.25acp -.32acp on their way out?
- Thread starter Famas
- Start date
Bill DeShivs
New member
Regardless of how many were made last year (and there were more than you think,) there are hundreds of thousands of these guns out there.
jcsturgeon
New member
Little know fact, but before he upgraded to the Walther PPK, James Bond used a .25 caliber Beretta. It jammed on him in the book "From Russia, With Love", hence the change.
In my opinion, a lot of the bad reputation of the 25acp comes from the cheap pistols. Seems like a lot of them are made with loose tolerances in the bore and chamber to make them cheaper to produce...that results in even lower velocities.
The better pistols have tighter bores.
I have read some handloader experiments which gave very good velocities in the 25acp. Like a +P 25. We will never see it produced due to the cheap zamak pistols.
As far as the 32acp, I grew up reading the gun mags with their continuous disparagement of the 32acp. They were always writing about how weak it was.
Well...my dad was a WWII vet, and he brought home a French Unique 32 pistol.
Filled with these stories about the "weak" 32acp, I decided to fire one round in the house when nobody was home. I was about 13.
I set up a couple thick paperback books in front of an old mattress leaning against a wall.
BANG!...
Ears ringing, I looked at the books...the FMJ had gone through both...looked at the mattress...right through...looked at the wall...yup...right through into a closet on the other side, where it was stopped by a wooden shoe tree. The FMJ bullet was laying on the floor, and looked undamaged.
I learned two things...
Don't experiment with guns in the house
The 32acp is not weak.
Fast forward to the 1980's, and there were Walther PP's made by Manurhin available cheap, in 32acp. I bought one and carried it for quite a few years till I foolishly sold it. It was very accurate, and it easily handled the Silvertip 32acp load. I wish I still had it.
The better pistols have tighter bores.
I have read some handloader experiments which gave very good velocities in the 25acp. Like a +P 25. We will never see it produced due to the cheap zamak pistols.
As far as the 32acp, I grew up reading the gun mags with their continuous disparagement of the 32acp. They were always writing about how weak it was.
Well...my dad was a WWII vet, and he brought home a French Unique 32 pistol.
Filled with these stories about the "weak" 32acp, I decided to fire one round in the house when nobody was home. I was about 13.
I set up a couple thick paperback books in front of an old mattress leaning against a wall.
BANG!...
Ears ringing, I looked at the books...the FMJ had gone through both...looked at the mattress...right through...looked at the wall...yup...right through into a closet on the other side, where it was stopped by a wooden shoe tree. The FMJ bullet was laying on the floor, and looked undamaged.
I learned two things...
Don't experiment with guns in the house
The 32acp is not weak.
Fast forward to the 1980's, and there were Walther PP's made by Manurhin available cheap, in 32acp. I bought one and carried it for quite a few years till I foolishly sold it. It was very accurate, and it easily handled the Silvertip 32acp load. I wish I still had it.
Evil Monkey
New member
I hate this argument. It's so incredibly poor.
It's not like a person is walking on a sidewalk somewhere, finds a 25acp pistol on the ground and says, "hey look at this! I guess I'll keep it....better than nothing!"
The reality is, people are out there shopping for handguns and there are plenty of options in 380 and even 9mm that are quite small, firing much better rounds.
I agree. Also, I think that moon clips may not even be necessary since .32 auto is a semi-rimmed cartridge and likely be possible to extract from a revolver in the more conventional way. There is definitely something of a gap in current production firearms between the .22lr mini revolvers and the .38 snubbie. There's likely a market for something more potent and practical than a .22 mini revolver yet more concealable and easier to shoot than a snub-nose .38 special.
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I inherited a colt baby browning manufactured in New haven. It is a marvelous little pistol. I carried it as a backup while I was a Deputy in AR.
Serpico the New York Dective carried one when he was undercover.
Marchico, sorry about the spelling, Commander Seal Team 6 carried a 25 cal.
The problem with the 25ACP is not the round but the limited type of pistols it is chambered for.
In the late 60s or early 70s a national magazine, I think it was guns and ammo carried an article on an automatic which was converted from 32 to 25 acp. The modified pistol had a 6 inch barrell. The ballistics and accuracy was superior to the 22lr pistols of the time.
