Rando question: Why .32 in the "olden days"?

[nagantoid]

This is a very random question, but I like to listen to radio plays from the 40s and 50s (e.g. Philip Marlowe, Yours Truly Johnny Dollar, etc). Recently I have been struck by how often these plays specify "She had a .32 in her hand" or "His argument was made all the more important by the silver .32 he was pointing at me". I have to think that in that era, .38spc would have been the standard police round (and a way better choice than .32), and 1911s in .45ACP would have been plentiful. 9mm would also obviously have been available. Was .32 (I assume referring to .32 S&W) an INCREDIBLY popular round in the ~1945-1955 era?

 

[Born2vette]

Another JMB creation. Small reliable blowback semiauto pistols of the era, higher capacity than a revolver (38 special). How often have you carried a 1911 in your pocker?

.32 ACP - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The .32 ACP has been chambered in more handguns than any other cartridge.

 

[BehindBlueI's]

How much do you suppose the playwrights knew about firearms or cared about technical accuracy? I suspect about as much as the people who never showed a cowboy reloading his 53 shot revolver in the westerns.

On a more famous example:

James Bond started out with a .25 ACP in the first novel in the 50's. Fleming widely acknowledged he knew little of guns, made many technical mistakes, until someone with more knowledge contacted him and made suggestions/badgered him until Bond got a .32.

Longer version of the story here: https://www.thejamesbonddossier.com/lifestyle/guns/james-bond-gun-errors.htm

So popular or not, it was good enough for the world's most famous spy...which would in turn probably sell a lot of guns. Dirty Harry sure moved a lot of S&W revolvers...

 

[Squid556]

I like the above response but to add to it…. Back then, 32 caliber top break revolvers were some of the cheapest guns available. Even today their prices remain very low.

So I’m going out on a limb here and going to say that because they were so low cost, they were more common than higher cost 38 caliber stuff…. Therefore writers were more likely to think to use it in the script ?

 

[DadSmith]

How much do you suppose the playwrights knew about firearms or cared about technical accuracy? I suspect about as much as the people who never showed a cowboy reloading his 53 shot revolver in the westerns.

On a more famous example:

James Bond started out with a .25 ACP in the first novel in the 50's. Fleming widely acknowledged he knew little of guns, made many technical mistakes, until someone with more knowledge contacted him and made suggestions/badgered him until Bond got a .32.

Longer version of the story here: https://www.thejamesbonddossier.com/lifestyle/guns/james-bond-gun-errors.htm

So popular or not, it was good enough for the world's most famous spy...which would in turn probably sell a lot of guns. Dirty Harry sure moved a lot of S&W revolvers...

I imagine every firearm John Wick used is popular as well. That show probably helped sell certain firearms as well.

 

[nagantoid]

Thanks for the insights, folks; I didn't think of all these. I particularly like the idea that some scriptwriter needed a "real gun name" and just asked the nearest guy "what kind of gun do you own" - and because .32 was cheap and everywhere, luck of the draw made that the answer.

 

[tomcat13]

"I'll have that .32 Bob"

 

[warren5421]

I think you can thank Sam Colt for the .32, his .31 C&B was a small 5 shoot gun easy to carry in the city.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

A lot of European military and police used 32 acp pistols as their standard sidearms.

 

[MrSmitty]

I imagine every firearm John Wick used is popular as well. That show probably helped sell certain firearms as well.

We have at least 3 calls a week for a Canik TTI at work….

 

[Compatriot G]

My grandfather "found" some sort of top-break .32 cal revolver when he was around 14. This would have been 1935 or so. He was shooting it and something jammed it up. He opened it, then closed it back with a live round under the hammer. He had his little finger on his left hand over the muzzle. It fired. He said he could see daylight through the hole until the blood started pouring. He said the doctor pouring sulfa powder in his finger hurt worse than shooting a bullet through it.

