.32 ACP too weak as a defensive round?

[SharpsDressedMan]

I think we have a draw. A lot of people would never rely on the .32 in any configuration for self defense. More power to you all, literally. I love my Colt .32, and I will continue to carry it (not all the time, but when it suits me). I do not have delusions of grandeur, but I am a pretty good shot, but more importantly, I have a "deliberate" attitude that has developed during 20 years of playing policeman and a combined 40 years of packing a pistol.
If you are confident with your gun, and know it's limitations, then you still pretty well armed.

 

[gloucestergarand]

Received a bit of advice from my cousin's husband, who is in a three-letter acronym organization....while at dinner one night we were discussing carry guns and I told him I was proud of my Walther PP in .32....he nodded his head in agreement and stated it was a mighty fine ankle carry backup, but strongly recommended if I wanted a real carry gun, then carry a .45....took his suggestion and have discovered that my Colt Commander, with a paddle holster is surprisingly nimble and lightweight enough to make it a very practical carry weapon.

 

[chuckusaret]

I will continue to put up with concealment problems and the added weight of the larger weapons because of their knockdown power. I just don't think a 32 cal has enough stopping power. I carry a NAA380 as a backup.....

 

[jackstinson]

received a bit of advice from my cousin's husband, who is in a three-letter acronym organization

pta? Nba? Nfl? Nhl? Cbs? Nbc? Fox? Abc? Amc? Gmc? Tmc? Bbc? Wth?

 

[Deanimator]

The .32 was the standard round for police units around the world for years and years and years.

A lot of those "police" either had field gray uniforms with swastikas on them or khaki uniforms with red stars, and used those .32s to shoot people in the back of the head as they knelt in front of mass graves. That's not much proof of the .32acp as a "manstopper".

 

[mrt949]

I trust my life to my seecamp 32. Because i always have it close at hand.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I would say it's too weak, but perhaps in this configuration???

Scorpion

LD

 

[pck3]

Just my .02 and its been said before but personal comfort and ability go a long way. My wife HATES shooting my .45 but loves her 1903 and probably shoots it more than I get to shoot (nice thing about being a stay at home mom) I have no douts about her in a defensive situation with only her .32. Its all about what you have and how well you can use it.

 

[christcorp]

Well; I guess if my cousin's husband's sister's wife's mother's nephew worked for a "three-letter acronym organization"; and said that a 32acp wasn't a good defensive round; then it must be true. NOT!!!

I've worked for/with federal and state government for around 25 years. Including working with some folks who worked in departments with 3 letter-acronyms. And they are no different than the rest of society. Some will say that "Anything below a 9mm with less than a 13 round magazine totally sucks." And others will say; "if you know how to shoot, any caliber is a good defensive round; and you don't need more than 7 rounds". So while I'm sure your cousin's husband means well; his opinion doesn't carry any more weight than anyone else's here does. Including mine.

I don't carry a weapon because of knock down power; because a handgun isn't going to knock them down. I prefer a LARGER diameter bullet (45acp) because the LARGER THE BULLET, THE LARGER THE HOLE. And that means most probably more tissue damage; odds of hitting a vital organ increases; odds of hitting the CNS increases; and the probability of more blood loss and weakness/unconsciousness increases. But I have no problem with carrying a smaller caliber gun. In the colder months, when I wear a lot of clothes; (And so does the bad guys); I prefer my 45acp. In the warmer weather, I have absolutely the same level of confidence carrying a 32acp.

The biggest problem some people have, is they forget that they aren't police officers. They forget that they are civilian citizens. They forget that they carry their weapon solely for personal defense and that police carry theirs as part of their JOB which includes planned offensive engagements. E.g. Pulling over a traffic offender; knocking on the door of a domestic disturbance; planning a raid on a drug house; dealing with gang violence; etc... The police are preparing and sometimes actively seeking such situations. A totally different level of purpose. Where 15 round magazine could be useful. (Hence the main reason for NOT using the 45acp). But for the civilian; who isn't driving in the hood anticipating gang violence as part of their job; and not purposely walking into drug houses trying to bust them; or dealing with 3rd party crime not directly against them; a 32auto is quite satisfactory. Of course, if you can't shoot worth a crap, then I guess a 9mm or 40s&w with a 15 round magazine would be better. But for those who practice; can hit what they aim at; the 6-7 round 32acp will work just fine.

 

[Seven For Sure]

yes 45

 

[mbt2001]

picked up a .32 ACP pistol, for my daughter. Granted she's two years old

OK... You didn't buy your daughter a gun. What you did do was find a justification to buy yourself one.

Good for you

The .32 is a fine round and will serve well. If, supposing, you have a failure to stop with that round I would be inclined to think that ANY round used at that time on that perp would have likewise had a failure to stop.

Winchester Silvertips are the only thing to use with this gun!

 

[BMF500]

I love the big boomers but in reality it comes down to the placement of the shot. A.500 to the leg will hurt like hell, but probably won't kill you. A well placed .22LR to the head and your family's collecting that life insurance. Skill and comfort with the weapon are what's most important. That's my opinion.....

 

[PX15]

mbt2001:

Respectfully, Speer Gold Dots work just fine in my LWS380, LWS32, and my wife's LWS32... Our Seecamps just didn't like Winchester Silvertips for some reason, but have been 100% rerliable with Speer Gold Dot jhp's..

