The .32 S&W Long / 7.65x23mmR, often called the .32 Long, is a straight-walled, centerfire, rimmed handgun cartridge, based on the earlier .32 S&W cartridge. It was introduced in 1896 for Smith & Wesson's first-model Hand Ejector revolver. Colt called it the .32 Colt New Police in revolvers it made chambered for the cartridge.
When he was the New York City Police Commissioner, Theodore Roosevelt standardized the department's use of the Colt New Police revolver. The cartridge was then adopted by several other northeastern U.S. police departments. The .32 Long is well known as an unusually accurate cartridge. This reputation led Police Commissioner Roosevelt to select it as an expedient way to increase officers' accuracy with their revolvers in New York City. The Colt company referred to the .32 S&W Long cartridge as the .32 "Colt's New Police" cartridge, concurrent with the conversion of the Colt New Police revolver from .32 Long Colt. The cartridges are functionally identical with the exception that the .32 NP cartridge has been historically loaded with a flat nosed bullet as opposed to the round nose of the .32 S&W Long. Morini, Hämmerli, Benelli, and Walther, among others, but chambered for wadcutter bullet type. The sporting variant of the Manurhin MR 73, also known as MR 32, is also chambered in .32 S&W Long.
The IOF .32 Revolver manufactured by the Ordnance Factories Organization in India for civilian licence holders is chambered for this cartridge.
Interchangeability
The .32 S&W Long headspaces on the rim and shares the rim dimensions and case and bullet diameters of the shorter .32 S&W cartridge and the longer .32 H&R Magnum and .327 Federal Magnum cartridges. The shorter .32 S&W may be fired in handguns chambered for the .32 S&W Long; and the .32 S&W Long may be fired in arms chambered for the longer .32 H&R and .327 Federal magnums; although the longer cartridges should not fit and must not be fired in arms designed for the shorter and less powerful cartridges.
The .32 S&W Long and .32 Long Colt are not interchangeable.