Lipsey's S&W 432 Ultimate Carry J Frame long term shooting evaluation.

[Lost River]

Just wondering, could you take what you learned and download a bit for .32 Long? Still quite a few million of those out there, and sounds like you would get 16" Clear Ballistics/13" Organic even from the Long that so many dismiss, yet Bad Boy Leroy Brown couldn't have been wrong in that whole damn town

I could, but it is not likely to happen, and here is why. I have an extremely limited amount of shop time each day. When you take out time for packaging, shipping, maintaining equipment emails, ordering supplies, dealing with all manner of issues, the actual production time is fairly small.

The number of offerings has to be kept limited. As an example I only offer 1 or 2 varieties of very popular offerings of cartridges like the .44 magnum. It takes too long to swap machines over. downtime is money lost.

When it comes to something like a .32 Long, yes I could make it, but for every customer with a .32 long revolver, there are probably literally 100X as many customers (or more) with .380 autos, so it makes much more sense to produce .380 ammo if I had the time to introduce another product. In fact some of the stats I have seen show .380 production over 3/4 million guns per year in the since (if I recall correctly) around 2016-17 and on.

Right now I am focusing on getting production volume up so I can have what I currently offer actually available. I need to make sure that things are in stock when people go to the website!

As cool as it would be to offer all manner of cartridges, its just not possible.

[GJM]

Speaking of penetration, if you needed to penetrate the skull of a grizzly, would you pick your .40 or .45 penetrator load?

[Lost River]

I would be good with either but most comfortable with the big heavy 250s.

I have zero doubt that both would get complete penetration on a skull. Everywhere else is the question. I know that the 250s essentially duplicate the old .45 Colt load, and that was/is a load that has an incredibly long and established history of killing all manner of beasts from big bears to horses (and their riders) to buffalo (Bison). Pretty much anything that walked was taken by the .45 Colt and a heavy slug at moderate speeds.

I know I have killed a good amount of things with a 1911 and heavy slugs to include multiple elk.

The majority of people when they think .45 ACP, think a 230 grain at 750-800 fps. They have no idea about what it can really do when loaded to its potential.

[BobM]

Great read. I’m waiting on a 632UC myself.

[feudist]

That’s a little Petty, don’t you think?

"He who would pun would pick a pocket."

[Wood]

Hey, great write-up, looking forward to seeing how your review develops with shooting. I also have a handful of boxes of your wadcutters waiting for a 632 (or 432, i haven't decided) to call home.

You say you have a .327 LCR? how would you compare it and your 432 in terms of trigger length? I have a J frame with the factory boot grips on it and can easily use the middle of the index finger, between the first two knuckles, to pull the trigger on it. Meanwhile, pulling the trigger on my LCR with the factory Tamer grips on it, I pretty much have to use the joint at the first knuckle of my finger to pull *that* trigger.

So, how do the high horns compare on that scale?

[Lost River]

Wood,

I just unloaded both and compared them side by side to get an idea. I gripped each so the frames were aligned with my forearm bones. I was able to get slightly more trigger finger onto the S&W versus the Ruger. Not much, but a little bit more. I have no doubt that if you switched grips from the VZs that come on the 432 UC to something smaller, that you could get a good bit more trigger finger onto the trigger if that was your goal.

I have size XL hands BTW.

On another note. Since it finally got dark, I took a couple pics of the front sight in a semi dark room. It really "Pops". It is a very bright front sight. No question about seeing it.

It is hard to capture with a cell phone but here are a couple pics.





Its funny in that the room was MUCH darker than the pics show and the camera took a long time to take the pic. It looks like the gun is bent in the photo.

[Jamie]

Thank you for sharing this @Lost River.

Great to see the side by side pics of your snubs. Your 442 shows character and companionship! I like that.

Your .32 is a "Goldilocks" load imho. I carry your ammo in my .38 and .32 (.327) LCR's and I have chronoed posted about it in other threads. Your loads are what I recommend to my snub carrying friends.

I am more than pleased to see the development of the .32 (in all aspects). I will definitely be looking in to purchasing a pair of these when finances allow.

