Recently i was talking to my grandfather about his time with the indiana state police. in the conversation he told me that he was issued a combat masterpiece. So i've been on a quest to find out more info on theses guns. I assume that they were 4in barrels. but i'm curious if they were marked, and what serial number ranges they would be in. can anyone help or have a picture of one?

You might check to see if that agency has a museum or historical society with more info about duty weapons. I have never seen an Indiana State police 15 so I have no idea if they were department marked.

Granddad couldn't tell you about markings?

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I've seen a few ISP Mod 66 commemorative, strangely enough it's a six inch revolver and they carried four inch. It does have a badge engraved on the right side plate.

The Mod 15 must have been used before stainless guns.
I've known a lot of Indiana State Troopers, all retired now, but never asked what revolver they carried back in the day.

I've lived in IN all my life and can't recall seeing the ISP wearing Model 15s, but they probably did. They used Model 19s when I was a lad, when all the little local PDs were still using Model 10s and 15s.

I remember seeing a press release (with picture) about the equipment troopers carried, including the 19, and the copy contained a bunch of puffing and blowing about how powerful the .357 Magnum was, and it even said something to the effect that it would stop a man no matter where he was hit. Pretty amusing. This photo was probably from the early '70s, as I recall a 4x5 Speed Graphic, which they used to use at that time, was shown in the pic too. I always thought it just hilarious to see the troopers messing around with those things, especially at night and in bad weather. I think alot of them carried their own privately-owned 35mm cameras to avoid the hassle!

I'm sorry I can't help but don't imagine the ISP will be much help either, unless you just get lucky and bump into an old timer who knows what a revolver is. Maybe an old trooper will see your post and pipe up.

i called the museum and talked to a really nice lady that said she'd have to look and get back to me in a couple days. that was 2 weeks ago. so i thought i'd try here in hopes that some one has one or there's a retired trooper that might know. my grandfather worked the toll road between 1957 and 1966. he doesn't remember if they were marked or not. so happens that I got the law enforcement gene and work for a local pd, so i asked the firearms instructor for the area post. he said that they used the model 15 before they went to the model 19,but wasn't sure if they were marked.

Heres a picture of my Model 15-4. They are 38spl
only so they may have used them early on. Don

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"Don't worry be happy"

I have a fishin' buddy that joined the ISP in 1960 & retired 34 years later. I'll ask him and post up what he tells me.

I have a retired In St. trooper living two blocks from me. Next time I get a chance to talk
to him I'll see what he remembers about their issue revolvers. I remember seeing a Badge stamped In PD revolver in a gun store back in the 50's or maybe early 60's.
Only problem is that I am older than he is and I'm not sure what I had for breakfast this morning.

actually I have the 15-2 K38 combat masterpiece, from what I have read they were based off the Target masterpiece, then the FBI asked for the same gun but with a 4" barrel, the gun was used by the USAF, and many LE agencies and by even more civillians to this day I have never shot a more accurate revolver, the 15-2 began production I believe in 1961 and went through to 1966, feel free to correct me if I am wrong

Was it this agency or the Illinois State Police that went to 9mm S&W autos so long ago?

T-Star

IL State Police were the first with the S&W Model 39, if I recall correctly.

Regards,

Dave

according to another thread on here it's the IL state police that used 39's. if anyone talks someone who knows if the 15's were marked, let me know, i'll appreciate it.

btt

I spoke a friend today who is a retired Ind State Police Major. He said the ISP carried the Model 15 4" until 1969 when they switched to the Model 19. He said when they carried the 15's the regs were to alternate lead round nose .38's and metal piercing .38's in the cylinder. He said that was thought to be the state of the art then.

He also noted that the ISP did not mark their guns until the 70's when they switched from Model 19's to Model 66's. The 66's were the first ones marked by the department. ISP then went to the 686 in the 80's and then to Beretta 92FS in the late 80's and in the mid 90's to Baretta 96 in .40 and then 3 years ago to Glocks in .40 but changed to Glock 17's last year after 2 years of problems with the .40's

I was in school at the Motorola Plant in Feb1990. While there in Ft Wayne I visited a gunshop/indoor range I met a State Trooper. He was carrying a 686 and was griping about having to shortly change over to the Beretta. This was a few years after the Army had switched. I told him I had seen and shot a couple of M9s but preferred my HiPower. He was a real big guy and he also disliked his cruiser they had just given him. As I remember he was driving one of those little Mustang coupes they had back then w/5.0 v8s

Abbynormal's info sounds good. I had forgotten about that alternating ammo thing. The cops were still doing that in the .357 Magnum days. I remember one of our locals drilled a bad guy with an MP .357 round - good solid hit, but missed the heart - and the bad guy literally walked away. (Though not too far!) They got him to the hospital, and he lived to tell about it. I think that started everyone thinking and before too long, the MP ammo started to disappear, though a few of them would still carry a box of the stuff in their cruiser.

When the 9mms started to show up, one of my friends would alternate HPs and FMJs - probably a holdover from that practice. He was not uniform and carried one of the first SIG P225s, which he liked very much. He was an excellent shot, and was not too concerned that he did not have 15-16 rounds in his gun.

I am a bit surprised that ISP had not gone to Model 19s before 1969.

Today I had a chance to talk to the retired St. Trooper that lives down the street from me. It was not a very informative conversation. He said he was issued a Model 66 which he was allowed to keep on retirement. He said he sold it years ago to a collector.
Then made the comment that guns will do you more harm than good and turned around and walked into his garage. Conversation finished. I think he might be what we would call an anti-gunner now. I said thank you very much and drove off. And that is the end of that story.

I was just at the ISP Museum a couple days ago.They had a
few 14 & 15 only marks on them where Donated by the Ford
motor co with dates of 1953 54 & 55. some of the 66 where
marked ISP under the cyl. They had a sign stating that all
guns were not capable of firing all rev. had firing pins removed from the hammers.

dick44