Bunny Gun Nirvana

As luck would have it,  I accumulated quite a collection of .32 revolvers and automatic pistols in my search for "Bunny Gun Nirvana." Years ago I coveted a four-inch .32 Colt Police Positive Special in .32 NP which fellow NRA staff member Art Pence had.  His example was built in the 1950s.  It was a stout little gun which shot as accurately my much heavier ca. 1940 6-inch Officer's Model Match .32 NP, delivering inch groups at 25 yards off a Ransom rest with handloads it liked (#3118 cast of 1:20 and sized .314” with 2.8 grains of Unique).  Art's gun was a family heirloom and wasn't going anywhere. So for the next 25 years I was on the look out at gun and pawn shops for a Colt .32 NP D-frame. 

I never seemed to find one which wasn't a worn-out basket case, so I kept looking. In the meantime snapped up a nice S&W .32 Hand Ejector and two Model 31s which I kept, and tried several other small frame .32 revolvers, a 2-inch Colt Cobra and an H&R Defender which I didn't.  I never regretted doing so, for it added to my “Bunny Gun Experience.”  Those revolvers I decided to keep represent my favorite shooting  "toys," being fun to shoot, accurate and frugal of powder and lead!  What else could a country boy want?

About a year ago I found a ca. 1970s Colt Police Positive 4-inch in almost new condition - the D-frame Colt .32 of my dreams!  When I asked to see it the gunshop owner cautioned, “don't get too excited, it's only a .32” and let me have it for only  $300, about $100 less than it would have been if it had been a .38 Special. It shoots just like I remember.  Had I found the Colt first, I wouldn't have looked twice at the various S&Ws I've gotten in the meantime, but I have them now and don't regret it.

Chapter Two of my search for Bunny Gun Nirvana reprises the same plot in .32 automatics.  I was first introduced to the M1903 Colt Pocket Hammerless in 1974 by the late Harry Archer.  I was instantly impressed with its natural pointing, functioning and practical accuracy for what it was. I readily understood why people who have these don't get rid of them.  I looked for years, but never found one in the condition I wanted that was affordable at the time.   I didn't want a pristine collector piece, because I knew that I would put on larger sights (that I could see!) and an extended safety (similar to that of a modern M1911) because I really would carry it.  I didn't want to butcher a collectible piece to build my custom carry gun. I just wanted a representative Colt with good bore that functioned and shot well. Considering that Colt made over a half million of these, its strange that you seldom see one in a shop. They are all hiding in people's dresser drawers until the estates of their owners sell them off.

In the 1970s Harry and I tested almost every .32 ACP ever made, in trying to find which ones were the most accurate, reliable and were natural pointers for close range defensive shooting in the best Rex Applegate tradition.  We fired specimens borrowed from the NRA museum, the FBI and BATF labs as well as from several military collections.  There were no trick hollowpoint factory loads available then, so we shot various types of hot European hardball and handloads with cast bullets.

Of all the pocket guns Harry liked the Colt Pocket Model the best. On clandestine missions requiring a discreet gun, the Colt was his choice for those occasions when a more adequate firearm was not “mission feasible,"  meaning that he had to “blend in" with the locals and not stand out in a crowd.  The various Berettas M1934/35, M70, CZ27, Mauser M1910 and HSc, Browning M1910 and M1922 also “made the cut” in terms of reliability, but were mere substitutes for the Colt.  Acceptable, but not first choice. Neither he nor I cared at all for the finicky, hand-biting Walthers. 

So in the years while in search of my own Colt, in a reprise of my .32 revolver story,  I've acquired about half of the substitute .32 autos on Harry's “Good” list.  Then George Damron found a much-used, but serviceable Colt, which could be shipped to my dealer for transfer to me in Virginia.  If I had found this gun 25 years ago I would have no need for the others.  But, as the story repeats, I have them now and no regrets.  Astute observers will readily note that the photo group was shot with RWS FMJ Ball ammo.  There are sixteen rounds, the first two magazines of my first range session.  

Cast bullets will come later.