Hi LadyFed! Absolutely awesome post. Chuck's photos are always a marvel. S&W personnel there at the time advised that TEU was simply the alpha prefix on the pistol rack from which the original 50 (approximately) pistols sent to the FBI Academy where pulled. It does not stand for Test & Evaluation Unit. But I do believe your pistol was an original test pistol and later deactivated and used as a red handle. I have a theory that many if not all the original test pistols were converted to red handles. S&W advised that when they got the FBI 1076s back to replaced the red painted grips were replaced before the pistols were shipped out as used guns. But this does not appear to exactly true, your pistol being a case in point. I have three TEUs and none show any evidence of being red handles. What is clear is that the original test pistols (1st issue) were returned to S&W along with the bulk of the production run (2nd issue). The odd thing is that the Bureau collected up all the recall 1076s with a deadline of 5/91. That jives with when I turned in my first 1076 (the one that is out there somewhere). But Mr. Jinks advises the recall pistols came back in
6/92. Did they all sit in the Gun Vault for a year? No one seems to know. Stay safe out there. D