Pachmayr Gun Works

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craig51

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Well forum members, today is my 30th anniversary
as a member of the Los Angeles Police Department. While cruising down memory lane with my cup of coffee this morning I recalled all of the incredibly beautiful firearms in the gun room at the now long gone Pachmayr Gun Works,which was located at 1220 S. Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles. As well as doing fantastically good gunsmithing, they were more than willing to order anything Smith&Wesson would manufacture. Also, for you classic shotgun lovers they had more ithaca and winchester shotguns (all grades),than anyplace I have seen before or since, Museums included! On one occasion my partner and I captured a trio of roof top burglars tossing guns from the roof to an accomplice on the sidewalk below. We recovered all the guns except 1 fully engraved model 629, which a fourth suspect we never saw fled on foot. It was recovered 3 weeks later during a traffic stop inside a large bag of potato chips next to the driver of the vehicle. Two of the most beautiful engraved ithaca shotguns I ever saw had broken stock from being tossed off the roof to a sloppy crook on the sidewalk below. Pachmays was an incredible place to visit. I would be interested in hearing from anyone who was fortunate enough to have spent time there.
 
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Well forum members, today is my 30th anniversary
as a member of the Los Angeles Police Department. While cruising down memory lane with my cup of coffee this morning I recalled all of the incredibly beautiful firearms in the gun room at the now long gone Pachmayr Gun Works,which was located at 1220 S. Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles. As well as doing fantastically good gunsmithing, they were more than willing to order anything Smith&Wesson would manufacture. Also, for you classic shotgun lovers they had more ithaca and winchester shotguns (all grades),than anyplace I have seen before or since, Museums included! On one occasion my partner and I captured a trio of roof top burglars tossing guns from the roof to an accomplice on the sidewalk below. We recovered all the guns except 1 fully engraved model 629, which a fourth suspect we never saw fled on foot. It was recovered 3 weeks later during a traffic stop inside a large bag of potato chips next to the driver of the vehicle. Two of the most beautiful engraved ithaca shotguns I ever saw had broken stock from being tossed off the roof to a sloppy crook on the sidewalk below. Pachmays was an incredible place to visit. I would be interested in hearing from anyone who was fortunate enough to have spent time there.
 
During the period when the business was being sold, I had a Colt .45 automatic there - for about four years! I think they lost track of it altogether, and when they finally uncovered it, they wanted 3x as much as originally quoted for the work I wanted done. Needless to say, I was none too pleased with them, but I got over it.
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Congratulations on your thirty years. That is an interesting story about the burglary. I imagine even in those days they were a pretty attractive target.
 
Welcome to the forum!
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I have a lot of old gun magazines with photos of Pachmayrs shop. There are some fantastic looking guns in some of them.
It's too bad that, if a beautiful gun and stock had to be destroyed by crooks, when they tossed the gun down to the guy on the ground, it didn't hit him in the head and either outright kill him or at least break his neck. At least that way he wouldn't get a slap on the wrist from a too soft judge, and be back a few weeks later doing the same thing to someone else's property.

Thank you for your service to the public!
 
No not Newton Division. It was in Central Division. On the east side of downtown Newton Division goes as far north as 7th Street, but on the west side of downtown Newton only goes as far north as Washington Blvd. Another great Division though.
 
My bro in law retired from LAPD with 30 years in 2000. He was an original Newton boy, then was a detective at Central I believe the last 15 years. The things them Newton boys did to earn their moniker was amazing/funny!
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I think you'd find similar stories in every division in the city, although more often in the Central and South Bureaus. It's been an incredible ride.
 
I never had the opportunity to visit Pachmayr but did have the opportunity to get acquainted with George Hoenig, who apprenticed with Pachmayr when he immigrated from Austria. He was gunsmithing in his home in Boise when he did a bit of work for me. One day I found him doing the finish-up checkering on a matched pair of Purdy first-quality game guns restocked by Pachmayr in beautiful french walnut and sent to George to finish up the checkering. I can't imagine what Pachmayr must have had at their shop.

Julian
 
Idaho, you would have loved the place. Pachmayr was not just a shop. The entire facility was approximately 90,000 square feet. The showroom was about 2,500 square feet. Heaven for folks like us.
 
Pachmayr did nice work. I had them satin blue the slide and put a S&W rear sight on my satin nickel Combat Commander .45 about 40 years ago. Nice job and I still have it.
 
craig51; congratulations on making your 30. How long do you intend to go? I'm at 32 years, but just can't get the desire to retire. I think I may have another 10 in me, as long as my health holds. I feel very lucky; been assigned everywhere and enjoyed all of it. Currently the Sergeant in charge of Admin. Division, supervising Crime Prevention, DARE, School Resource Officers, COPPS and POPP, and Training. Luckily, my department is only 80 sworn.
 
I don't want to steal this topic, but I would like to see some pics of MaineProbation's Combat Commander. Maybe a new topic in the lounge?
 
When I lived in the L.A. area back in the 70's I used to go to Packmayr's quite regularly. I went the first time when none of the shops in the south east area of L.A. county had any grips for my 1917 Colt. They always had everything I needed when other shops said they could get it in a few days. It was like going to a museum with the great variety of guns and everthing else gun related. It wasn't exactly in downtown but just a little south in an area where there were more manufacturing and warehousing businesses than retail stores. I also remember the front doors. They were huge and weighed a ton. My most memorable visit was when I met Jeff Cooper. He was browsing around the shop while he was waiting to meet with Frank. We visited for about ten minutes or so and he gave me some tips on teaching my new bride to shoot a handgun(she was a gun hater then, but I have cured her of that).
 
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