Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Colt Police Positive 32 LC

My son is contemplating buying the subject revolver in 32 Colt. I'm trying to discourage the purchase given the need to convert brass and limited availability of bullets.
Any input to help me convince him?
Next stop is checking Gunbroker for prices.

Buy him a bullet mold for his birthday and he’ll never run out of bullets. Brass should last nearly forever at the pressures it operates at, so once he has 100 or so he’ll be in good shape. Likewise a pound of powder will last a long time too.

32s are a lot of fun, I say go for it.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ What he said. Cheap shooting with cast bullets, probably cheaper than .22LR at current prices.

My LGS has a nice S&W 32 long, 3" barrel, gun feels great in my hand and would be a great little trail gun. I do have a small supply. Of 32 shorts. Temping but there wanting 500 for it!

If it's 95% that's a fair price.

IF I remember correctly, a Police Positive in .32 Long Colt is a very old gun made early in the run of that model. Most of that model were marked as ".32 Police Ctg." which was Colt's way of avoiding saying ".32 S&W Long" which was what they were actually chambered for.

The original chambering of the first few of that model WAS .32 Long Colt, but that was a different ctg., not interchangeable with the .32 S&W or .32 S&W Long or the ".32 Colt New Police" which was the complete "official" Colt name for their version of the .32 S&W Long, differing only from the S&W version by having a flat pointed bullet. Confused yet?

The original .32 Colt ctg. has a slightly different chamber, case, and bore from the S&W Long, and a very different and somewhat hard-to-make "heeled" bullet like the original .41 Colt.

IMO the gun is only worth buying in .32 Colt if it is in truly collector's condition, not as a shooter.

I had assumed it was a 32 New Police and if it is my earlier statement stands. If it is indeed a 32 Long Colt that requires heeled bullets I retract my opinion and say run away and find a proper “modern” 32 to fool with.

He bought it. Wouldn't tell me how much he paid so probably too much. Respectable local dealer where he bought it told him it was made in 1915. I would estimate 90% condition. Grips are not cracked.
Definitely not chambered in 32 S&W.

I might have a line on 6-8 boxes of 32 Colt loaded ammo. I should be getting a message shortly regarding the price.

As I suspected, the ammo I found is 32 S&W.
The search continues.

Pretty simple. It'll say ".32 Police Ctg." in really fine print on the left side of the barrel if it's chambered for .32 Colt New Police (aka .32 S&W Long). At least my Police Positive of roughly the same vintage says that. Darned good shooter.

If it's chambered for .32 Colt the cylinder will be bored straight through. If it's chambers for current manufacture .32 long, the cylinder bores will have a step where the diameter of the case is reduced to the diameter of the bullet.

When I got a 32 Colt long, I wondered how it stayed perfect since 1893.

I had to buy the brass off gunbroker where some guy could roll form the case web down to a smaller diameter.


https://www.coltforum.com/threads/32-colt-long-reloading-success.87549/

Raising a thread from the grave for an update.

My son was able to get new custom made brass (not cheap) and heeled bullets but no dies. I haven't taken time to see if they can be loaded at least once without the correct dies.

I went to a small, cluttered gun shop to buy powder today. While checking out I noticed a box of 32 long colt and one 32 short colt. $90 out the door for both boxes. My son finally got to shoot his revolver!