police trade ins

W

wild willy

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How many rounds do you think most police trade ins have fired? I got into a discussion with a co-worker he was in a gun shop and another customer stated that you shouldn't buy police trade ins because they are wore out from shooting.I said the guy was FOS the guns aren't shot that much they show wear and tear from being carried.Who right?
 
You are. I bought two police trade in this summer and both are like new. Most police trade in guns probably have less than 1,000 rounds thru them.
 
Most departments shoot 50 or 60 rounds quarterly. A few supply 50 or 60 rounds per quarter for practice.

So a maximum of 240 per year.
 
To date, every military surplus and police trade-in I have bought has been a solid shooter. The external finish usually looks like heck; but they are mechanically solid.

The one exception to “mechanically solid” wasn’t from being shot-out but was due to some Wile E. Coyote School of Gunsmithing attempt at a trigger job on a Hi-Power that caused the hammer to follow. Same gun also had a too shallow front dovetail cut for the installed night sights which caused it to shear off two sets of tritium sights (the original and a replacement). But I guess I got free Meprolights on a $280 Hi-Power, so we’ll call it even.
 
The only way to answer that is by knowing which department they came from and how often they shoot. Some shoot very little, others shoot a great deal. I've seen both. Some officers will also shoot their duty weapons on their own time as well, while others don't.

If the price was right I would go for a police trade-in. I usually hear positive stories from those who've bought one. I wouldn't be surprised to see the price start to go up on the trade-ins. The guns are looking pretty good these days with minimal wear due to the kydex holsters.
 
That's nearly impossible to answer, because so many agencies do things differently.

Some agencies don't even require the duty pistol to BE fired. Qualification and recert can be done with range pistols.

A recently retired friend of mine asked the armory what they had shuffling around that was new or nearly new, that he could buy cheaply, when he filed his retirement paperwork. (Special privileges available at retirement.)
Answer: Two S&W .38s, a handful of .357 Mags, half a dozen Glocks, A Jennings .32, and even a S&W Sigma.
Some were spares. Some were unwanted by the officer(s) they were intended for. And some were just forgotten over time. The Jennings, they believed, was a backup gun that was mistakenly turned in to the armory when an officer left the force.


Last year, I bought one of the Italian Police 92Ss. It looked like hell on the outside, and barely used on the inside.
I figure it was carried a lot, slid back and forth across an armory counter a lot, and fired very, very little.
 
I think you need to take them on a case by case basis. I prefer to look at the actual gun Im buying before I buy it, as "shooting" isnt the only issue. A lot of those guns were poorly maintained and/or stored.

I recently bought a NYS Department of Corrections 2" S&W Model 10 for $325. I had the pick of three, and chose the one that seemed the best mechanically. The one with the best overall finish, had some issue with the cylinder, and it didnt want to spin freely, nor open smoothly. Felt like something was off when you pulled the trigger as well. The other one I passed on looked like it had been skipped of the concrete more than a few times.

Mine seemed to be the winner, until I was cleaning it after shooting it a couple of times, when the barrel came loose while cleaning it. Seemed fine while I was shooting it, and even while I was cleaning it, just rotated off when I was wiping it down at the end.

My first thought was the frame cracked, but I cant see the hint of any anywhere. There appears to be a hardened glob of thread locker of some sort at the shoulder where it times up. I left it alone, and put some LocTite on the threads and timed it back up. Ive shot it a couple of times since, and it seems fine. Maybe S&W shouldnt have stopped pinning the barrels. :)


I also had a couple of SIG P6 trade ins, One looked brand new, with barely a wear mark on the barrel, the other, showed a lot of wear, inside and out, and the barrel had a "smiley" that was worn into the barrel, and looked a lot worse than my one Glock, that has a documented 135,000+ rounds through it. Looks like it wasnt one of the usual "carried a lot and shot little". Maybe it was one of the range guns and everybody had a go with it.

