Mommy! Mommy! Ed Harris made me do it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For many years my love has been the 32 S&W Long chambered in revolvers. Previous to that I was an Elmer Keith adherent. The only revolvers worthy of recognition were 44 or 45 caliber. Then Jeff Cooper appeared on the scene and the 1911 became the King of the auto pistols. I owned them all and shot the 1911 in competition, poorly it may be said. Thru all this blarney and ballyhoo appeared a shining light. Major George Nonte wrote several articles about the 32 S&W Long. These incited my interest and Ken Waters handloading article cemented it. But alas, this didn't occur until the late seventies. During the late fifties and early sixties thousands of 32 and 380 autos were sold by surplus arms dealers for the grand sum of $29.95. That may have been a fine buy for some civilians but my military pay in 1958 was $32 dollars a payday, twice a month. Oh yes! Slave wages for someone that had to submit to military discipline and was expected to sacrifice his life for his country. During 1958,59 and early 6o's semiauto pistols were the last thing on my mind. Wine, women and song predominated, in that order. Commonly known in the Navy as “Booze and Poontang". In 1960 I reenlisted and was transferred to the boondocks. Then came Viet Nam! I spent most of the sixties and seventies overseas. When I returned in 1977 the days of the big surplus arms dealers such as “Ye Olde Hunter” were long gone as well as the good buys on pocket pistols. The little pocket pistols are now bringing ten times what they did during those halycon times. I have only owned five 32 auto that I can remember. The first was an old model Sauer that had been brought back from Germany in 1945. In 1948 the owners wife commited suicide with it and it was given to my uncle. This gun was stolen when I was overseas. In the early sixties I aquired a Spanish made clone of a 1910 Browning. It had feed problems so quickly went down the road. In 1968 I obtained a Colt 1903, officers model that was found secreted in a old officers housing unit when we reopened Itazuke AFB. I really regret losing that one but it looked as if I wouldn't be able to get that one back to the states so it went into the ocean. In the late seventies I picked up a MAB, Model D I believe and shortly thereafter traded it to a hunting partner. Since it possessed a trigger pull of approximately twenty pounds I found it hard to believe that he managed to shoot himself in the arm with it! Ah well! My last 32 was a WW II issue PPK with what I assumed was a ratty looking nickel finish. After meeting a gentlema toting a 1911 that wanted to terminate me I decided that I may perhaps be outgunned and sold it to buy something co nsiderably larger. The gent that bought the gun later informed me that the crumby looking finish was not nickel at all but was an experimental finish and that he had sold the pistol to a collector for almost four times more than he had given me for it. Ah well! No matter what 007's opinion; I didn't like the gun.
There are two pocket pistols that I have really lusted for. One is the Remington. I have only seen a couple in the last fifty years. The other is the Savage. I have only seen three or four of those. Ah well! They have crappy triggers and throw the brass all over the country anyway. I guess that I will stick with my revolvers. Neil