Any Interest in a 5 Shot .32 Pocket Revolver?

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Dragline45

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With small pocketable .380's being so popular, how many of you would be interested in a small 5 shot DA .32 caliber revolver for pocket carry? Picture a scaled down J frame, with a small 5 shot cylinder to accommodate the .32 caliber.

The cylinder would be significantly thinner than a J frame and would slip into a pocket very easily. If chambered in .32 mag it would make for a pretty powerful little pocket gun. On the other hand, if chambered in .32acp, that sucker would not just be much slimmer than a J frame, but a good deal shorter too.

If NAA mini revolvers sell so well, which are not only chambered in .22 but are SA, I don't see why a small 5 shot .32 caliber revolver wouldn't, especially if it is DA.

Personally, I think they would sell hand over fist, and one would ride in my pocket at all times if I could get my hands on one.
 
Five shot .32 DA revolvers are out there by the tens of thousands. Whether a modern one would sell, I don't know, but the cost would not be significantly less than a .38 or .357 revolver and the .32 would be less powerful and not that much smaller than a J frame. (The J frame began with the I frame, a six shot DA revolver; the .38 version was five shot. The modern J frame is longer, but not larger.)

Jim
 
I for one have no interest in a 32 pocket revolver, but I would have a great interest in a 6 shot mid frame 32 as a field gun. I wish S&W would bring back the old K32s. To a man who loads his own ammo, the 32s beat the 22 LRs, and the 22 mags, and if you cast your own bullets they can be shot very inexpensively and accurately.

For the trapper and the outdoorsman a good 5" or 6" 32 is a wonderful little tool.
 
well I have a rack full of 5 shot 32 double actions :) top break pocket guns of a by gone era... they are fun to shoot, however they are not significantly smaller... I also have some older S&W spur trigger single action top breaks, & it's amazing how much less space they take up, when the trigger gets smaller, & you remove the trigger guard... BTW... most of these older guns did have pretty small grips on them as well... & they do conceal better than my J frames

that said... I also have one of the now discontinued S&W J frames chambered in 32 H&R magnum... mine has the scandium frame, & a steel cylinder... they were able to fit it to 6 chambers in the 32 so I get one more extra shot... it was actually my 1st CCW gun...

while the cylinder is the widest part of the revolver, to me, that's not the hard part about concealing them, so for me, I'd rather have that 6th shot, than a slightly smaller cylinder

a couple 22's on the top, but most of these are 5 shot double action 32's, with a couple 6 shot 32's mixed in...

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Great collection! I recently picked up an old breaktop .32 S&W and both the Colt and S&W "police" revolvers from that era (.32 S&W Long). Fun to shoot, and I agree that the .32 S&WL is a better "woods" cartridge than the .22 LR, at least for the reloader. More punch than a .22 in a Bearcat size revolver. Probably not going to get current commercial interest, however. Now, if I can only find a nice K-32...
 
Thank You...

the 2 guns in row 3 are... on the left, a Hopkins & Allen Safety Police ( 5 shot 32 S&W ) & right a Iver Johnson ( Bicycle gun ) 32 S&W snubbie...

these are likely closest to what the OP is talking about... they are pretty small... of course if they were to be chambered in 32 H&R Magnum or 327 Federal, they would have to be 1/2" to 3/4" longer

both of these guns have interesting features... on the H&A safety police model, the hammer rises to hit the firing pin, when the trigger is pulled, if you lower the hammer & release the trigger, it lowers the hammer, to where it hits the frame, & can not strike the firing pin ( the safety part of Safety Police )... the Iver has a "flip" on the trigger that keeps the trigger from cycling, in that flip is not depressed ( much like the "glock" trigger safety ) this on a gun, that was old enough, that it is a black powder cartridge gun, & is actually an antique, rather than a C&R gun :)

this is my dolled up lil S&W 1.5... spur trigger 5 shot 32 S&W... I bought this with the shortened barrel ( likely originally had a 3", but was shortened & had a thicker, more "useable" front sight added to the barrel, a long, long time ago, at least the barrel portion was re-nickeled to match, & the gun has normal patina to it's age & condition ) no idea who did or had the custom work done, but could have been a police detective, or a gambler, or a hooker ???

I added the nickel S&W medallions to the Gil Scottie redwood grips, from the 60's & put them on this gun, as I like to carry it once in a while, & the original hard rubber grips were still good, & I didn't want to risk cracking them :)

 
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For "fun plinking" I would be IF it weren't over priced. But the only way I'd do it is to reload the ammo myself. For SD . . . . never. The only way I'd ever carry a .32 for SD is if the chipmunks in my yard got nasty and "called me out".

There are still lots of .32s out there in decent shootable shape . . . if I ever run across one, I'd be interested . . . but only if I could reload for it.
 
