In an article by R. M. Vivas printed in the SCSW 3rd Edition, it is noted that the 60 NY-1 was “made available in the summer of 1987 and by late 1988 was withdrawn from service.” Mr. Vivas notes that in 1988 “a series of problems” arose. It is my understanding that the bobbed hammer that came on the 60 NY-1 was too light (low mass) and did not provide 100% reliability in popping the primer. Notwithstanding the intervention of S&W armorers, “some problems continued and the guns were removed from the authorized weapons list” in late 1988. Again, according to Mr. Vivas, the guns left in the Equipment Bureau (1,253 units) that had not been sold to individual officers were returned to S&W on June 23, 1989." It is believed the revolvers returned to S&W were modified from DAO to SA/DA and resold commercially.

When I recently purchased a Model 60-2 NY-1 (https://smith-wessonforum.com/s-w-revolvers-1980-present/91472-just-picked-up-my-model-60-2-ny-1-photos.html), I figured it was one of the 1,253 that were returned to S&W in June of 1989. So, when I sent my letter request to Roy Jinks, I specifically asked if the revolver was one of the 1,253 returned units. When I got the factory letter below, I immediately skipped to the line that says the revolver had never been returned to S&W. I figured, well, somewhere along the way it had a replacement hammer installed. However, after I read the rest of the paragraph unique to my revolver, I noted that it was originally shipped to New York City Police Equipment Bureau on October 17, 1989.

Wait a minute, why would the Equipment Bureau be receiving a new 60 NY-1 almost a year after they had been de-authorized and four months after returning all their remaining stock to S&W? Now I’m beginning to wonder if the SA/DA hammer is original to the revolver, but then again I thought the Equipment Bureau ordered DAO for sale to the officers at that time.

Any thoughts from the NY-1 or NYPD collectors out there?

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1st Signal Brigade, RVN '70