With advancements in ammo, the 38 Special is a better performer today than it was in past decades.
In 1977, I stood amazed when ushered into the gun vault at the Missouri State Highway Patrol range at General Headquarters (GHQ) by Roy Bergman, who was in charge of firearms training at the time.
Then Sgt. Bergman let me look through the neatly stacked two-piece blue boxes, arranged four high and ten across, for a total of 40 new or near-new Model 15s on one shelf, and the same arrangement on a different shelf of Model 18s, which they used at the beginning of training until a recruit was ready to move up to 38 Special ammo. These revolvers, I was told, remained in the vault and were used in training, and later in the course of training, recruits would be issued the actual revolver they would carry on duty. That was quite a sight to behold, because, at that time, I had never seen that many of the same model stacked up like that.
I recall that the wax paper was gone from each box, and the cleaning kits that came with the revolvers were assembled, the brass bristle brush on the S&W cleaning rods, and all were laying in a tray or two on tables used for cleaning the revolvers.
Later considered a big no-no, but at the time they used WD-40 for both cleaner and lube and it was in large plastic bottles with a typical squeeze handle sprayer at the top. Cleaning consisted of "slathering" WD-40 all over the exterior and down the barrel and charge holes followed by a quick scrub of the barrel and charge holes with the S&W brass bristle brushes, followed by an exterior wipe-down with a shop rag and patches in the bore and charge holes. A quick process indeed. Sgt. Bergman inspected each revolver before it went back in its two-piece box and back on the shelf.
That same room had an armorer's assembly work station with parts drawers and S&W armorer's tools neatly arranged. Those drawers had a big supply of all of the parts needed to maintain the revolvers except frames, barrels and cylinders. All of the internals were represented in those little drawers, and any firearm could be repaired for common conditions of timing, etc. right on the spot. If replacement of a major component was required, the revolver would be sent to S&W. Sgt. Bergman did real duty action jobs, the S&W preferred way, the same way the factory trained him. As might be imagined, it did not involve merely replacing some springs from a "kit" and calling it a day. Judicious stoning and polishing made the actions he did very good indeed, but completely reliable in ignition.
Back in those days, much shooting was done in the classic NRA Bullseye stance, with some shooting in an isosceles two-hand stance when shooting the PPC.
Sorry for the long post, but seeing that beautiful Model 15 brings back memories. Sgt. Bergman retired as a Captain, and although he kept himself in excellent physical shape, he passed away suddenly in 2010 at 75 years of age, and without warning of an aneurysm, I believe. No way to predict it, no way to deal with it in most cases. Terrible loss.
Here is Bergman (on the right) after a lunch with him at Madison's in Jefferson City, Missouri just a few months before he passed away. Russ, George and I were treated to a great number of the "old stories of the road" during the extended lunch meeting.
Last edited by shawn mccarver; 04-05-2014 at 02:03 PM.
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