I continue to carry my 25 as a final act of defiance should my 1911 fail.
Serpico the New York Dective carried one when he was undercover.
Marchico, sorry about the spelling, Commander Seal Team 6 carried a 25 cal.
The problem with the 25ACP is not the round but the limited type of pistols it is chambered for.
In the late 60s or early 70s a national magazine, I think it was guns and ammo carried an article on an automatic which was converted from 32 to 25 acp. The modified pistol had a 6 inch barrell. The ballistics and accuracy was superior to the 22lr pistols of the time.
I continue to carry my 25 as a final act of defiance should my 1911 fail.
Bill DeShivs
New member
"The reality is, people are out there shopping for handguns and there are plenty of options in 380 and even 9mm that are quite small, firing much better rounds."
No- the real reality is that there are hundreds of thousands of .32s and .25s in existence! Because you don't comprehend this, or you think there are better calibers doesn't make them obsolete!
No- the real reality is that there are hundreds of thousands of .32s and .25s in existence! Because you don't comprehend this, or you think there are better calibers doesn't make them obsolete!
You can still get ammo for the .38 S&W, and I don't think anyone has made any new guns in that caliber in half a century!
You can get new made ammo for guns that were "obsolete" in 1900, although its spendy. With millions of .25 & .32ACP guns in existance world wide, even if there were never any more made, starting tommorrow, the rounds would be available for a century or maybe more.
They may be on the way out, but its a long, slow road....
You can get new made ammo for guns that were "obsolete" in 1900, although its spendy. With millions of .25 & .32ACP guns in existance world wide, even if there were never any more made, starting tommorrow, the rounds would be available for a century or maybe more.
They may be on the way out, but its a long, slow road....
Glenn E. Meyer
New member
http://www.shootingindustry.com/u-s-firearms-industry-today/
Looks like about 15K of the 25s in 2009. So over a few years, there's quite a few - also 47K of the 32s. Lot of little cheap 22s also.
That market is not dead. At the gun show - there's always a couple of tables full of the cheap guns in that caliber. Folks with less income - good solution for most SD problems.
Looks like about 15K of the 25s in 2009. So over a few years, there's quite a few - also 47K of the 32s. Lot of little cheap 22s also.
That market is not dead. At the gun show - there's always a couple of tables full of the cheap guns in that caliber. Folks with less income - good solution for most SD problems.
You beat me to it. Right from the source: http://www.atf.gov/statistics/download/afmer/2009-firearms-manufacturers-export-report.pdf
The 2010 nums are not final yet but: .32 = 39,777 and .25 is up to 21,375. without even a completely tallied data set. http://www.atf.gov/statistics/download/afmer/2010-interim-firearms-manufacturing-export-report.pdf
Clearly not dead, and maybe on the verge of resurgence if as people said some of these .380 pocket pistols are expanded to higher cap .25 or .32's
EDIT: note top two links I posted look the same but go to two pdfs that are different and url seems to have compressed to same appearance.
EDIT: also note the 2009 report has a breakdown by manufacturer.
EDIT EDIT: Note Kel-tech and Beretta are by far the biggest producers
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.32
My dad has a kel-tec P32. I thought i wanted one. I went to gun shows looking for one. Found one i wanted till i started trying to find ammo for it. Out of all the tables at the gun show, only 1 had .32acp. And those were reloads.
I decided a .380 is what i needed. Until I found a Kel-tec P11. It's just a little bit bigger than the .380 version in 9mm.
So I found a 9mm in 10 +1 that's just a little bigger than some of the mouse guns in .25 or .32 out there.
Why wouldn't I want to have a 9mm over .32 or .25?
My dad has a kel-tec P32. I thought i wanted one. I went to gun shows looking for one. Found one i wanted till i started trying to find ammo for it. Out of all the tables at the gun show, only 1 had .32acp. And those were reloads.
I decided a .380 is what i needed. Until I found a Kel-tec P11. It's just a little bit bigger than the .380 version in 9mm.
So I found a 9mm in 10 +1 that's just a little bigger than some of the mouse guns in .25 or .32 out there.
Why wouldn't I want to have a 9mm over .32 or .25?