While the .32/380 was more of a coat pocket pistol, it was and is a reliable,concealable shooter that has impeccable lines
One of my favorites
In 1931 my paternal grandfather was involved in a running gunbattle with two armed robbers, one an excaped convict, trying to overtake his Packard and relieve him of the company payroll he was transporting. Unfortunately for the auto-bandits, he was accompanied by both his Colt Model 1908 .25 *vest pocket* auto pistol, and the then-young woman who would become my grandmother, who had accompanied him so that she could get in some out-of-town shopping.
He first became aware of their intent when they pulled up alongside him and one waved a longish-barrelled revolver at Granddad, whereupon he floored it and left them behind. Unfortunately the road wasn't suitable for sustained high speed flight, and they pulled up alongside again and the passenger fired two shots into the door of Grandad's Packard. Whereupon he emptied the six shots in his little Colt's magazine into the passenger side window and front windshield, figuring the .25 bullets wouldn't get through their door's sheet metal any better than theirs had through his. The peppering surprised them sufficiently that they dropped back again, good news since Grandda had only the magazine in the gun.
Always helpful, his lady companion retrieved his box of 50 rounds of .25 ammo from the car's glove compartment and refilled the 6-round magazine for him. And when they caught up again, he let fly with all six again, this time shattering their windshield ald letting the November breeze hit the driver in the face. And again grandmother refilled the magazine, and again he waited for them to give it another try. They didn't, and eventually he came to a section of road straight and level enough that he could outdistance them.
Once he got to town, he dropped his affianced partner off at her home and left to drop off the payroll and let the local chief of police in on the detaiuls of his adventure. It turned out there was an alert for the excaped convict, and he was asked to join in the hunt for the pair, since he could probably identify the unknown driver of the car with the little quarter-inch holes in the side and front glass. And join the posse he did...after a quick trip home to grab a sandwich, his lever-action .44 Winchester *assault rifle* and a short-barrelled 12-gauge double-barrelled shotgun. The two bad guys were caught at an auto repair shop trying to get their broken windshield replaced, which they claimed *had been broken by frozen branches*. They were probably lucky it wasn't the car of cops with Granddad that happened to be the one that found them.
A day or so after the shooting and arrest of the criminals, one of the cops who'd been with Granddad during the hunt stopped by the house and asked Granddad for the .25 *for evidence.* In return, the cop, who latrer became our county sheriff, gave him the 5-inch barrelled S&W Military and Police revolver that the criminal shooter had fired at him, telling Granddad that if he was going to carry a gun for serious work, he should carry a serious gun.
In 1968 my dad died, and the sheriff was one of his pallbearers. After the services, the sheriff took me aside and asked me what kind of handgun I favored, and I told him that I most generally carried a 9mm Browning Hi-Power, which seemed to satisfy him. And wrapped in a very old and yellowed handkerchief, he handed me Granddad's little .25 pistol, which he told me he really figured belonged back with the family.
It's not likely to be used against robbers or burglars again. But if it has to it can, and though I only have the one magazine that came with it, the box of ammunition I got for it in 1968 still has 44 additional rounds left in it.
