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Old 01-06-2008, 12:24 PM
Bat Guano Bat Guano is offline
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Neat thread. My father entered on duty in the Border Patrol in 1940. His duty weapon was one of those Colt New Services in .38 Special. The family story was that in an effort to take the mystery out of it and make me less curious about his gun, he unloaded it and gave it to me to play with until my interest in it faded. It probably weighed more than I did at the time. As one of my friends once said, the experiment obviously failed and all it did was produce a monster. I wouldn't mind finding on of the original "USIS" marked guns or even a civilian version, but needless to say they aren't too common.

When he came back from WWII he and all the other retreads requalified with S&W M1917s; I have a picture of them on the range with the guns and military holsters. Not sure what they used thereafter but think they were Colts, possibly the OP-framed Border Patrol 4" .38 Specials.

I was privileged to know one of the original agents in Ness's Prohibition squad, an old geezer named Al "Wallpaper" Wolf. Met him and got to know him a little in Chicago in the mid 60s. He told me about shooting a guy above him on a flight of stairs with a Colt .45 auto. He said he hit the guy who then hollered, "You killed me!"; whereupon Wolf hollered back, "That's what I'm trying to do, you SOB." (Obviously a different time. Wolf was credited as an adviser on Costner's "Untouchables" movie.)

For the first half of my career you could carry just about anything as long as it was "American made"., .38 caliber or larger, and blued finish--no ivory, pearl, thumbrest, or otherwise conspicuous stocks." My impression then and now was that most federal agencies with pistoleros in them were equally relaxed in those days. Nowadays with "one size fits all" things may be easier for instructors and management weenies--but a helluva loss for some of us.

I still have a printout from the late 70s showing weapons in inventory, and it was a real Heinz 57 listing. Probably better than the average Cabela's "gun library".
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