Can a .32 ACP CC gun have enough balls to be a respectable defense gun?

[okespe04]

I acctually know a big, tough guy that used to think he was cool because he liked to get in fights and stuff. One time he was kind of drunk in font of a convenience store getting cocky with some little gangster type punks. One of gangster kids pulled out a .22 and shot him in the gut. Big tough guy falls to the ground bleeding and crying. Little gangsters ran off and got away. I bet a .32 would have had similar results. Don't worry big tough guy was fine. He had some parts of his intestines removed and and put back together and stuff. Now he is a lot more mellow, works hard and is a mostly respectable guy that no longer talks a lot of smack.

 

[mrt949]

I carry a seecamp 32 .in my pocket all the time .i hope it works .because my 40 s@w is in the safe.

 

[S&Wfan]

No!

Go deer hunting and seek to get 100% stops with a high power rifle on a target oblivious to you but also moving . . . and you'll see that 100% stop is never an absolute, but bigger more powerful rounds HELP a lot.

Now . . .

Take that knowledge of reality and apply it to a handgun in the hands of a shaking you . . . against a BG who knows full well where YOU are and who has also decided to take you out anyway. He won't stand still either and he'll move a lot so you'll miss a lot.

Also, he'll be in an urgent mood to dispatch you as fast as possible . . . before you can launch a bullet into him.

IF you hit him, he's gonna know that he's got to truly finish his job fast if he is to somehow survive.


An you want to bet your life to a mousegun with an anemic cartridge coming out of a very short barrel?

Even if you kill your attacker, he'll probably kill you too before he loses strength unless you get lucky and make an effective brain or spine shot.

Carry as much handgun as you can tolerate, and pray you'll never have to find out.

 

[MICHAEL T]

People in this country have been defending them selves every day with 25 32 and 380 for many many years . Majority of time they are safe and unharmed when its over . Its you choice In my many years I have used a 25 auto and a 45 Both worked . Threat ended The one on you is more important than the one in car or home.

 

[dogspit]

L380 Will do the Trick



I have an H&R model 732 that shoots s&w 32 longs

But Pictured above is the Chrome Equalizer

Either will make your day dismal if shot with! I GUARANTEEEEEEEEE!

 

[jcwit]

He!! my day would be dismal if shot with a .22. Believe me I know, very dismal.

 

[alistaire]

Can a .32 ACP CC gun have enough balls to be a respectable defense gun?

No. but it is better than telling a bad guy "Stop! Wait until I find a sharp stick before you kill me."

 

[kokapelli]

Yes, but a 380 would be better and a 9mm would be still better, etc, etc.

 

[capttom]

I'm not a fan of the calibre, but I have a 1960s vintage Beretta Puma that is flatter than my 642 Airweight and just as long. The single action semi is much easier to carry and shoot accurately than the hammerless revolver. One reload magazine gives me 15 rounds total in the Beretta; a speedloader gives me 10 in the S&W. Do 15 .32s = 10 .38s? I don't know.
Do I carry the Beretta sometimes? Yes.
Am I comfortable doing so? Not always.

 

[searcher451]

The .32 was the standard caliber of police forces around the world for years and years and years. The more you go up the ladder, the better your chances, of course ... but in the right hands and under the right circumstances, a .32 can be plenty.

 

[gym]

There is a perception thatjust because something "was", that it still "is". We use what is at hand, when something better comes along we use that. There was no pistol that was being manufactured for the public when these smaller calibers were popular. Or they would have used the larger caliber. Simple, a 32 is outdated, I have a 32 seacamp, because in 1995 that was the first mini auto pistol and there was a two year wait and a thousand dollar price tag on it. Now we have invented better pistols with better caliber ammo that does a better job. Why drive a hupmobile just because it exhists. You want this weapon to do a specific job, so why try to do the job with an outdated tool. James bond, would have carried a 40 caliber if they had a 40 caliber when flemming wrote the books.

 

[valorius]

I really dislike the .32acp's semi-rimmed design. It really limits the caliber IMO.

 

[KBintheSLC]

The .32 is nothing to scoff at. Though it is not my first choice for a gunfight, it still packs nearly double the weight of a .22 LR bullet with about 50% more energy and about 50% larger diameter. It can be plenty effective with direct hits using heavy ball or cast loadings. Where it falls short is when you have to overcome intermediate barriers in order to hit your target. That was the primary reason law enforcement agencies moved away from it back in the day.
However, for CCW use, it can be a good compromise between size, weight and firepower.

 

[Deaf Smith]

wbond,

It ain't the gun that has the balls..... it's the person holding it.

Now the .32 is a mite weak. Not something I'd intentionaly pick as my primo uno packing gun.

But, if you are very very skilled, the .32 can do.

So I suggest you get lots of practice, maybe a .22 version of your .32 is in order.

