I empathize.
I have a Marlin Model 1892 rifle in .32 Long or Short Colt caliber.
The .32 Short Colt is only loaded today by Winchester, and uses a heeled bullet.
No one has manufactured .32 Long Colt ammunition for about 30 years.
Yet, I continually run into folks in gun shops and on the internet who insist that the .32 Long Colt and .32 Smith & Wesson Long are identical.
No, they're not.
The problem stems from the .32 Smith & Wesson Long and the .32 Colt New Police being different names for essentially the same cartridge.
When Colt started chambering its revolvers for the Smith & Wesson round, it balked at putting its competitor's name on Colt barrels. So, Colt renamed the cartridge to .32 Colt New Police.
The .32 Short Colt, and the .32 Long Colt are not the same as the .32 Smith & Wesson (short cartridge) or .32 Smith & Wesson Long.
Both the .32 Short Colt and .32 Long Colt have cases much smaller in diameter than the S&W cartridges.
Thus, a rifle or revolver chambered for the .32 Short Colt or .32 Long Colt won't even allow the S&W rounds to enter.
I know whereof I speak. Search the internet under "Gatofeo" and "Marlin Model 92" and you'll find a few thousand words on the use and reloading of same -- and the caliber distinctions.
Amazing how people just naturally assume you don't know what you're talking about.
There are many so-called experts out there who still believe the M16 bullet tumbles in flight, if you get hit in the finger with a .45 it will spin you like a top, a 12 gauge will blow you clear across the room, etc.
I even had one youngster tell me that the Russians invented the .30-30, then shortened the case and made it rimless so it would work in their AK-47s!
I used to just nod. Now, as a grumpy ol' desert cat, I set them straight. I figure I've heard these fictions long enough; time to set the record straight.
