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I’m not just a .32 ACP nut; believe it or not, I embrace most forms of .32. The other .32 I like nearly as much as the .32 ACP is the .32 S&W Long. I have a small collection of I-Frame revolvers, including a pair of 1903 Hand Ejectors, a Regulation Police, and a Spanish copy of the 1903. My most recent acquisition is a snub-nose I-Frame that most S&W collectors call a Pre Model 30.
They call it the Pre Model 30 to be more specific. If you say you have a Pre Model 30, S&W fans know it’s a post-war .32 Hand Ejector, which differs from the original 1903 Hand Ejectors. The Pre-Model 30’s actual name is the .32 Hand Ejector. In 1957, S&W started introducing model numbers, and this became the Model 30.
My specific model appears to be a 4-screw, new-I-frame. I say “appears to be” because the I-frame series has many small changes throughout its lifespan. Mine has four screws, a ramped sight, and an egg-shaped trigger guard, which seems to confirm my findings.
The serial number dates it to 1953-1955.
From my research, it appears to be a fairly uncommon configuration. Most of these guns were carbon blued, so the shiny nickel finish isn’t very common. Most of the pre-Model 30 production seemed to have longer barrels.
The shiny finish could be aftermarket, but since the hammer and trigger are not coated, I’m inclined to believe it’s a factory finish. Maybe it’s just wishful thinking.
The I-Frame Legacy
Most people know snub noses as J-Frames. S&W produced the J-Frame because the I-Frame wasn’t big enough to handle the longer .38 Special round. For a time, they produced both J-Frames and I-Frames, but the economy of producing both became too much for S&W. The .38 Special was the dominant round, so they stopped producing I-Frame guns.
I can see why S&W killed the I-Frame. The snub-nose I-Frame is slightly smaller than the J-Frame, but not by a whole heckuva lot. It’s only around a quarter inch shorter and a couple ounces lighter. It’s roughly the same width, but S&W could only fit 5 rounds in the .38 Special J-Frame, whereas the Pre Model 30 got away with six .32 caliber rounds.
Ounces and length are both critical for deep concealment, but not worth keeping two lines of tooling running. Modern materials have made plenty of J-Frames much lighter than the 17 ounces of the Pre Model 30.
The Shiny Pre Model 30
My Pre Model 30 features a shiny electrolytic bright nickel finish with wood grips. It’s a classic snub-nose revolver. Nothing fancy, and in desperate need of a grip adapter. I love that it has a flat-latch cylinder release. It’s the only flat latch I have, and owning it made me learn all about S&W flat latches.
I’ve read that S&W introduced the flat latch to reduce snags and create a smaller profile, and I’ve also read it was a cost-saving measure. S&W historian Roy Jinks was quoted in American Rifleman crediting concealment and a snag-free draw as the reason for the flat latch. S&W also never called it the flat latch; that’s a pure collector’s term.
J-frames, I-frames, and lightweight K-frames wore flat latches. It appears there are seven different flat-latch designs. They’re not as easy to use as the regular latch, but they look cool and are a quirky piece of S&W history.
The Cartridge
The .32 S&W Long is the sequel to the downright quaint .32 S&W. The .32 S&W was an early centerfire round designed for compact revolvers. We’d describe the .32 S&W as anemic these days, but President McKinley would likely disagree.
S&W introduced the .32 S&W Long in 1896 with the original S&W .32 Hand Ejector. The original S&W Hand Ejector was a .32 S&W, and it set the stage for every S&W produced since. It’s interesting to me that .32-caliber guns seem to always be trendsetters.
The .32 S&W Long was originally a black powder round, but it transitioned to smokeless powder while maintaining a similar chamber pressure. The new .32 Long revolvers could also shoot .32 S&W. The cartridge had a fair bit of success and is still used in wadcutter form in semi-auto pistols for bull’s-eye shooting events like the ISSF 25 Meter matches.
