Good Evening,

A while ago, I acquired a S&W Model 28 Highway Patrolman with an SFPD stamp on it. If a request was made for its history from the Smith & Wesson factory, would they reveal whether it was previously Police owned?

Regards, Lee

I doubt they can do more than the original delivery information. I am also not sure if SFPD necessarily means San Francisco.

__________________
NHI, 10-8.

Does this photo of the stamp help to put it into better context?

I wondered whether Smith & Wesson would reveal their sales (even today) to police departments???

Attached Images

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The only authentic San Francisco P.D. guns I have seen were Model 58s. They had the SFPD engraved on the L side of the frame under the thumbpiece. It was pantograph engraving as done for trophies, and the size of the font varied. Probably the person doing the engraving decided the size at the time, and variation was probably dependent on when a specific batch of guns was bought. I have not seen an SFPD gun with hand stamping as yours has.

As Doug M stated, there is no guarantee this is San Francisco. Could be Santa Fe, San Filipe, South Fremont, Spanish Fork, or any of several others.

San Francisco did indeed issue the Highway Patrolman & that looks like a factory marking. It could ,as other posters suggested, be other cities with the same initials. But, everything appears correct to be one of the San Francisco model 28s.Congrats on a nice find!

Thanks for the information. Forgot to mention it is a 4 inch barrel variant; did SFPD issue them in this size? When you say factory markings, are you suggesting these stamps were carried-out by S&W themselves?

Yes. The S.F.P.D. marking is consistent with many other factory markings that I've seen.

Just curious...... Are you still in the U.K.?

I joined the San Francisco Police Department in 1980- I was issued a 4" M28 as my service revolver. The 'S.F.P.D" marking is not factory. Our Range Staff used hammer and punch to mark the guns. I wanted to trade my 4" for a 6"- I went to the range, looked through the vault and saw the most beautiful polished M27. When I inquired about the 27, I was told that it was a confiscation. I traded my ugly matte finish M28 and never looked back. The stamping on the 27 was identical to the markings in your photo.

As a side, when we converted to semi-autos in the 90's, we were allowed to purchase our duty revolvers for $125.

Cheers,

Mike

Mike...how about a picture of your 27!!!!

Bob

Thanks for the confirmation Mike. With all the conjecture around other PDs having the same letters in their names, has there ever been confusion over the identity of such police guns in the past?

$125 for a 27 sounds like a great deal. Ditto - any pictures?

Yes I am...

Are you allowed to keep that functional?

__________________
NHI, 10-8.

To own a working revolver such as this falls under our Section 5 firearms legislation. The gun had to be de-activated to own it!

I'm not very familiar with U.K. gun laws. Does deactivated mean something permanent like welding or something less extreme?

In the early '70 I attended several bullseye matches in the L.A. area and two of the top shooters were from SFPD. One of them wore a 4" HP in a shoulder holster under a "hippie" jacket. I only saw it out of the holster once and I don't remember how it was marked, but in pretty sure it was property marked.

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Hi Texas1941, best see for yourself:
http://www.gov.uk/government/uploads...earms-2010.pdf

Our de-act laws render the guns unable to fire via the cutting and welding of internal components. I shoot with a local club, so we can fire handgun varieties such as the Taurus Long Barrel Revolver under our Section 1 laws.

Thanks for the link. When they say "deactivated" they really mean it. It seems a pity but the law binds us all (or at least it should).

Texas has its share of pointless and inconsistent weapons laws. As far as I know, we are the only state in the Union that has no legal form of open carry. And I can walk out the door with as many handguns as I can conceal. But if I have a dirk, dagger, impact weapon, Bowie knife, sword, or tommahawk I'm jailhouse bound. Worse, these terms are either loosely defined or not at all, leaving it up to the police on the streets to decide what's legal.

Thanks for the photo. I know the guys that collect police firearms will appreciate it.

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I'm amazed at what you've just said about weapon possession in Texas! Not keen on the "on-the-spot" justice being delivered by officers!

I'll get some decent photos taken next weekend and put them on the Ultimate 27 thread unless there's a special one for ex-police firearms?

I thought all the SFPD guns were 6" Model 29s??????????

OK guess there were some 4" Pythons............ but those were later IIRC!

"Texas has its share of pointless and inconsistent weapons laws. As far as I know, we are the only state in the Union that has no legal form of open carry. And I can walk out the door with as many handguns as I can conceal. But if I have a dirk, dagger, impact weapon, Bowie knife, sword, or tommahawk I'm jailhouse bound. Worse, these terms are either loosely defined or not at all, leaving it up to the police on the streets to decide what's legal."

But it's better than what it used to be. Not too long ago, it was illegal in Texas to carry a handgun in your car unless you were traveling outside the county of your residence. The definition of "traveling" was very nebulous - did it require an overnight stay outside your county or not? What happens if you are somehow caught inside your own county while heading out of the county? In fact, the reason I got my CCW permit was purely because of that Texas law, as CCW permit holders could always have a handgun in their car anywhere. The same law did not apply to long guns. Fortunately it was revoked some years ago, but prosecutors in some of the big cities fought very hard to keep it in place as a "crime fighting" tool.

*
Every state has some cockamamie laws about lots of things. I suspect that at least some of those terms are leftovers from a time when their meanings were more likely to be known, but now it would take a litigation poopfest to address the ambiguities.

__________________
NHI, 10-8.

That's pretty much what happened in Texas. In 1995 I worked with a group pushing for the CHL law. We had thought that we might get a revision of the whole weapons statute, or at least some better definitions. We soon realised that if we opened that can of worms we would likely get nothing. If nothing else there was a time factor as the Legislature meets for only 120 days every other year. There was an opening to pass a bill in '95 but it well could have been gone in '97. We took what we could get and were very happy with it. And in the process added another layer to the weapons laws.

If you looked at the link provided by the OP you saw a textbook example of a well crafted statute. Getting something that well executed out of the Texas leg happens on occasion but it's not common. It's just the nature of the beast.

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Nice. I heard they switched to Pythons because Lt. Briggs thought they were better for his traffic cops.

In the early 70's, we switched from M58's to M28's. Later, specialized units like the Solo's (Motorcycles) were issued M66's. We has a cast of characters who carried back-ups- everything from 44 Deringers to 6" 44mags in shoulder holsters. We had M19- 2" for inspectors and plainclothes. We also absorbed specialized weapons for specific uses. Bad guys had better equipment than we did. Upon conviction, we'd seize M-59's, shotguns, AR's,Uzi's. We had a no single action policy so no 1911's.

No, I had to turn mine in. I did not buy mine when I could- crazy divorce. Then, one of our guns showed up at a crime-scene- no more private sales. All PD guns are returned to factory, traded for new guns or destroyed.
Our 1st semi-auto issue were Beretta 40cal.. Junk- Made a deal w/ Sig- Beretta's were given to Sig for recycling. Now department is armed w/ P226's and some smaller framed guns for smaller hands and special people who need smaller guns.

With respect to getting a factory letter to support the SFPD connection. You would likely find the revolver was shipped to S&W's west coast distributor Cheshire & Perez and from there to San Francisco. My department also used S&W's - Models 15 and 66. They all came from the distributor.

Brainflood ..... with a serial # we can give you an approximate date that it was shipped......see if it dates to the 70s ........ would be an easy first step.

Varangi....... did the Dept. add the "SFPD" to the 28s issued?

Varangi.......I know... that you know...... I was making a joke! LOL

When I'm back home at the weekend, I'll get the serial and a couple of decent photos of the revolver to share. What I can tell you is that gun came to the UK by way of Germany (it wears a number of German proof marks).