Its a round I don't/can't reload. I walked the entire show yesterday and couldn't find any. I've got a very nice and very old Colt revolver in 32 Colt caliber. I can't find ammo for it. I doubt they make components, or at least I've never seen .299 bullets. I've shot the thing a few times and its the softest shooting centerfire round I've seen. But no joy at finding ammo. I'm not even particular, I'll take short Colt or Long Colt.

And don't tell me S&W will fit, because it won't.

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Dick Burg

When the beginning of August rolls around, check out Ward's
Auction. They have a lot of old vintage ammo up for auction,
and maybe you can snag a box or two.

I have about 20 rds. of Remington .32 Short Colt I've been saving just in case I come across something that shoots it...
I just miked one of them and the outside lubed 80 gr. bullet comes out to .316". The .299 must be the heel seated diameter.

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Dean
SWCA #680 SWHF #446

I have a Colt Detective Special 32 and I do like the 32 S&W round. It is a bit pricey at $20 for 50 count box. I guess the original 32 Colt round is a bit harder to find.
I am not all that informed what can or can't be shot in the older 32 Colt round guns.
You might try ammo seek dot com for pricing and availability. I use the site quite a bit for availability and pricing on ammo.

" I guess the original 32 Colt round is a bit harder to find."

You could say that.
The .32 SC (and .32 LC) originally used a heeled bullet with a .316" major diameter. Later it was changed to a .299" inside lubricated bullet. It's a very old caliber. Unfortunately, there is no readily-available case today that can be modified to work in .32 SC-chambered revolvers, and very likely no reloading dies or bullets which would work either. You might find some ammo on the collector market, but it will probably cost you an arm and a leg to buy more than a few example specimens, which may or may not fire. I'd think your best course of action would be to retire the revolver from active duty unless you have a lathe and the skill to make up some cases from solid brass. That's a pretty extreme solution.

You might check on some of the internet gun and ammo auction sites on the off-chance that there may be some ammo listed. There are several internet collector ammo dealers also.

I wonder if you are confusing .32 S&W with .32 S&W L. Maybe a year ago I found .32 S&W for $32.99+tax. At another store it was $50.+tax. The .32 S&W L is always easier to find and cheaper. Larry

GAD Custom

I'm often accused of being confused. But I have .32 S&W guns and ammo, and I know the difference. I've got a few gun loads.

Its what convinced me ammo sellers are often thieves. The scoundrels even wrap their nice .32 Colt boxes with plastic so you can't see what you're buying at exorbitant prices. And when you buy it, then open it, you discover their fraud. When later confronted, they just lie and say its a .32 and they're all the same. Just because they're gun or ammo guys doesn't mean you can trust them.

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Dick Burg

Prvi Partizan makes all sorts of obscure calibers. My first look would have been SGammo.com but their website doesn't seem to be working.

https://www.midwayusa.com/32-short-colt/br?cid=10448

Dumb Question:
I was under the impression that .32 Colt and .32 S&W and also .38 Colt and .38 S&W were interchangeable and only the shape of the bullets were different ??

These guys may be able to help you. It appears they have the .32 heeled bullets, but not brass.
Gad Custom Reloaded Cartridges and Shell Reloading Services

According to Wikipedia the 32 Colt is an "inside lubricated variant of the 32 Long Colt". They also state that the bullet diameter is 0.299 inch where the 32 LC uses a significantly larger diameter 0.312 diameter bullet.

Based on the unique bullet diameter I would suggest that you consider your 32 Colt a shadow box candidate and start looking for a more modern 32 caliber revolver. Yeah, I know, not something you want to hear. However even if you were able to find a source for bullets I expect that finding cases to reload will proved just as difficult.

Nope, different critters altogether. There is no way a 32 S&W, long or short will chamber in a revolver chambered for the 32 Colt rounds. Trust me, I've tried. But both the Colt flavors will chamber in a 32 Long Colt gun, just as both the long and short S&W will chamber in a 32 S&W long revolver. A lot of gun guys assume the other, and it just doesn't work. I don't have enough 32 Colt rounds to be trying them in a S&W, but I'd guess it would be a sloppy fit and have terrible accuracy.

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Dick Burg

A loaded .32 Short Colt,( heel seated) will not chamber in a S&W chamber because of the reduced diameter throat at the front of the chamber. (An empty case will fit as it is the bullet that won't fit the throat.
However, the Short case will fit in a non-S&W manufactured (i.e.IJ) cylinder that doesn't have the throat. It rattles around nicely and, would fall straight through but for the rim....

