All Hail The .32!!

Once upon a time, I bought a semi-automatic pistol. I was so enamored of it that I wrote a glowing review of the pistol. I should have waited before writing the review. Not too long after that, I got rid of the pistol. I am back to owning only revolvers.

I have a few revolvers in various calibers, ranging from a five-shot .22 Magnum derringer to a five-shot .45 Long Colt/.410 bore, with a few calibers in between. The pistol that is the most fun is the Smith and Wesson Model 29, the .44 Magnum pistol featured in the Dirty Harry movies. To avoid shaking myself to death, I train with .44 Special rounds. However, at the end of the training session, I fire off six rounds of .44 Magnum. When I finish, I almost always find at least two people looking over my shoulder and asking “What the hell was that?”

The big bores are pretty uncomfortable as everyday carry (EDC) weapons. My big bores are scattered around the house, hidden in locations that might prove useful in the event of an attempted home invasion. My EDC weapons are the .38 Specials. But that changed just this month.

Some years ago, we were looking for a pistol for Kathy, one that packed more punch than the .22 Magnum but didn’t provide the recoil of a .38 Special. After a considerable amount of research, we settled on a .32 H&R Magnum produced by Charter Arms. This pistol can handle a .32 S&W Short, a .32 S&W Long, or a .32 H&R Magnum. The Short is a useless cartridge, as it is underpowered compared with the other two. But the other two cartridges pass the James Bond Test.

What is the James Bond Test, you ask? In the early Bond novels, our hero carried a Beretta 418, which chambered a .25 ACP (Automatic Colt Pistol) round. Quite a few readers wrote to Ian Fleming to let him know that a manly, sophisticated agent like 007 would not be caught dead with such a wimpy handgun. (In the bad old days of misogyny, it was referred to as a “lady’s gun”.) As a result, Fleming upgraded Bond to the Walther PPK 7.65mm (.32 ACP). Now the .32 S&W Long is a more powerful cartridge than the .32 ACP, and the .32 H&R Magnum is more powerful than both of the others. Thus the little revolver outperforms James Bond’s iconic semi-automatic pistol with either cartridge, and passes the test. Take that, Jimmy boy!

Kathy prefers the .32 S&W Long, because it has very little recoil. I have fired her pistol with the H&R Magnum load, and I find the recoil to be less than that of a .38 Special. So I finally convinced myself to buy the same revolver Kathy carries.

It was easy to adjust from a .38 Special to the .32 H&R Magnum. It is very comfortable to carry. I use an outside-the-waistband holster, covered in the summer by a Hawaiian shirt. Comfort is key: if it is not comfortable, you will not wear it, which means you will not have it when you need it. My guess is that when it is no longer Hawaiian shirt weather, I will wear a jacket, or go for an inside-the-waistband holster.

If you are thinking about an EDC pistol, you might want to consider the .32 H&R Magnum.