As an update to this post. The Colt letter arrived today. Mine (and I bet Gary's) was part of a shipment of 400 .32s to the state of Mass on Jan 18 1941. Gary's research found this.

Massachusetts thought they ordered 400 .38's for the State National Guard. Someone in the procurement office screwed up and typed in ".32" instead and nobody caught it. Colt dutifully provided them. Mass tried to renege but Colt "stuck to their guns" and was eventually paid. The guns languished for years in a warehouse until sold as surplus.


How mine ended up in North Pole AK remains a mystery. I think in another post Gary noted his had been bored out to accept .32 H&R by an outfit in AZ that apparently bought a bunch at surplus - Why mine wasn't I have no idea.

Originally Posted by Pugs
So this is interesting. Gary and I were hunting together last week on our family place in KY and we each brought our .32s. His has the Colt-wood grips, mine have wood but otherwise identical and only 65 serial numbers apart! His came from Georgia, mine from Alaska. I sent a request in for a Colt letter. They're running about 150 days but it will be interesting to see what it says. Clearly my serial # search that showed it was a 1950s gun's in error.

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