cartridge was necked down to .450" and was known as the .577/.450. Actually I beleive British practice was to eliminate the decimal point in practice.

The 577/450 was then cut off to revolver length, leaving a case mouth taking a nominal .600" dia. bullet. The only account I've ever read of anyone actually firing one of these described the event as "impressive."

Bob Wright
 
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bedbugbilly

New member
I once had a H & R Special Police (I believe that was the model) in 32 Colt short. It was a beautiful little revolver but I could never find any ammo for it. What ammo I had was old - and I mean OLD - that was with it when I bought it. I tried a number of times to order ammo for it through the LGS - every time, they would get S & W 32 and I kept telling them it wouldn't work. I finally took the pistol in and showed them the old cartridges I had so they'd know what I wanted. They couldn't get any. I finally gave up and sold it to a guy who wanted it since it was such a nice little pistol - he could never find ammo either. I finally decided that, even though I like vintage revolvers, if I can't get the brass and dies to reload it, it's a pass for me. Now a 32-20 . . . that would be a different story.
 
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McShooty

New member
Yeah, that's kinda too bad. The 32 S&W long/Colt New police is much easier to find factory loads or components for and is great for handloading. By the way, Sellier and Bellot sells a 32 S&W Long load with a flat nosed bullet. It looks just like the old Colt New Police and it has pretty decent ballistics. You can, of course, find decent old Police Positives and Pocket Positives in that chambering.
 
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Clark

New member
I have almost cleaned out every Colt revolver in every nearby pawn shop that is in good mechanical condition.

It is guys like me that are driving the price higher.

The only break in the hoarding happens when one of us old guys die, and the collection gets dumped fast at a pawn shop or gun show.

The internet prices are sky high.
 
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Mike Irwin

Staff
" You can, of course, find decent old Police Positives and Pocket Positives in that chambering."

I bought one earlier this year in beautiful condition. The only real problem with it as a big chip out of the lower left grip panel.

Colt's marking on this gun is a little confusing, as it just says .32 Colt Police, not New Police.

Ah, here we go...

406077753.jpg
 
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