In fact, and I believe I'm correct, Seecamp recommends for the LWS32:
1. Speer Gold Dot jhp's, and after that the Hornady 60gn. SJH/XTP round, then Federal HydraShock jhp's or the "new" Winchester Silvertip jhp's.

Of course the nature of the Seecamp pistols design requires jhp's and as far as I've found out the only fmj round that will fit and function in the tiny mousegun is the truncated Winchester Q4255 round.

I'm sure the 32cal. pistols of other manufacturers can use fmj's (I believe my Guardian/P32/Tomcat accepted fmj's), but if you are a Seecamp fan then you know only using jhp's come with the territory.

My loads of choice in my 9MM 45ACP pistols are DoubleTaps, and as soon as some DoubleTap 380 jhps are available I want to try some of them just to check 'em out, but I have faith in that the Seecamps and the Gold Dots will work just fine if ever needed.

Just an observation, no offense.

Best Wishes,

Jesse

 

[chuckusaret]

We had an irate customer try to shoot the office employees at a local
wrecker company recently. A deputy sheriff was in the area and heard the gunfire and went to the scene and attempted to place the BG under arrest, the BG opened fire on the deputy with a rifle, the deputy returned fire with 9 rounds and hit the guy above the waist with all nine, the guy survived and is serving 5 years. Because of this incident and several others the sheriff's department switched from 9MM to .40 caliber weapons.

 

[grndslm]

Yes, it is. It's weaker than a .22 mag, so why not get a Taurus 941?

 

[lbmii]

The artist Andy Warhol was shot with a 32 auto. There are detailed write ups on what all physically happened to him. Read up on this (I suppose it is out there in Internet world). You will be amazed at the extensive damage he suffered.

 

[mbt2001]

Europe used the .32 extensively as a police and military round, as well as the .380. Further to that WW1 and WW2 saw the use of the .32 in several armies including the US. While there are better rounds, I think that the .32 auto has a place.

Light, blow back style designs can be used which add to the price sticker attraction to this round. I would carry one and feel well armed under most normal circumstances. It isn't the .45 or 9mm or .357, but then it isn't designed or intended to be.

It's weaker than a .22 mag

That is a bit of a misnomer. PAPER FIGURES often greatly skew the matters. According to paper figures the .30 carbine out of a handgun or short barreled carbine out strips the .357 / .44 mag (in either). Do you think the .30 carbine is a better "man stopper" or "game getter" than those two rounds?

Paper figures can be very misleading.

 

[Shadow 7D]

Ok, well until I can come up with the $3K for a semmerring (sp) .45, or there is .380 for less than a dollar a round for range FMJ, I'm sticking with .32. It's the question of 6 hundredths of an inch, and .45 doesn't come that small.
If I'm going to carry 45, I'm carrying .40 for more ammo. So lets all agree to the fact that .500 Linebaugh is what is really needed for pistol CC and be done.

 

[Artic]

Is a .32 enough? Well it's really up to you.

If it was me I would up the caliber to .380 but, thats me.

 

[sw282]

The 32 was deemed adequate as a police round. My wife's grandfather carried a Colt Pocket Positive in his law enforcement days for the State of South Carolina. Its a 32 Colt Short. I have in my collection a Walther PP used by the West German Police til recently and a used Sig P230 that came from the Tokyo Police Dept. complete with lanyard. Nw both these cultures are quite efficient at killing people. The Russians have a 32acp round of their own they are quite fond of. I have other pistols to carry . I carry that P230 and I dont feel undergunned. My most favorite carry gun is a S&W Model 15 2". When I want lightness and concealability the Sig does quite well

 

[rfurtkamp]

The .32 is not high on my list of personal defense calibers to choose from, however personally I'd take one in a heartbeat over a .380 simply because the snappy, mean recoil from most .380 blowbacks makes follow-up shots and practice less than pleasant.

If it's all about placement, I'll take my PP over any of the 380s I've shot - it's what I use in our informal 'blow up clay pidgeons at 50m with pocket guns' shootoffs. Follow-up shots are effortless and it doesn't lend to developing bad habits from recoil. And in something less than a full-power defensive load-type handgun, I want placement and speed of follow-up shots, because I have even less faith than usual that there will be a one-shot stop.

 

[JMusic]

I think everybody has a Kel Tec 32. What do you use to deer hunt with? Do they always go down?

Jim

 

[BHP FAN]

woerm's right,a .32 does beat a ''manly'' .45 back home in the safe. Also,there's a LOT more ammo choices out there than just John Browning's original ''ball'' ammo.

 

[Arbor]

Unless you are looking for trouble, the fact that you have a gun is vastly better than having no gun, regardless of what gun you have or how small it is!


I think it is beyond ridiculous that almost everyone on THR will give you way more of a hard time for carrying a .22lr or a .32ACP than if you were carrying no gun at all


Bring enough gun. If you can't or don't want to, bring the most gun that's comfortable. We can't all pack around AR15s and shotguns, so we pack what we can. No handgun is good enough for a fight. They are all better than being unarmed.

 

[senior]

Arbor

Amen to Arbor's post and a few others! Know those who say only DECENT handgun for SD is a 10mm, just how many of us will be walking the streets of "our town USA" and be confronted with several hyped up druggies or wild eyed terrorists? Thugs may be dangerous, but they also are cowards who prey on those they figure are unarmed. Point any gun in a goons face and what are the odds the BG will laugh and continue advancing, knowing he will be shot?