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Dean
SWCA #680 SWHF #446

The .32 Colt New Police is the same as the .32 S&W Long. The .38 Colt New Police is the same as the .38 S&W. .32 Short Colt and .32 Long Colt are cartridges unlike any others in the S&W line. I think the .32 SC and LC were loaded until about 25 years ago, and it is possible, but very unlikely, that there may be some new old stock ammo on some dealer's shelf somewhere.

In my odds and ends box I find three original WRA .32 Colt centerfire cartridges. Case length about 0.916", case diameter about 0.334", rim diameter about 0.370", bullet diameter (just outside case mouth) 0.303", cartridge overall length 1.252". Brass cases, lead bullets (unknown if heeled or not, and I'm not tearing these down to see).

Anyone having a need for these can PM me to arrange for delivery at no charge.

Easy to find, right between the Peters .44 S&W Russian and the FA 1918 .45 ACP rounds! Lots of odds and ends around here.

I think I have a box of 32 Colt. Give me a day or two to dig it out and see.

Jimmy: Prior to about WW2 most firearms manufacturers had "proprietary" cartridges, unique to their offered guns. A huge variety of different cartridges existed and endless arguments persisted over which was superior, supporting the sports writers of those days and perplexing the buying public for decades.

Sometimes a gun maker wanted to offer a gun chambered for a popular caliber, but did not want to identify the original cartridge designer in association with the new gun. Hence the .44 Winchester Centerfire was designated as the .44-40 by Marlin and others, the .30 WCF became popularly known as the .30-30, the .32 WCF came to be referred to as the .32-20, and so forth.

Both S&W and Colt offered .32 and .38 caliber revolvers, with chamberings for short and long cartridges, usually interchangeable. The "shorts" were low powered options and the "longs" were higher velocity loads. In most guns the two makers' cartridges were not interchangeable (some makers intentionally machined chambers so as to accept a variety of ammo, but the results were usually inaccurate at best and unreliable at worst).

Interesting development came along with the .38 S&W Special. The US Army had a dismal experience with the .38 Long Colt in the New Army double action revolvers, and wanted a beefed up load with higher velocity and energy. S&W developed the .38 Special using the case head and body dimensions of the .38 Long Colt with a longer case body for greater powder capacity, rather than starting out with the .38 S&W case dimensions. Clearly this was a success! Today you can still take a .38 Special revolver (or .357 Magnum) and chamber .38 Short Colt or .38 Long Colt, but you cannot use .38 S&W ammo in the same gun. Later on the .38 Special case was lengthened (intentionally to prevent chambering in earlier guns) and became the .357 Magnum.

I remember spending some time at the range years ago with a young man trying to shoot his new .32 revolver. Salesman had sent him off with a box of .32 ACP ammo. About one in five actually fired, but the rest just settled down into the chambers out of reach from the firing pin. It took me a couple of hours to convince the young man that there really are some differences in .32 caliber ammunition.

Dick-

I may have some that I can give you. Let me check when I get home tomorrow, and I will let you know. I think I have a decent amount.

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Ash

I've noticed Colt had some early D.A. guns rollmarked .38 and nothing else. So you may wind up with a gun chambered in .38 short Colt, .38 long Colt, .38 N.P. or .38 special. I've owned Colts in the past chambered in .38 LC and .38 spec.. Other than a DS or two I've owned chambered in .32 NP (and rollmarked as such) I've avoided .32's
Do early Colt .32 rollmarks contain any other description besides .32?

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SOS USA

When, in Colt's opinion, they are the only gun in the universe, why would it??

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Dean
SWCA #680 SWHF #446

Dick, I can look around here, I found ammo for some Japanese pre-war relic last year, if people will pay for it, someone in this town has it. Just 32 Colt as a description?

.32 Colt New Police and .32 S&W long are identical except for the bullet shape. .32 S&W is identical except for length and bullet weight.

.32 Short Colt and .32 Long Colt are an entirely different animal, being center-fire versions of earlier .32 Rim-fire cartridges.

.38 Short Colt, .38 Long Colt, and .38 Special are identical dimensionally except for length.

.38 Colt New Police and .38 S&W are the same cartridge except for bullet shape. They are not intended to be interchangeable with the three cartridges above.

Buy a "Cartridges of the World", you will be amazed at the amount of information which is readily available!

Buffalo Arms Co. lists dies and molds for the heeled bullet. They say they have them. They also say they have cast heeled bullets in stock. They don't currently have any brass but say they hope to get some next time Winchester makes a run of it. Buffaloarms.com. There is at least one guy on one of the auction sites that has twenty five 32 Colt Long cases for sale. Might get you started anyway.

Let me know how you make out Dick.
I know I have some I've been hanging onto mainly because I like old boxes.

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Paul
S&WCA #2726