Hey, all you .32S&W fans

[Lost Californian]

What ONE, yes just ONE, revolver in either .32S&W or .32S&W Long, would you recommend?

I like the .32, and have several .327FM guns. I like shooting the older rounds, kinda like plinking with a .22. I do not care for cleaning out the nasty ring that builds up in the long chambers from shooting the short rounds. Been browsing the web, looking for a shooter grade gun. I think a 3" barrel would please me most, though a 4" could work. Don't really want a 2". Gunbroker has a couple I am watching, see where the price goes. Lots of different makes and models.

So which would you suggest?

 

[92FSTech]

I have a 3" Model 31-1 in .32 S&W Long that is a sweetheart to shoot. My wife likes it because it recoils like a .22, but the pull is lighter as it doesn't require the heavy springs necessary to ignite rimfire primers. I like it because I have a thing for J-Frames, and a 3" six-shot J-Frame is just cool.

I got mine on gunbroker as a basket case for $350, cleaned it up and rust blued it. It was my first attempt at the rust blue process, and while it's not cosmetically perfect, I'm pretty happy with the outcome.

I typically prefer the S&W rubber boot grips on my J-Frames, and the service grips on this one didn't provide a good grip purchase for my large hands. It's a square butt, so boot grips weren't a great option, and the rubber would have also ruined the classic look. I ended up getting a grip adapter from BK Grips (kind of like the old Tyler T-Grip), and that fixed it up nicely. It's a great gun to take along for a fun, easy-shooting range day.

Before:

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[kaveman]

It just doesn't get any better than a 3" Smith, but be prepared to pay. .32s are through the roof and anything 3" adds 50% to the price. I've been haunting GB for yrs and haven't managed to come up with much I was willing to pay for. Did grab a couple of old Hand Ejectors back when they could be had cheap and I had my C&R active. Those things are just a bit too tiny for my hands but they're still really neat little revolvers. FWIW, to me a .32 revolver is just a play toy so you can branch out quite a bit to shop for fun little 'bargains' to plink with. The Hand Ejector is a good one. The previous tip ups are another. Back in my .32 buying days I managed to grab several S&W hammered tip ups for very little,.......and frankly, they're a favorite. Next time I switch back to my old laptop I toss up some pics.

I know you said one and only ONE, but I don't work that way and that's no fun. If ONLY ONE, just pay some bucks and get exactly what's posted above. Otherwise I can post a long list of fun shooters I've swept up for $100-200 not to long ago. Have a couple of really nice off-brands that literally cost me $60 apiece and are like new. Plenty of weird(fun) ones out there.

 

[kaveman]

Actually, now that I've hit 'post', I realize that most of my 'favorite' .32s aren't .32s,......they're .38S&W. The .32s by and large are just too small for my hand, at least in anything prior to J frames, so I've drifted into .38S&W for the older guns. One exception is a rare topbreak Forehand&Wadsworth I'm constantly searching for. Those things are cool and I try to buy every one I find although I'm lucky to see one per yr anymore.

 

[Leadeye]

S&W 1903 hand ejector or Colt Pocket Positive. Both fine 32s and a piece of history.

 

[Scott58]

Got my mother's when she passed. Model 30 4" . Her father gave it to her on her wedding day in 1949. She carried it everyday of her life.

 

[Lost Californian]

I am watching a Model 30, a Model 31 and a Rossi something. All are reasonable priced, to me.

Thanks for the replies.

 

[kaveman]

Well, if you're watching them that means they haven't sold yet,.....so you don't know the price. There isn't anything on GB I wouldn't happily purchase for the going rate an hour before the auction closes.

I seldom waste the time to watch auctions at GB. If I want something, I'll run a search a couple times a day sorting from high price down to lowest price and skip all but the last page. I only look at the cheapest items which are usually either dogs or new listings. Not really looking at the dogs either, but when I find a fresh listing it will often have a Buy Now price and if I'm one of the first to see it,....and the Buy Now is reasonable enough,.....I'll snag it. Most people will never even see a good deal on GB because they won't take the time to search 'hard'.

If you do want to see the good deals, search the closed listings. If you find something you most certainly would have bought at the 'sold' price, look a little deeper and you'll probably find it sold by Buy Now within an hour of being listed.