Thanks to all involved with getting these guns, and more importantly this cartridge. breathing new life.

Really looking forward to the development of this thread over time.


ETA: And those sights! Damn nice!

[Dov]

Wood,

I just unloaded both and compared them side by side to get an idea. I gripped each so the frames were aligned with my forearm bones. I was able to get slightly more trigger finger onto the S&W versus the Ruger. Not much, but a little bit more. I have no doubt that if you switched grips from the VZs that come on the 432 UC to something smaller, that you could get a good bit more trigger finger onto the trigger if that was your goal.

I have size XL hands BTW.

On another note. Since it finally got dark, I took a couple pics of the front sight in a semi dark room. It really "Pops". It is a very bright front sight. No question about seeing it.

It is hard to capture with a cell phone but here are a couple pics.





Its funny in that the room was MUCH darker than the pics show and the camera took a long time to take the pic. It looks like the gun is bent in the photo.

Are these sights regulated for bullet to hit on top of sight (12 O'clock) or behind front sight (like red dot or laser)?

[Lost River]

I just realized that I posted this in the other thread, and meant to post it in this EVAL thread.







Finally have a few minutes to sit down and post about shooting the 432 UC for the first time before I have to get to work cranking out ammo!

On Sunday I went out and shot 150 rounds. Dang wind was blowing. Some times it was calm, but there were some gusts that made life difficult to say the least. I lost my final target in the end.


I had brought along my S&W 442 and G21.5 w/RDO as well. I figured I would see how the recoil was, shooting the 442 and 432, shooting them side by side, with the 100 grain and 148 grain poly wadcutter loads.







My first six rounds at 15 yards with the 432:





I shot six more for a total of 12 rounds then decided to adjust the rear sight. The rear sight is dove tailed in and has a set screw. I had a screw driver set, Brownell's brass hammer, along with a brass rod in case I needed to tighten any loose screws or whatever.

So I loosened the set screw and went to adjust the rear sight in the dovetail. Ha! That sucker is soo tight in there! Good news bad news (not really that bad). I tapped on it a few times with the brass rod while sitting on the tailgate. The good things is that the rear sight is so perfectly fit in there that the odds of you losing your rear sight if the set screw comes loose are extremely slim. After tapping on it a number of times and it not budging, and knowing my propensity for totally screwing up very nice things and totally regretting it, I decided I would wait until I got him and use proper tools and do it right! Sometimes I do learn from my own previous mistakes....

I may have a 1911 that still looks like a dog chewed on the rear sight from me adjusting the rear sight at a match with a Leatherman and a rock..
Not going to do that this time!

So I went back to shooting.


I shot my 442 with the old trough sights and there is just no comparison. So I cheated and used the CT laser grips. I will say that with 20 years of using CT laser grips, and thousands of rounds, the little 442 will stack them still. The laser grips are a definite advantage if the light is in your favor, like being indoors or on overcast days.



I might consider some CT grips for the 432. The sights on the 432 are the best I have ever used on a J frame, no question about it, but having both would really be exceptional. I was considering this, but I REALLY like the shape of the grips on the 432. They are the best grips I have ever used on a stock J Frame. By a long shot.

So the wind started really picking up and I was having trouble keeping the IDPA target even stapled down. It finally blew off and I was unable to recover it. You can kind of see on the paper behind it how pretty consistent at 15 yards the .32 H&R was. To the upper left are some .38 148 grain WC holes as well, but the lower left are the main group from the 432.




In the end I had 3 boxes of 100 grain wadcutters through the 432. Pretty comfortable gun to shoot. Definitely a home run for Lipseys.

I shot the G21.5 after that at some rocks that I lasered in the mid 80 yards out to about 120 yards . That gun is a freaking tack driver. I am going to take it out on a nice day and set some steel up at extended distances and see what it can do. The Marksman barrels in the 5th Gen .45 guns are pretty exceptional.

I would have put some .45 on paper but my target I set aside for the G21 is probably in Wyoming by now...