Colt .32 detective special

A Colt .32 detective special has just reached into my life. I don't know much about it, and I was hoping I could have some of your knowledge. It was my grandfather's revolver, and has a small barrel. Neither me or my father know much about it. All I know is that, it is a very very old weapon, uses .32 S&W L. If any of you can give me any information pertaining to this weapon it would be greatly appreciated.


With hope of new knowledge,
Ford Farmer

[edit on 13-10-2006 by Ford Farmer]

I have a similar Colt Police Positive from my Grandpa. It uses the long .32 cartridge .32-20. Kinda rare and a little expensive to find them now. I don't know about the Detective Special in .32. Only seen them in .38, but they were made in .32 and the long .32. They were made from 1927 on. By the 1980s more than 400,000 had been manufactured. The earlier ones- lower serial numbers would be worth more but i assume you're keeping it for other reasons.

Not much info really. Just clean it thoroughly and enjoy it.

yeah I dont think there's all that much info to be had, but you never know. keep it clean and oiled, and enjoy it. Do you have any ammo for it? I know cabellas and other big ammo dealers will have it.

Isnt a .32 what a lot of the cowboy style single action revolvers were? .32's and .45s right?

Isnt a .32 what a lot of the cowboy style single action revolvers were? .32's and .45s right?

No. the early revolvers were .36 and .44 mostly , Navy and Army respectivly. there were several other calibres during the "muzzle loading period". the first attempt at standardization as I recall was the Colt Patterson a .36cal. it was a flop and almost bankrupted Colt.. 1836 as I recall Capt. Walker of the Texas Rangers commisioned
a revolver that saved Colt The Walker Colt. It was a .44 cal. , It was the MAGNUM production gun of its day and until the developement of "smokeless powder".

the .32 again as I recall came in about 1880. It was designed as a "gamblers Gun"
but was also popular as a "Ladies gun" being of a handy size to carry in a purse .
Be careful there were 2 different calibres of 32s as there were 38s. the 32 S&W was
a smaller and much lower powered round than the 32 Colt or Long Colt. same goes for
the 38 S&W.

The Colt SAA chambered for the .45 long colt came out 1875 as i recall. the "peacemaker"(the gun that won the west) a few years later was a commercial version of the SAA ordered by the Army, thus the SAA, Single Action Army which was still used up to WWI as I recall, when it was replaced for a time by the S&W Mod.10 .38.