The .32 S&W Long has a few loadings, and I tend to use 98-grain rounds moving at a quaint 650 feet per second. They aren’t exactly powerful rounds, but Lucky Gunner did gel testing, and they can reach the minimum penetration depth from short barrels, but you’ll get 0 expansion.
Sadly, it’s an expensive cartridge, with a good price being a little above 50 cents a round. I’ve heard it’s easy to reload and that might have to be the path I need to take.
The Pre Model 30 At The Range
If you’ve never shot a .32 S&W Long revolver, I advise you don’t. Not because it’s a bad experience. Quite the opposite. I wouldn’t shoot a .32 S&W Long revolver because you’ll just want to keep shooting it.
Then you’ll want to buy your own, and then maybe another, and before you know it, you swipe every box you see at any local gun store.
You’ll be shooting $ 28 to $ 30 worth of ammo in 50 rounds. You’ll keep spending more and more until you’re like me, eyeing reloading setups and figuring out where it could fit in your office.
From a little 17-ounce snub-nose revolver, it’s downright pleasant. You can empty a cylinder as quickly as possible, and your hand won’t feel much more than a burp. The Pre Model 30 handles wonderfully. It launches the little .32 S&W Long rounds with ease, letting you make rapid follow-up shots that stay on target.
Single-handed shooting is almost too easy. I can launch the entire cylinder downrange without losing control. I can typically do that with a .38 Special, but not nearly as fast. It’s not exactly rimfire-level recoil, but it’s close. Since it’s not rimfire, you don’t get the hefty double-action trigger required to ensure consistent rimfire ignition.
Hitting Doubles
A previous owner wore in the double-action trigger, and it’s quite smooth. I haven’t quite figured out how to roll a revolver trigger perfectly, but the Pre Model 30 makes it feel easier. I hardly fussed with the single-action because I loved the double-action so much.
I was shooting doubles from the low ready at a reduced-size USPA target at five yards, and every pair landed side by side in the head of the target.
I had warmed up a bit, gotten a little more accustomed to the point of aim and point of impact, but if you take shooter skill out of the equation, the gun’s clearly capable of excellent accuracy. The .32 S&W Long round does a great job, and Bull’s-eye shooters still use the cartridge in their precision pistols for a reason.
Out to 25 yards, I could land double-action shots on C-zone-sized steel. I had to take my time, and that’s not all that impressive for experienced wheel gunners, but for me it’s pretty dang good. Especially with a rear trench sight and shiny front sight.
The most trouble I had came from the shiny finish. The front sight blends in with the rest of the gun and constantly reflects the sun, making it hard to see at times.
The Pre Model 30 went bang every time I pulled the trigger; that’s an impressive feat because I was using MagTech ammo, a brand known for hard primers. Those hard primers give me trouble with modern guns. The old six-gun eats through the hard primers without complaint.
The Pre Model 30 – Get One
This might be my favorite snub nose. Not from a practical perspective. I have other guns to carry. It’s easily one of the most enjoyable guns to shoot. It’s decades old but almost keeps up perfectly with the 432 UC I adore oh so much. I’m a fan of the I-Frame lineup, and most seem to be fairly affordable.
If you come across one, it’s worth snatching up.
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A Smith & Wesson Model 629 in 44mg
I bought one last year and hopefully I will be able to try it out at the local range soon! Grumpy
Maybe it shoots 45-3-1/4, aka 45-120. 500+ grain slug moving at 1400+ fps? Grumpy
These geese look pretty placid. However, they are
actually blood-thirsty, homicidal monsters.
If you’ve ever watched the news, you’ve undoubtedly noticed that human beings are uniformly horrible. As I sit typing these words, I have just wrapped up my daily news dump.
The highlights include a horrible terrorist attack in Moscow by ISIS, a horrible story about a sex cult, another horrible story about a school shooter, and then a story about the Iranians making cheap explosive drones to export all over the world and murder innocent people, which is also obviously horrible. Just what is wrong with us?
