Venom6 - you're bringing back all kinds of memories for me. I was a reserve with multnomah and then clackamas county SO's from from 1978 through 2002.

Multnomah County SO allowed you to purchase your privately owned duty weapons from them. My first duty weapon was a 4" Smith model 66 which was the only uniform duty weapon authorized for new employees in 1978. They charged me $175.00 at the time. I also carried a model 49 as backup.

The police distributor in Oregon City was SNC Distributors, they carried a lot of good stuff and the owner, Don Coon would give you way over resale value for any trade-ins, guns or leather or what have you.

After they went out of business one of his main salespeople named Gordon Wallace opened up 911 distributors and continued to do business until approximately 2000 when he also went out of business after losing the law enforcement Glock account for Oregon to Keiths sporting goods.

My wife worked for PPB for a time in the mid 80's and still has the 4" model 19 she purchased from the city for her duty weapon when she came to work.

If I recall correctly almost all the agencies in the tri-county area issued Ernie Hansen break front holsters as their duty holster. Took some getting used to to learn the draw technique but the holsters were state of the art for retention at that time.

Marc