There are all sorts of oddball guns being made today. Some are even wildly sucessful, like the Taurus Judge. The small D/A .32 acp revolver has been discussed for years, but no maker has ever been smart enough to make one. The NAA offering was in .32 H&R, was huge, and was just pain ugly.
Taurus even shortened the Model 85 frame and chambered it in .380. They also built a shortened frame 9mm revolver for a short while.
I still say that a modern, 5 SHOT D/A revolver, SCALED TO THE .32 ACP cartridge would sell if marketed properly.
 
IMHO it could be a better idea to put in the market a J-frame size revolver (perhaps with a shorter cylinder and frame) chambered for the .32ACP and with 6 shots instead of 5. S&W, Taurus, Ruger and Charter Arms all have a model ready to be modified that way if they only wanted to do it.
 
What is wrong with the Model 30 &31 S&W revolvers built on the old, small I frame. They are very compact and very neat small guns. I wonder if a I frame cylinder is long enough for the .32 Mag, I believe the frame would be strong enough, Just day dreaming. :eek:
 
IMHO it could be a better idea to put in the market a J-frame size revolver (perhaps with a shorter cylinder and frame) chambered for the .32ACP and with 6 shots instead of 5. S&W, Taurus, Ruger and Charter Arms all have a model ready to be modified that way if they only wanted to do it.
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They have had 6 shot .32 J frames for a while now, in both .32 mag, and .327. S&W actually brought them back in 2013, not sure if it was a limited run or they are still making them. For them to shorten the cylinder and the frame would require them to redesign the gun from the ground up, which in that case would make more sense to just scale the gun down and make it smaller overall.

The reason I brought this thread up is I really don't consider J frames pocket guns, at least pant's pocket guns. I don't wear my pants baggy, and a J frame in my pocket not only print's excessively but is outright uncomfortable. The cylinder is just far too thick for me to comfortably and easily conceal in my pocket, especially when my Bodyguard .380 is the width of my wallet.

For those who say it won't be much smaller than a J frame, that's debatable. And as most should know, even fractions of an inch count in gun size when talking about a concealed carry weapon, especially a pocket gun. While the length of the pistol wont change much from a J frame, which I don't find a problem anyway, the width of the cylinder will. Look at the difference between J frames and K frames, there is a good size difference between the two, as there would be if they designed a 5 shot revolver around the .32.

And who says they have to only be in .32, they could also chamber the guns in .22lr or .22magnum which is the same length as the .32 magnum. I suspect they could fit maybe 7 rounds of .22 in the same size cylinder.

Will they sell? I don't see why not. If people are scooping up NAA .22 revolvers as fast as they can make them then there is obviously a market for a small pocket revolver. If carrying a .22 doesn't bother these same people, carrying a .32 mag shouldn't either. The .32 magnum IMO is a better round than even .380. Look at the numbers below comparing the two.

Speer Gold Dot 90gr .380
Muzzle velocity: 900 fps
Muzzle energy: 196 ft/lb

Federal Personal Defense 85gr .32 mag
Muzzle Velocity: 1100 fps
Muzzle Energy: 228 ft. lbs.
 
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SW made the 432 and 431 snubbies for a bit and then stopped. I got one for a really good price at the discontinue - should have bought two. :(

They also made a 327 SS 632 snubbie and the comp'ed SS and blued J frames with the longer barrel and exposed hammer. No longer in the catalog.

They are both neat guns. I think the 327 mag J frames are great guns for those with small hands and they have 6 shots.
 
FWIW, the cylinder diameter of an I frame .32 (six shots) is almost exactly the same as that of a J frame Model 36. So the main advantage of a .32 would be an extra shot. The cylinders of 5 shot 32's run around 1.1" vs about 1.7" for the Model 36.

The huge profits and great sales volume for the .327 Magnum would give a company a lot of confidence in the idea of introducing a new .32 revolver. ;)

Jim
 
The huge profits and great sales volume for the .327 Magnum would give a company a lot of confidence in the idea of introducing a new .32 revolver.
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If they made a small 5 shot .32 revolver, your not buying the round, your buying the small pocketable platform.

There is very little interest in large or even medium sized .32 caliber guns, and the same can be said for .380. Although make that gun small enough where that round can shine and they sell hand over first. Seecamp can't make enough guns to supply shops or meet demand, and it's not because people love the .32acp, it's because they are able to make such a small gun to support that round. Seecamps are perhaps the most ammo finicky guns out there, and despite their high price tag people still buy them faster than they can make them.

Many including myself have no interest in a .32 caliber J frame, many including myself have no interest in pocket carrying a J frame. Although make a revolver small enough where the rounds seems viable, and to comfortably fit in a pocket, and I suddenly have interest in owning a .32.
 
If a 5-shot .32 DA revolver is your need, I am looking at two right now, an Iver Johnson Bicycle model and a Merwin & Hulbert. The M&H even has a folding hammer spur for easy draw from a pocket.

Jim
 
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