For instance, the last yr my two main priorities have been optics ready S&W M&Ps and Taurus .22 revolvers. Using that search method I've scored several buys. Three OR Smiths for around $325 and two Taurus .22LRs. The two Tauri are the most recent and I was the first to see the 4",.....one other view happened while I calculated,......and I was also the 3rd view when I hit the Buy Now. The 2" I snagged for $300 and I was the 4th view on it. Both guns had identical models that were available without BN and both ran the full auction course and sold for $500+/-. The .32s run the same way only more so. I don't think I've ever followed a .32 auction all the way to the end. I always get priced out.

 

[kaveman]

I keep a semi-constant search up for the Rossi .32s, maybe checking a couple times a month. They can be nice little guns, especially the Interarms imports. I see a nickel 3" Garcia running at $130 right now but it's still got 11 days to go. It's not anywhere near as nicely finished as an Interarms but it'll still probably clear $300 before it sells.

There's an FI import 2" blue for $454 BN and another 3" FI in nickel for $300 BN(which is probably the best buy of the bunch), but you're almost better off searching for a deal on a Smith at those prices.

Yeah, compare the pics of the Garcia you're probably watching to the 3" FI gun and you can see the FI is 10x nicer(and still not up to Interarms standards). I don't know what Rossi did with that teardrop shaped cylinder release on the Garcia guns but they're really not the best vintage Rossis. The FI flatlatch is better and the Interarms modern S&W latch signals the best of the Rossis imho.

BTW, that's a lot of Rossi .32s to be listed simultaneously. When I check most times there aren't any. Sometimes one and very seldom two. I don't think I've ever seen four of them at once. Man, if it weren't for $50 shipping, sales tax and fees, and then the dealer $20 I'd probably hit that 3" FI gun myself right now.

 

[Lost Californian]

Thanks for the advice. Most of the GB auctions I looked at do not have a buy now option. I am looking at a Rossi 69, nickel, with no buy no option. Price started at 99, and eleven days to run. See where it goes.

 

[kaveman]

The Garcia Rossi is now pushed up to $284 with 9 days left to go. The nicer Firearms International import is gone. Guys futzed around bidding a dollar at a time until it got pushed to $285 and someone came along whose head wasn't up his butt and hit the Buy Now for $300 and sent all the kiddies packing. I know I'm sounding snarky and saying I told you so, but I AM snarky and I did tell you so.

Just 40yrs of buying and selling guns, most of it on GB. I am trying to help even if it doesn't sound like it.

 

[Lost Californian]

lol

All good with me. Still watching 2 on gunbroker. Still no buy it now option on them.

 

[kaveman]

Here's some info that might actually be helpful.

I noticed last night while searching that people selling guns don't know what caliber they are. I search for 'guns and firearms', 'pistols', 'revolver'. Then I select caliber .32S&W Long. A bunch of guns come up. Then change the caliber to .32S&W and another bunch of guns come up, half of which are .32S&W and half of which are mis-categorized .32S&W Long revolvers.

Did the same thing looking for .38S&W revolvers. More than half of them aren't .38S&W,......they're .38 Special.

And it helps a bunch to weed out the trash if you search 'used' revolvers if you're not likely to find what you want new(which in my case is like 99.9% of the time). I don't like new guns. Instead of sifting through hundreds or thousands of returns I get back a dozen or so that I might actually have some interest in.

 

[Lost Californian]

I use the advanced search feature on gunbroker. It works pretty good. Set up a search, then find the words to exclude, and that narrows the list quite a bit.

Other sites don't let me filter quite so well, so it is a longer list to weed thru.

 

[kaveman]

Are you still in the running on any of the .32? There's a speckled up 30-1 closing tomorrow that I might like to throw a bid on but don't want to bump you up if you're bidding on it since your post is what got me looking again. Dick move to bid against an OP in my world.

One nice thing,........your post also got me digging through the .38S&W listings and I came across one I thought I'd play with if it went cheap enough. It did.

There was a gun mis-categorized as a Model 1 S&W in .38S&W. It's actually a first model Baby Russian and it's something I'd really like to have. It's not a nice one,.....plenty of rust blooms on the exterior and listed as non-functional with a stuck hammer and a free spinning cylinder. Whenever I see these things in decent looking condition(ie not refinished, screws buggered, etc)but listed as not working, I like to take the chance that it's just a hundred yrs of solidified gunk inside tying up the works. Was willing to take a chance on this one because aside from the rust, it's in really pretty fair shape. Not a lot of wear, sharp edges, etc. Manufactured 1876/77 so whadda ya expect?