I still think your best bet is to have an idea as to what to look for in what youre looking at, and go over it closely, in person, before you buy. Even then, youre still taking your chances. Ive bought a lot of used handguns over the years, and for the most part, havent had any problems doing so. Got some real good deals, and real good shooters too. I guess youre always still going to have the odds to deal with though, new or used.
 
I own quite a few police trade-in/surplus pistols, including Glocks, P226s, Model 10s, CZ75s, Hi Powers, and a few CZ82s.

All of them, even the ones with significant exterior finish wear, have barrels that look and shoot as if they were brand new.

Of particular note is a P226 that looks as if it been to hell and back, but had clean internals, no wear to the frame rails, and no barrel "smile", indicating that it was carried for years, and had some stories to tell, but was barely ever shot.


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I prefer police trade-in handguns. They typically, but not always, look a little rough one the outside and typically, but not always, look on the inside like they've been shot very little. I prefer to find them on Gunbroker for dirt cheap and take my chances. So far I have done very well for myself, getting a lot of great shooting pistols for laughably low prices.
 
I love surplus/trade-ins. 95% of the time all you would need to do is drop in some new springs and if you really want, a polishing or some cold blue. Buy em, use em, have fun........
 
The PD trade in M&P .40 I bought a few years ago had no issues. The only sign it had of being used was a little holster wear on the slide.

Sent from my SM-G930R4 using Tapatalk
 
I have a relatively large accumulation of LE trade-ins. There is an LE Distributor nearby, and I seem to find what I consider deals on a regular basis. I have at least 3 shotguns, 5 pistols and about 8 revolvers under the category of trade-ins. Some were actual police firearms and some were confiscated.

Their condition varies. It seems the confiscated firearms are generally in poorer condition than the actual LE guns. I have one S&W Model 28-2 revolver that appears unissued from the Loundon County, VA PD. I have handguns from Memphis, TN, Mobile, Montgomery, Pelham, Opelika, & Scottsboro Alabama P.D.'s. The list goes on and on. Most are S&Ws, Sig Sauer, Beretta and other major brands of firearms.

I am fortunate since I am able to go examine the guns prior to bidding on them. I was also able to out and out buy a few of them.
 
"...240 per year..." More likely that many for the thing's entire service life. It's usually one mag out of a pistol or 6 rounds out of a revolver, annually, in the olden days.
"...poorly maintained and/or stored..." Yep. Cops came into the shop, long ago, with their service revolvers rusted shut. Best one was the guy who came in with his partner to change grips and had the holster but had left the gun at home. Knew a guy who got assigned to 'The Bank Car' in TO. Only one with a shotgun. Neither he nor his partner knew how to load it.
 
This is pretty much right. Qualifications, practice of qualification fails. voluntary practice sometimes. The average police firearm will have holster wear and may be dirty as can be. Most noticeable wear is going to be on moving parts involving loading and unloading magazine and chamber.

Keep in mind that the trade in may be a 30 year old glock from the duquesne village PD, or ten years old from the wealthy suburban PD that trades them out every few years.

Our pd buys new cruisers and sells the old ones after only a few years. The used cars have years of life left and come equipped to smaller departments that couldn't afford a brand new custom fitted cruiser at what, $80,000?

Buyer beware, but a PD trade in, much like PD ammo trade in is going to be perfectly serviceable.
 
I think you are more correct VS the shot out guns your buddy says they are.

I have also bought many police trade-ins and am very happy with them. Seems most of them have been carried a lot and poorly cleaned and shot very little. That's not to say all of them are like that but a lot of them are.
 
Trade ins may be dirty, but most agencies have an armorer, either full or part time. It makes little sense to allow sub par or dangerous firearms to be in the hands of fellow officers. I would (and have) purchase a police trade-in with confidence.
 
^^^^

What the last two posters said.

I have purchased something like two dozen police trade-ins on the Internet. Only one had issues, and even so it was functional. When you can get a police turn-in for half the cost of a new pistol, and chances are it was barely shot at all, you should jump on the opportunity.
 
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