LadyFed,

I share your interest and look forward to a first hand review which this, admittedly, is not.

I have an unfired, boxed 3" barreled M13-2, serial number 8D742XX which your post has convinced me I should get a factory letter for just to see where it was shipped. I have really always wanted a pinned and recessed 3" barreled M65 to actually carry and use but the only ones I have even heard of were issued to the Massachusetts State Police...and I have never actually seen one of them. Sadly, I am a "P&R snob," so the multitude of later 3" barreled M65s will just not do!

My gun is one of only two pinned and recessed 3" barreled M13s I have ever seen in person, and both where in pristine condition which has led me to conclude that very few were made before the 1982 transition. A position that I have to say is reinforced by the middle gun in your photo! Interestingly, the second gun wore what appeared to be a factory nickel finish which I am sure is even less common and was very likely a special order piece.

My purely uneducated opinion/guess, based on the limited amount of second hand knowledge I have gleaned from Federal Agents who served during the early 1980s, is that the 3" barreled, round butt guns were probably contracted (I assume by FBI) as a better concealment option to the 4" barreled, square butt guns sometime around 1980. The M13s were eventually "replaced" by non pinned and recessed 3" barreled M65-3s around 1982 or 1983; but, apparently, both M65s and M13s were issued interchangably prior to the "trials" of various "wondernines" in the mid 1980s. From the comments I have heard, the guns were well regarded but required the immediate addition of Pachmayer grips!

Again, I too would be interested to hear from anyone with first hand knowledge regarding pinned and recessed 3" barreled .357 Magnum M&Ps.

N_itis