I’ll answer that for you. Nothing is wrong with us. We just live on Planet Earth alongside every other horrible thing God saw fit to put here. For the dispassionate observer, we human beings are just not all that special in the horrible department.
Wet and Wild
I have a little lake for a backyard. Many years ago, when I finally finished medical school, we took the last of the savings my wife had scraped up from my time in the Army and used it to build a dam across a small creek that runs through the secluded stand of Mississippi timber we call home. The resulting modest body of water helped raise my kids.
We were some of those homeschool freaks. Most days, when it was pretty and warm, my kids would go swimming in the lake. They turned the canoe over and used it like a submarine, strategically placed a water hose on a hillside to create a mudslide, and just generally had a good time being miniature unwashed redneck lunatics. I joined them for a while but called it a day when the fish wouldn’t stop nipping at my leg hair.
The lake has been a nexus for some of the most fascinating creatures. My kids would wade out into the water with lunch meat and feed the bass by hand.
The water moccasins reproduced like bunnies, spawning an existential battle for extermination that persists to this very day. Over the years, we’ve had beavers, otters, kingfishers, salamanders, ospreys and bald eagles. And then there were the Canadian geese.
Backyard Bedlam
I’ve always wanted to own my own island. Ideally, it would be around 1,100 acres with ample fresh water and an airstrip somewhere off the coast of Belize. However, as I will never be able to afford that, I settled for building my own in the lake behind the house.
Our private island sports a diameter of maybe fifteen feet and is dominated by a single willow tree. We call it Australia (the island, not the tree. A willow tree called Australia would be stupid.) Our island is also apparently some seriously prime real estate for migrating Canadian geese.
Come springtime every year the Canadian geese invade the place like it is Dieppe in 1942. They are attractive enough creatures. However, they make for simply ghastly B&B guests.
Rare is the day during goose season that those blasted monsters don’t ring in the morning at 0500 with their cacophonous honking. It’s not a lack of resources that drives that train. They just can’t seem to share.
The lake is plenty big to support a dozen or more of these big feathery monsters. However, there precipitates every year this massive battle for supremacy to see which mating pair earns the title to the island. It’s like the epic movie “The Highlander.” Apparently, there can be only one.
One morning, instead of just quietly hating them, I dragged my laptop out onto the back porch to watch. I had never done that before. Wow. Roman arena blood sports have got nothing on these guys.
The momma geese sit off to the side and wisely just spectate. The dads fight literally to the death, honking madly throughout. They smack into each other, flap their wings to pummel their opponents, and then go in for the kill.
The kill shot is to grab the opponent by the neck and then hold their heads underwater until they drown. Over the years we have awakened to find dead geese floating in the lake a couple of times.
Animals would have nuclear bombs, too, if only they had opposable thumbs.
Embrace the Darkness
And that brings me to my point. Everything is horrible. All these stupid geese need to do is get along. There’s plenty of room and likely strength in numbers, but they just can’t bring themselves to do so. And it turns out that absolutely everything in the world is like that.
That adorable little puppy who is gleefully gnawing on his high-pitched squeaky toy? In his precious little mind, he is actually ripping the very life out of some helpless creature.
The fluffy little kitten pouncing on the laser spot? In his imagination, he’s killing stuff, too. Leave two painfully cute human babies together for a couple of minutes, and one of them will invariably hit the other in the head with a big plastic toy telephone. Koala bears, field mice, frogs, lizards and amoebas — everything is frankly horrible. We just live in a fallen world. To imagine otherwise is simply magical thinking.
So, enjoy your life. There’s plenty of good, safe fun to be found amidst all that bedlam. However, face it with your eyes open. In the immortal words of Ronald Reagan, trust but verify.
That’s why I carry a gun whenever I’m not asleep or in the shower. Whether it is wilderness survival, business, interpersonal relationships or politics, never forget that absolutely everything is horrible.