POTD: The S&W Model 16-4 – A Magnum for the Overlooked .32

Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! Here we have the forgotten sibling of a famous family, reborn for a cartridge almost nobody asked for. This is the Smith & Wesson Model 16-4, chambered in .32 H&R Magnum.

Back up a step. S&W’s classic K-frame target trio was the K-22 (Model 17), the K-38 (Model 14), and the K-32 (Model 16), built side by side as bullseye guns. The .32 was always the slow seller. Only around 3,600 K-32s went out the door between 1947 and 1973 before Smith dropped it as the mild old .32 S&W Long faded away.

Then in 1984, Harrington & Richardson teamed up with Federal to give the little .32 some teeth. The .32 H&R Magnum is just the old .32 Long stretched a touch, the same move that turned the .38 Special into the .357. It more than doubled the energy and could run with a hot .38 +P, finally making a .32 that hit with some authority. Smith brought the Model 16 back around 1990 as the 16-4 to chamber it, this time with a full-lug barrel it never used to wear. The run was short, gone by 1993. The cartridge never quite caught on, and the .327 Federal eventually filled its shoes, but the 16-4 is a sweet-shooting, sought-after oddball today.

Most of our POTDs utilize images from our friends at Rock Island Auction Company, the premier firearms auction in the United States. Take some time to browse their current auctions – who knows, maybe you’ll find a piece of history to take home!

“Smith & Wesson Model 16-4 Double Action Revolver with Box.” Rock Island Auction, www.rockislandauction.com/detail/5032/310/smith-wesson-model-164-double-action-revolver-with-box. Accessed 3 July 2026.

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