Popular .357 duty revolvers?

J

Jetfire

New member
I'm too new to firearms to be able to tell what duty revolvers LEOs are carrying in their holsters just by looking at them. I often see police officers of major metropolitan areas still carrying revolvers...perhaps because these areas haven't had the funding to replace them all with semi-autos? or that these officers just prefer revolvers for various reasons?

The ones I see are mostly blued with wood grips and have (I think) 4" barrels. I think they are S&Ws. What models are/were popular? M28, 586, 19s?

I assume because they are not stainless they are not 66s or 686s.

Just curious...

Was there one model that was overwhelmingly popular in the heyday of revolvers?

Edited: Perhaps they are 38 specials? They look pretty beefy though. If 38, which models were popular, etc.?
 
Some of the most popular blued models of police revolvers were the S/W models 19/586 adjustable sighted 357 magnums, model 15 adjustable sighted 38 special and the Model 10 fixed sight 38 special. Hard to really tell any of them apart in the holster as they all use the same K frame grip (though the 586 is actually an L frame it uses the same grip as the K).

The 27 and it's less fancy brother the 28 use the "N" frame and are huge compared to the above mentioned guns but were popular among LEO till the smaller 357's mentioned above came out. I seriously doubt it's any departments issue weapon any more, but may be on somes approved list.

If you give the exact area your seeing them in another poster might be able to tell you exactly model(s)that are issued or approved that particular Department.

Hope that helped a little,

Best,
Blueduck
 
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I'm going to go out on a limb here, no solid factual info, but I bet that most revolvers still carried are chambered for the .38 special and are most likely Smith model 10s or model 64s. After those there probably are quite a few Rugers. Back in the early 1980's knew a cop in Philadelphia that worked the street my job was located on and he carried a Colt Official Police.

I don't think that most police depts. switched to the .357 before the big change to semiautos.
 
I'd be willing to bet that most duty sixguns you still see are Model 10's or Model 64's; .38 Spl K-frames carried by departments who haven't switched for legal/political reasons.

EDIT: Maybe I should have read Ron's post before opening my yap. :o
 
Now you got me interested in the "urban" versus "rural" of the .357 thing. Out here in the sticks by the late 70's the Highway Patrol, local Police and Sheriffs office were all carrying 357's. Couldn't name even a neihboring agency using the 38 special. By that time the 38 for police work was a "50's thing".

Now days we don't have a single agency left issuing the 9mm, everybodies gone to 40's. Maybe it's just us who like'm more powerfull? interesting...
 
That's why I said what I did about the .38 K-frames. I've always kind of assumed that any agency "progressive" enough to issue magnums back in the day is "progressive" enough to issue self-shuckers nowadays.
 
Strictly post war, the most used police duty guns were:

From Colt: The Colt Official Police, the Colt Trooper, and the Colt Trooper MK 3.

From S&W: the Models 10, 15, 19/66, and the 686.

Although many models from both makers were used , these seem to be the most issued guns.

From it's introduction to the 686, the S&W 19/66 was the King of the police guns. In the mid-west that's ALL you saw.

The .38 Special seemed to be a "Big City" item. Most State and Federal agencies, and most smaller departments bought in to the .357 fairly early on. Many Model 19's were carried with .38 Specials, but by the time the 66 hit the big time, there were mostly loaded with Magnums. By the time the 686 was the primary police gun, you rarely saw a .38.
 
DC Metro and US Park Police still carried Model 10s up until the early 1990s before switching to the Glock and the HK P7M8/13, respectively.

When I was a reporter for a small town newspaper in Pennsylvania, the PA State Police carried Ruger .357 Mags.

Most of the local cops (about 75% of them) carried .45s of one flavor of another, mostly Colt 1911s, although there was one guy who carried a Colt Doubtful Beagle, one guy who carried a Model 25 S&W, and the chief of one of the small towns who carried his Father's (who had been a Cop) Colt New Service in .45 Long Colt.

A couple also carried .357s, 2 or 3 carried 9mms, and one guy carried a 4" Model 29.
 
Within my small rural Sheriff's Dept., we pretty much carry what we want. The younger fellas carry Glocks, while many of us older guys go with wheelguns (including the sheriff).
As for myself, I'm happy with my 4 inch Model 28.
 
NC SHP

The NC Highway Patrol carried nickle Model 27 Smiths in .357 Magnum before they switched to the Berettas some years ago.
 
I started my law enforcement carrier with a 4" barrelled stainless steel S&W 686 in .357 mag. We shot .38 sp for practice/qualification and weren't allowed to carry a weapon when transporting prisoners!

My, how times have changed!
 
My department issued/carried S&W model 66s (4 inch) until the early 1990s. We were allowed to chamber Remington 125 grain semi-jacket HP in either .357 or .38. Most chose to carry 38s.
 
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