Anyway, I put a dollar on it when I first saw it. A week later it had been bumped to fifty bucks with an hour yet to go and I had better things to do than sit around for hours watching guys bump it a dollar at a time, resetting the 15min clock, so when it came down to 15 minutes left I threw a $250 bid on it and went to play with the kittens. Twenty minutes later I had lost enough blood to the cats and when I checked the auction it was over,....and I had won the gun for $62. Yeah, at least for the moment I'm pretty pleased with that. Once it comes in I may change my mind, but I doubt it. Even if someone has put enough force onto the seized hammer to mess up the innards, I think a diesel soak and some evapo-rust will make it nice enough for a shadowbox if nothing else. Cool looking lil' gat.

 

[Lost Californian]

Are you still in the running on any of the .32? There's a speckled up 30-1 closing tomorrow that I might like to throw a bid on but don't want to bump you up if you're bidding on it since your post is what got me looking again. Dick move to bid against an OP in my world.

One nice thing,........your post also got me digging through the .38S&W listings and I came across one I thought I'd play with if it went cheap enough. It did.

There was a gun mis-categorized as a Model 1 S&W in .38S&W. It's actually a first model Baby Russian and it's something I'd really like to have. It's not a nice one,.....plenty of rust blooms on the exterior and listed as non-functional with a stuck hammer and a free spinning cylinder. Whenever I see these things in decent looking condition(ie not refinished, screws buggered, etc)but listed as not working, I like to take the chance that it's just a hundred yrs of solidified gunk inside tying up the works. Was willing to take a chance on this one because aside from the rust, it's in really pretty fair shape. Not a lot of wear, sharp edges, etc. Manufactured 1876/77 so whadda ya expect?

Anyway, I put a dollar on it when I first saw it. A week later it had been bumped to fifty bucks with an hour yet to go and I had better things to do than sit around for hours watching guys bump it a dollar at a time, resetting the 15min clock, so when it came down to 15 minutes left I threw a $250 bid on it and went to play with the kittens. Twenty minutes later I had lost enough blood to the cats and when I checked the auction it was over,....and I had won the gun for $62. Yeah, at least for the moment I'm pretty pleased with that. Once it comes in I may change my mind, but I doubt it. Even if someone has put enough force onto the seized hammer to mess up the innards, I think a diesel soak and some evapo-rust will make it nice enough for a shadowbox if nothing else. Cool looking lil' gat.

Thanks for the consideration, that was nice of you. No, I am not bidding on any of the Model 30s right now. There is only one on gunbroker that has my attention, a Rossi Model 69.

Your .38 sounds like fun. Hope you get it running again. Good luck on the other one, too.

 

[Seancass]

Colt 1849 Pocket with conversion cylinder.
I'm sure it's worse than everything here, but it's so cool.

 

[Lost Californian]

I done did it. Nothing fancy, but I like it. Need to shoot it now.



H&R 733, .32S&W long. Traded my Taurus M327 for it. There was a gun show at Boot City in Terre Haute, and I went. It has an 'AX' serial number so probably made in the 80s.

 

[tcecil88]

I have this one. It's a Rossi Model 69 In .32 SWL. It is a little rough as the previous owner stored it in a Crown Royal bag and and it rusted. I have a 100 rounds of Magtech 90 GR. SJHP for it but have yet to shoot it. I got the ammo during the crazy Covid days for $1/round.

When the guy offered it to me, I initially thought it was an I-Frame Smith, so I was kind of disappointed, but I only have 90 rounds of 5.56 Lake City SS-109 invested, so not a bad trade.

 

[kaveman]

Congrats on the H&R. I'd never really looked at them before but while searching and not finding the 9-shot Taurus .22 revolvers I started seeing the 9-shot H&R .22 revolvers so I picked one up and was kinda surprised by it(M929, same basic gun as your M733). Not a refined gun but solid. I think I like it and will probably grab another nicer one some day.

And I've also picked up a couple of H&R732 parts kits with rebuildable receivers. Exact same model as your 733 except blued. These guns are court ordered destructions and have been saw-cut in half but I'll weld them back together eventually and throw them in the pile. I'd do that with some 929s too but those are always missing half of the frame for some reason.

I bet that little M733 is going to shoot just fine. I see it's marked "L" for Long. Gotta watch them,......same gun can also be found chambered for the short .32S&W cartridge.