Deaf

 

[Manco]

There is a perception thatjust because something "was", that it still "is".

But .32 ACP is still just as effective as it was.

We use what is at hand, when something better comes along we use that. There was no pistol that was being manufactured for the public when these smaller calibers were popular. Or they would have used the larger caliber.

The public aside, I didn't see every military and police force switch over to .45 ACP pistols, which I suppose has been the "best" autoloader cartridge since it was created more than a century ago (not long after .32 ACP). Even 9mm Luger wasn't quickly adopted by European police forces, who stuck with .380 ACP and even .32 ACP long after more powerful autoloader cartridges had come along.

Simple, a 32 is outdated, I have a 32 seacamp, because in 1995 that was the first mini auto pistol and there was a two year wait and a thousand dollar price tag on it. Now we have invented better pistols with better caliber ammo that does a better job.

Uh...when do you think all of these calibers were invented?

Why drive a hupmobile just because it exhists. You want this weapon to do a specific job, so why try to do the job with an outdated tool. James bond, would have carried a 40 caliber if they had a 40 caliber when flemming wrote the books.

So why didn't James Bond carry a .45 ACP pistol, which had been around for over four decades by the time the character was created?

 

[FruitCake]

In a upclose self defense situation I strongly feel my P32 would do the job. The sound of my 32 being fired is very intimidating in my opinion. I would really prefer to carry my 9mm but a full size gun being carried all day is just uncomfortable for me, unless I was standing all the time. I carry my P32 95% of the time. Also very happy with it. Even picked up a PF9 last week still not nearly as comfortable to carry as my 32 but only time will tell.

 

[gym]

Manco, the pistols weren't invented the ammo was. The reason that the 32 was popular was that there were plenty of medium to small size pistols that could fire that round, when technology got better and guns got smaller, they were able to make them small enough to use the larger calibers and still be compact enough to conceal. Also the improver technology of higher pressure ammo, has negated the 32 from being a viable contender in the carry market. The 10 mm and 40 were not around granted the 9mm and 45 were but there were no guns to shoot them from that were a good trade off. I carried a 380 and 38 in the 70's and all we had for small packages were snub nose revolvers and ppk's. Now you have a hundred choices of a superior nature, why would you want to go for an underpowered round. Just to make a point or cut and paste what I say because you feel you "really" have a point. I doubt that you truly believe that. Up close is where you don't want to be if possible,Explorer, unless it's unavoidable. But if you are looking for comfort instead of a life saving tool then you may be looking at the wrong things. Guns are not always comfortable and you sometimes have to dress around your weapon. Otherwise we would all be carrying that 10 oz rubber laser cannon.I have both of those guns amoung others, and there is no way I would take a 32 seacamp over a pf9, unless maybe I had both guns on me. The 32 is a BUG, plain and simple.

 

[LawofThirds]

The way I see it, .32 ACP's big detractor is not the stopping power (in FMJ it gets the penetration needed) but rather the semi rimmed case that can lead to rim lock.

8 .32 holes vs 7 .356 holes. Not that much difference in volume of tissue displaced between the two and the .32 does have the advantage of being quicker in follow-up shots.

It's not an optimum defensive round but it does have its place in the self defense roll call.

My only wish is that someone would push the round farther into a ".32 Super Automatic" range and push maybe another 150 fps out of the round. That would be enough to make many of the hollowpoints much more reliable in expansion.

 

[gym]

We all know the 380 is on the edge of acceptability in a carry gun, thus 20 new 380's in the last 2 years. No one is pushing 32's why would that be.Most of us know why. They are a poor self defense round. There is no one who has come out with a new 32,. Keltek and seacamp were the last two maybe bersa or american arms. because there is no market for them. And why is there no market for them. Because they lack the necessary ballistics of a round used for self defense. Sure you can use it, I have a couple boxes in my safe. But I can use my wamo slingshot also.I wouldn't want to get into a situation wher I had to defend myself or my family with a 32 cliber pistol as my only weapon. Especially with badguys wearing coats on and carrying big ass guns. it's just a recipie for disaster. And I sure would not want to get very close to anyone carrying a 1911 or a M&P, or any decent weapon system with that 32. 32's are famous for failure to expand, and hitting somone with 2 or three layers of clothing on, is going to piss them off unless you hit a vital. On the other hand you have a chance with your pf-9 and some corb-ons,or hydro shocks, big difference. 110-124 grain and he or they will not get up if hit in the chest. And most tiny 32's are 6 or 7 rounds, you may need 2 or 3 round or more to put down a big guy running at you.

 

[zxcvbob]

Are there any modern guns chambered for the .30 Luger CTG? There's your .32 ACP on steroids (without getting ridiculous like the .30 Mauser or 7.62 Tokarev or .30 Carbine)

 

[Allentown]

Defensive, yes.

