.32 S&W long "J" frame

[Toothlessannie]

Hello I'm new to the forum and have recently acquired a pistol from a friend and was wondering how old it is approximately

Serial number 438932

Can anyone here help me determine the age?

[goatsnguns]

Welcome to the forum. We need some more information, the caliber, the barrel length measured from the front of the cylinder to the muzzle, the number of chambers, and if there is a letter before the serial number on the butt of the frame. You will find a wealth of information here along with friendly people.

[Toothlessannie]

Thank you for your reply
It is .32 caliber six shot revolver
Barrel lenght is 3"
No letter before the serial number
The bottom of the butt is stamped
Pat, June 5 1917

[Hondo44]

Welcome to the forum.

Your neat old pre war 32 is a .32 Regulation Police from about Aug 1926. But it's built on the I frame. The J frame wasn't introduced until 1950.

[Green Frog]

In a rare instance of brevity brother Hondo44 has told you the good news but hasn't told you how neat the gun you got really is. It's the old type frame with leaf-type mainspring, but is also late enough to have the improved heat treatment of the critical components so you can enjoy it with any modern factory 32 S&W Long ammo out there. Hondo was too modest to suggest you go into the "Sticky" threads and read all about the history of S&W's smallest, coolest guns (that HE wrote) but I will, so you can truly appreciate what you've found. And as he said, welcome to the S&W Forum!

Froggie

[oger]

You will love the little 32 they are very nice shooting small revolvers that women especially like.

[Toothlessannie]

Excellent thanks all for the info

[Toothlessannie]

The collective wisdom here is priceless

I'm amazed that just the serial number is not enough to positively nail it down

Thanks again

[Hondo44]

Originally Posted by Toothlessannie

The collective wisdom here is priceless

I'm amazed that just the serial number is not enough to positively nail it down

Thanks again

You're very welcome.

Recognize:

1. that the incorrect frame size in your title could have led us astray,

2. different models can have different serial number ranges which means two different models can have duplicate serial numbers, and

3. until you provided the grip style, we couldn't tell if you had a ".32 Hand Ejector" with round butt, or the ".32 Reg Police" which are two different models in the same serial range.