5" Smith & Wesson 32 Long Ctg. question

[MikeKeyW]

I have a 32 S&W Long, Marked # 58 1238 4 on the frame, C 68771 on butt, bbl and cylinder. It has 5 screws and a "J" stamped on the right side of the grip frame along with inspector stamps there and on the left. It is square butt and 5" tapered bbl.
Someone looked it up for me and responded:
"Check the cartridge/caliber markngs on the side of the barrel again. What you describe should be a .38 Special, not a .32 S&W Long."
I did and that's what it is, 32, chambers them too!
Can any one help out there?

 

[MikeKeyW]

I have a 32 S&W Long, Marked # 58 1238 4 on the frame, C 68771 on butt, bbl and cylinder. It has 5 screws and a "J" stamped on the right side of the grip frame along with inspector stamps there and on the left. It is square butt and 5" tapered bbl.
Someone looked it up for me and responded:
"Check the cartridge/caliber markngs on the side of the barrel again. What you describe should be a .38 Special, not a .32 S&W Long."
I did and that's what it is, 32, chambers them too!
Can any one help out there?

 

[arfmel]

seems to me that if the serial on butt, barrel and frame all match, it is factory correct and a .32 caliber. what is the question?

 

[MikeKeyW]

Oops, in my cutting and pasting I left that part out. I'm just learning Smiths and was inquiring about model what I had, DOB range and how common. Just background info.

 

[BUFF]

If the serial number on frame bottom, barrel andcylinder do begin with "C", then it sounds like you have a post-war .32 Military & Police. They are like the .38 Special M&P but chambered in .32 Long. Made in small numbers from 1948 to 1950. Most were 2 inch and 4 inch barrels but 5 inch barrels are supposed to have been made.

A pretty scarce gun! Supica & Nahas price them from $1,000 in "good" condition to $2,500 new in box!

 

[moosedog]

Without taking a look in the books to research it, off the top of my head it sounds like a British marked S&W M&P in 32 S&W Long caliber.
These are hard to find guns as most M&Ps were made in 38 Caliber. Some pictures would help.
If your thinking of selling it let me know as it will fill a hole in my collection of 32s.

 

[MikeKeyW]

Wow, what a surprise. If this is the case then that makes it my third rare gun and one I've had the longest. I also have a 3" Python (500 made)and a 375 H&H Steyr Model S "Carbine" w/factory 20" tube (as few as 5, at most 50, before computers and Steyr records on indicate a "Special" run of 50 of various calibers). So Uncle Al's old 32 has a pedigree, that moves it out of the ratty gun rug way in the back of the to a new home up front and new rug!

 

[moosedog]

That's it? No pictures? No follow up?
Who's uncle Al? What pedigree?

 

[MikeKeyW]

Working on it.
How do I insert pictures? N/M, I'll figure it out shortly.

One of the rarest groups of Military and Police revolvers completed was manufactured from January 19, 1948 to February 3, 1950. These guns, designated the .32 Military & Police were designed to fire the .32 S&W Long cartridge rather then the .38 Special. The revolver was standard with a 4" barrel, but the firm produced a limited supply of 2" and 5" lengths. When production was completed, the firm had produced a total of 4,813 revolvers. Today one of these revolvers would be a rare find for the Smith & Wesson collector. (History of Smith & Wesson, by Roy G. Jinks; pp:166

Al was my uncle who I got it from, a ret. chief warrant officer.
Pedigree by virtue of rarity.

 

[MikeKeyW]

How's these?

 

[BUFF]

You know, with almost 5,000 of them made, one would expect to see them much more frequently than we do.

Were most of them exported or something? I have never seen one in person, just in photos.

 

[moosedog]

Nice gun Mike, thanks for sharing it with us.
Seems that your Uncle Al had great taste in firearms.

 

[H Richard]

I agree, I've never seen one. You would think they would raise their heads more often. I have a 29-3 Lew Horton 6" full lug barrel and un-fluted cylinder that there were only 5000 made, and I've seen several of these, but never a .32 M&P.

 

[Duke426]

Great. Just when I thought I had all the guns I wanted you go and post this. My wife and my wallet are not going to be happy...

Just funnin' with ya!! Cool gun and one I'd like to have! Thanks for sharing.

 

[MikeKeyW]

I just wish my uncle had told me about it, he may have picked it up in England but he never spoke of the war. He was a Chief Warrant Officer, he was in the war, that's it and it came from my Aunt. He would give me his copies of Naval Proceedings when he finished with them, I devoured every one. Key West was a major Naval port in the 60's and I used to shine shoes at my fathers barber shop. You should have seen some of the looks I'd get when a seaman would tell me what ship he was on and I'd rattle off every piece or armament it carried. I could also tell which ones were submariners, no matter how much they cleaned up and poured on the Old Spice, a Gato class seaman always carried a touch of diesel wherever he went.
Thanks everyone for your input!

 

[MikeKeyW]

I yhought an update might be in order to put a face to my Great Uncle, Al Goodrich. I've been going through boxes of family papers trying to unearth anything relevant to my Smith's origins.
My Uncle served in both World Wars and Korea for 40 years retiring as a Master Chief Warrant Officer and did a stint as a Federal Revenue Agent. He was extensively decorated but for reasons known only to him all traces of them disappeared. I did find a picture of him in uniform, I don't know how to tell rank so maybe someone can help me out with that. I restored the photo myself, photography being my other addiction. So here is what "Uncle Al" looked like:

The no nonsense expression fits my child hood memories, nobody messed with Uncle Al. Now if I could just find something on the .32 M&P...

 

[handejector]

In the pic, he is a Chief Petty Officer, E-7.
What do you want to know about the 32 M&P?

 

[MikeKeyW]

Hi Lee,
What I would like to know is how he happened to come into possession of what Roy Jinks describes as one of the rarest M&P's. He was living in Key West late 40's until Korea started up which is the approx DOB until I get the letter of authenticity from Roy narrowing it down. If it had been destined for the British marketplace was it a over run sold on the domestic market? I'm just looking to possibly shed some light on my uncles life that no one in my family knows anything about. He was very close lipped regarding his past to the extent of disposing of all the metals/citations he received of his 40 years of service. All I know about the gun was that I got it in the same shoebox he had always kept it in using a pink fuzzy slipper as a gun rug/holster. The closet was also packed with about 20 or so years of the magazine "Naval Proceedings".

 

[epj]

Originally posted by handejector:
In the pic, he is a Chief Petty Officer, E-7.
What do you want to know about the 32 M&P?

If memory serves, he would have been a Chief Quartermaster according to the ship's wheel on his "crow". Lee is correct as well.

 

[Guest]

If you have your Uncle's serial number you can request information for the DOD records section about his service time. It takes a while but they do a pretty fair job. I don't remember the URL for the site but I think if you used Google I think you'd find the site.