Respectable? Well its better than nothing and with multiple rounds on target i am sure would be effective.

 

[Boris bush]

Are there any modern guns chambered for the .30 Luger CTG? There's your .32 ACP on steroids (without getting ridiculous like the .30 Mauser or 7.62 Tokarev or .30 Carbine)

Google 7.92 VBR compact. Now thats a 7.65Br on steroids. Even make a conversion for glocks and capacity is a good bit more....

 

[Manco]

Manco, the pistols weren't invented the ammo was.

True enough, but at the same time if there was enough of a desire for a certain kind of pistol chambered in a larger caliber, then it would likely have been made sooner. I don't think it would have taken more advanced technology or metallurgy, but it does take a welcoming market and/or often a requirement from professional organizations.

Now you have a hundred choices of a superior nature, why would you want to go for an underpowered round. Just to make a point or cut and paste what I say because you feel you "really" have a point.

I wouldn't counter unless I thought I had something to add to the discussion. The salient question of this thread is whether a .32 ACP pistol is a "respectable" defensive weapon. You basically said that it was because that's all they had at the time, but is no longer considered respectable because there are better options now, while I said in response essentially that if it was considered respectable at some point (and for a long time), then at the very least it is just as effective now, so what should people think?

I simply gave a different point of view. Your point of view seems to be heavily based on the public perception of what happens to be available at any given time, as well as the notion that whatever manufacturers come up with drives the market, while mine relies heavily on what professionals actually used, with the suggestion that if .32 ACP was in fact not effective, then it would not have been respected, and the professionals would have very quickly asked for something better, implying that military and police requirements can also drive the market and determine what happens to be available. There is truth to be found in both points of view, and if anything my point was that there is more than one valid way to look at this topic.

If an analogy would help, it's like how some people claim that an older computer is "obsolete" just because faster, more capable computers are available today, while others may claim that a computer cannot by definition be "obsolete" as long as it performs the same tasks that it always did with the same degree of efficiency as before. In this view, if something is still as useful as it ever was, then it is not obsolete. And given the way that most people use word processors, for example, it isn't necessary for them to upgrade to the latest computer that can do realtime 3D graphics for the latest games. In analogy, the task of stopping and/or killing humans with bullets (hopefully bad guys, but everybody is a potential target) hasn't changed much, either, despite the changes in the market. From this perspective, if .32 ACP really was respected back in its heyday because it was effective enough to have earned that respect, then it should be respected today as well.

Getting back to your question of why anybody would want to use a .32 ACP pistol today, well maybe they shoot better with this caliber. I can't shoot any better with 9mm than I do with .40 S&W, but a lot of people can because everybody is different and perceives recoil differently. Maybe you can't shoot .32 ACP any better than you can shoot .380 ACP, but maybe somebody else can, and I'd like to at least address the question for those people, as well as hypothetically for anybody who is interested just for the sake of curiosity.

I doubt that you truly believe that.

Believe what? That I have something to contribute to the discussion, or what I've been saying about .32 ACP? Are you accusing me of being argumentative for its own sake? Well, I believe that I did make a valid point and I believe every single thing I've said about .32 ACP (although I'm open to what others say and can change my mind if proven wrong--I've already had to abandon what I used to believe in order to reach this point in the first place). You're free to believe whatever you want.

 

[SharpsDressedMan]

For most big bore fans, the .32 is never going to be an attraction. For simple gun enthusiasm, the .32, in the many guns that are around, is going to fly because we like the GUNS. We collect, we own, we shoot....we just have fun with them. Can we also carry them for defense? Sure. Are they BETTER than other guns? Often not, but if we perform well with a given gun, or it hides nicely, or it is just what we WANT to carry that day (I often carry a Colt 1903 and sometimes a Walther PPk), then the .32 is going to be in use. As far as rim lock, I am sure it exists, but I have never had it happen to me with either the Colt or Walther, and also shoot semi-rimmed .38 Super in four other 1911 pattern guns, and have not had it happen in those, either. So, you can worry about that if you want to, but with six guns and thousands of rounds spent, I am not going to worry about it.

 

[gun guy]

while many of the younger xbox warrior crowd with weeks of experience reading guns and ammo, and several online wins, will state that the 45, or the gatling gun is the only weapon to carry, the 32 will work as a self defense weapon. For about the last 100 years it has been a principal side arm for both military and police in European countries. There are many fine weapons chambered in 7.65 and high quality modern ammo to feed them. within its limitations, its adaquate at close range. the downside is mainly the cost. for what you pay for a 32, and ammo, you can have a 9mm and more ammo. However if you are older, a smaller person, or not comfortable with a larger weapon, you are armed with a 32. After all the bombs,tanks, and ships, it was a 32 that finally killed hitler.