The .32 S&W Long is a straight-walled, centerfire

Centerfire ammunition

A centerfire cartridge is a cartridge with a primer located in the center of the cartridge case head. Unlike rimfire cartridges, the primer is a separate and replaceable component....

, rim

Rim (firearms)

A rim is an external flange that is machined, cast, molded, stamped or pressed around the bottom of a firearms cartridge. The rim may serve a number of purposes, the most common being as the place for the extractor to engage...

med handgun

Handgun

A handgun is a firearm designed to be held and operated by one hand. This characteristic differentiates handguns as a general class of firearms from long guns such as rifles and shotguns ....

 cartridge

Cartridge (firearms)

A cartridge, also called a round, packages the bullet, gunpowder and primer into a single metallic case precisely made to fit the firing chamber of a firearm. The primer is a small charge of impact-sensitive chemical that may be located at the center of the case head or at its rim . Electrically...

, based on the earlier .32 S&W

.32 S&W

The .32 S&W cartridge was introduced in 1878 for the Smith & Wesson model 1½ revolver. It was originally designed as a black powder cartridge.The .32 S&W was offered to the public as a light, defense cartridge, for "card table" distances....

 cartridge. It was introduced in 1896 for Smith & Wesson

Smith & Wesson

Smith & Wesson is the largest manufacturer of handguns in the United States. The corporate headquarters is in Springfield, Massachusetts. Founded in 1852, Smith & Wesson's pistols and revolvers have become standard issue to police and armed forces throughout the world...

's first-model Hand Ejector

Hand ejector

Hand ejector is a term used to describe a design of revolver handgun. A hand ejector is characterized by a cylinder that swings out on a hinge and requires the pushing of a concentric rod toward the cylinder to eject the spent cases from the cylinder...

 revolver. Colt

Colt's Manufacturing Company

Colt's Manufacturing Company is a United States firearms manufacturer, whose first predecessor corporation was founded in 1836 by Sam Colt. Colt is best known for the engineering, production, and marketing of firearms over the later half of the 19th and the 20th century...

 called it the .32 Colt New Police in revolvers it made chambered for the cartridge.

History

When he was the New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 Police Commissioner, Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...

 standardized the department's use of the Colt New Police

Colt New Police Revolver

The Colt New Police is a single and/or double action .32 Colt Long or Short Caliber, six shot revolver. It was manufactured from 1896 to 1905 by Colt Firearms of Hartford, CT. The sights on the weapon were fixed. It could be purchased with a two and a half inch, four inch, or six inch barrel. It...

 revolver. The cartridge was then adopted by several other northeastern U.S. police departments. The .32 Long is well-known as an unusually accurate cartridge. This reputation led Police Commissioner Roosevelt to select it, as an expedient way to increase officers' accuracy with their revolvers in New York City.

Current Use

In the United States, it is generally seen primarily just in older revolvers.

The .32 S&W Long is popular among international competitors using high-end target pistols from makers such as Hämmerli

Hämmerli

Hämmerli is a Swiss manufacturer of firearms aimed mostly at sport shooting, especially Olympic events governed by the International Shooting Sport Federation....

, Benelli

Benelli B76

The B76 is a pistol manufactured in Italy by Benelli. It operates on the lever-delayed blowback system that Benelli called an "inertia lock". Despite the name, the system of operation is pure lever-delayed as explained in . Manufacture has been discontinued....

, and Walther, among others, but chambered for wadcutter

Wadcutter

A wadcutter is a special-purpose bullet specially designed for shooting paper targets, usually at close range and at subsonic velocities typically under 800 ft/s . They are often used in handgun and airgun competitions...

 bullet type. The sporting variant of the Manurhin MR 73

Manurhin MR 73

The Manurhin MR73 is a French-manufactured, double-action revolver chambered in .38 Special/.357 Magnum. The revolver can be converted to 9mm Parabellum with a supplied replacement cylinder...

 is also chambered in .32 S&W Long.

The IOF .32 Revolver

IOF .32 Revolver

IOF .32 Revolver is a 6-shot handgun designed and manufactured by the Ordnance Factories Organization in India and is meant for short range. It is a 'Break Action' self extracting revolver and uses the .32 Smith & Wesson Long cartridge...

 manufactured by the Ordnance Factories Organization in India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 for civilian licence holders is chambered for this cartridge.

Interchangability

The .32 S&W Long headspaces on the rim and shares the rim dimensions and case and bullet diameters of the shorter .32 S&W cartridge and the longer .32 H&R Magnum

.32 H&R Magnum

The .32 H&R Magnum is a rimmed cartridge designed for use in revolvers. It was developed in 1984 as a joint venture between Harrington & Richardson and Federal Cartridge...

 and .327 Federal Magnum

.327 Federal Magnum

The .327 Federal Magnum is a cartridge introduced by Sturm, Ruger and Federal Cartridge, intended to provide the power of a .357 Magnum in six shot, compact revolvers, whose cylinders only hold 5 rounds of the larger .357 Magnum cartridge...

 cartridges. The shorter .32 S&W cartridges may be fired in arms chambered for the .32 S&W Long; and the .32 S&W Long cartridges may be fired in arms chambered for the longer .32 H&R Magnum cartridge; although the longer cartridges should not fit and must not be fired in arms designed for shorter cartridges.

See also

• List of handgun cartridges
• 8 mm caliber
  8 mm caliber
  This article lists firearm cartridges which have a bullet in the to caliber range.*Length refers to the empty cartridge case length.*OAL refers to the overall length of the loaded cartridge.All measurements are in mm .-Pistol cartridges:...
  
  
• .32 H&R Magnum
  .32 H&R Magnum
  The .32 H&R Magnum is a rimmed cartridge designed for use in revolvers. It was developed in 1984 as a joint venture between Harrington & Richardson and Federal Cartridge...
  
  
• .327 Federal Magnum
  .327 Federal Magnum
  The .327 Federal Magnum is a cartridge introduced by Sturm, Ruger and Federal Cartridge, intended to provide the power of a .357 Magnum in six shot, compact revolvers, whose cylinders only hold 5 rounds of the larger .357 Magnum cartridge...
  
  
• IOF .32 Revolver
  IOF .32 Revolver
  IOF .32 Revolver is a 6-shot handgun designed and manufactured by the Ordnance Factories Organization in India and is meant for short range. It is a 'Break Action' self extracting revolver and uses the .32 Smith & Wesson Long cartridge...