# COLT POLICE POSITIVE .32 1925 COLT Lettered



## MinuteManMike (Mar 28, 2015)

My only COLT but it is in very fine condition. Bought in a CABELA'S GUN LIBRARY $$$ but I believe it will hold its value.
The 3rd photo shows the actual hardware store that the COLT PP was shipped to in 1925. The building is still occupied by an electric contractor in Wheeling West Virginia.
I have shot it only once about 12 rounds of S&W short & long .32 lead unjacketed ammo makes a mess. Is there jacketed .32 around anymore?


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## berettatoter (Sep 1, 2011)

Wow. When you state "fine condition", you weren't kidding! Very nice revolver. I am green with envy! :mrgreen:


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## Steve M1911A1 (Feb 6, 2008)

This is what the NYPD cop on our block's beat carried, when I was a kid.
He had never fired it in anger. He used to say that he hoped that he'd never have to even draw it.


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## MinuteManMike (Mar 28, 2015)

thank you very much... if I told you what I paid for it from Cabela's Library would you still like it?


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## Steve M1911A1 (Feb 6, 2008)

I dunno 'bout *berettatoter*, but I'm not a collector.
If it isn't practical, I wouldn't want it. So I wouldn't want a .32 anything.

Our beat cop probably joined NYPD in the early 1920s, when the Colt's .32 was still one of the force's approved guns.
When I knew him, in the late 1940s, he was pretty close to retirement.
Newer hires had to buy .38 Specials.


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## MinuteManMike (Mar 28, 2015)

Steve,
Theodore "T.R." Roosevelt Jr as president of the board of Police Commissioners want all NYC police to have the same weapon how they decided on the .32 COLT PP handgun and the .32 as a adequate caliber, there must have been some sort of logical explaination. Why .32 cal. instead of .38 cal. COLT Police Positives handguns were perfered?

Thats interesting that you were around to see "beat cops" do they still walk beats in NYC? I see there on horseback sometimes.
What are you holding in you Avatar picture, a COLT Mustang?
Cheers, Mike (also from the PNW 35 miles north of SEATTLE)


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## Steve M1911A1 (Feb 6, 2008)

Mike, you're in or near Everett, I suppose.
We're in the San Juans.

I dunno why the NYPD once chose the .32, but my conjecture now is that any recruit could successfully handle its recoil.
Back in those days—especially in Europe, but also in the US—people were less willing to be shot. Medical care wasn't anything like that which we now enjoy.
Therefore, I believe, a "lesser" caliber was sufficient back then, because the mere threat of the shot was a good fight stopper. You might live through it, but die later, in agony, of sepsis.

Last time I was in Manhattan, maybe seven years ago (?), there were two-man foot patrols in the entertainment and business districts, but the residential areas got one- and two-man cars.
There were still mounted cops, particularly in Central Park and the entertainment district. But now, I had thought that they'd been phased out because the force lost its midtown stables.

The pistol in my avatar photograph is a Semmerling LM-4, a tiny, manually-operated, .45 ACP repeater. I inherited it from one dear old friend, by means of another.
I used to carry it in my pocket, but it proved too finicky to be relied upon. It requires almost constant disassembly and cleaning. One little dust bunny in its works will cause it to misfire.

I switched to an AMT .45 Backup, a DAO semi-auto that is almost as small as the Semmerling, until arthritis started to affect my hands.
Then I went to an almost-100-years-old Colt's M.1903 in .380 ACP, in a "pancake" belt holster.
Right now, I'm recovering from a bad fall that injured my right wrist, so I'm temporarily using my wife's Kel-Tec P-3AT in a left-hand pocket rig.

My hand is almost recovered, and I'm going to attempt using the AMT .45 pocket gun again, since the .380 is not the best defensive round.


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## MinuteManMike (Mar 28, 2015)

Thanks for the update sounds very plausible on the .32 PP. 
You should see me in my custom made Goat Hide (goatskin) Leather A-2 Flight Jacket made by GOOD WEAR LEATHER CO. also made in the PNW.
I also have a Horse Hide A-2. Some of the other leathers used in WWII. 
I'd kid people and tell them the A-2 leather flight jackets USAAF aircrewmen wore would stop a 9mm but not a 20mm. 
They were bullet resistant not bullet proof.
Now I'm going research out this Semmerling LM-4...


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