 

[cosermann]

"He got a 32 gun in his pocket for fun."
"He got a razor in his shoe." - Jim Croce

 

[Colt556]

There were two popular .32 caliber cartridges pre and post war, the .32 S&W and the .32 ACP. The .32 S&W was chambered in a plethora of small, light and elegant revolvers for the civilized gentleman fort easy pocket carry or desk drawer. If you’re a fan of Perry Mason a lot of old Smith and Colt .32s show up at crime scenes.
The .32 ACP was a popular police and military caliber used in a variety of light semiautomatic pistols. It wasn’t a powerhouse by today’s standards but it was effective enough for the purpose. The Germans eliminated 100,000s with small 32 pistols.
Many countries still use the .32/380 calibers because of restrictions on military calibers like 9mm and .45ACP.
A friend picked up a Seecamp in .32 ACP at the 1500 and I’m quite jealous.

 

[Leadeye]

32 caliber has been with us for a long time, in the 19th century is was considered all that was required for law enforcement. As there isn't any standard back then you see police carrying whatever was handy, but caliber drifts in the cap and ball era between 32 and 36 with Colt offering the Pocket Police 5 shot in 36 along with the now ubiquitous 1849 in 31/32 caliber.



Moving into the cartridge era you see 32 caliber DAs in the 1877, Merwin Hulbert and Bull Dog revolvers of the time. While it's a stretch, the 32-20 is found in the SAA, 1878 and various S&W Hand Ejectors as we move into the 20th century. In 1895 Theodore Roosevelt is made police commissioner in NYC and is among the first to standardize guns. His choice again is 32 caliber, in the Colt New Police.

You see efforts to magnumize 32-20 revolvers in the early part of the 20th century as people load rifle power ammo in these guns, probably giving rise to Robert Johnson's 32-20 Blues.

In autos, the Colt 1903 is an ergonomic work of art that is a great seller. Along with it you find the various Savage autos with thier Art Deco styling.

I shoot a fair amount of 32, nothing wrong with them as hand guns, but as BBI said they really aren't up to today's expectations for power. That said, with handloading in a strong gun, you can get respectable power and penetration.

 

[BigMoose]

Because 32ACP or as they call it across the pond 7.65 Browning... Is the one true caliber..

So says the Reddit.

r/TheOneTrueCaliber​

Reddit - Dive into anything

www.reddit.com

The reason is, that 380 in a small blowback pistol can be .. rough. (PPK in 380 for example)
The 32 fits many of these pistols better.

 

[STEEL CORE]

Cause it’s what they had back in the day.
Glocks hadn’t been invented yet.

 

[BigMoose]

Cause it’s what they had back in the day.
Glocks hadn’t been invented yet.

The Walther PP was the glock of its day.. Just look at how many Walther PP clones there were.

 

[nagantoid]

Because 32ACP or as they call it across the pond 7.65 Browning... Is the one true caliber..

The reason is, that 380 in a small blowback pistol can be .. rough. (PPK in 380 for example)
The 32 fits many of these pistols better.

Ugh. The first and crappiest pistol I ever owned was an Accutek 380, basically an INCREDIBLY ****** PPK clone. Absolute garbage, I wound up giving it to a coworker. Dumbest purchase I have ever made in my life. Literally I woke up in the morning and said to myself "I've never had a hamster or a handgun [hamsters don't exist in Australia, and handguns were hard to buy]. Today I will buy one of those things". The gun store was closer than the pet store. I should have driven further and bought the hamster.

 

[armalitesheepdog]

I drive a lot at work and Listen to Old time radio Pod casts. Johnny Dollar and Sam Spade all those are very cool. You can get sucked in and feel like it’s 1935 again. They are very cool. They even play old commercials Viceroy ciggeretts and What not Blue ribbon beer

 

[jcj54]

.32 pocket revolvers were very popular until the mid 1960's. I had a friend who was a retired Columbus Ohio cop. He spent a number of years working with the coroner's office and asked the coroner what the most common caliber used in homicides. .32 was first and .22lr was second...