29 as police service gun

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Ding_kong

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Hi, i am new here and joined to seek help. I need some hard evidence that s&w 29 (the Dirty Harry model) was actually a police service gun ie it was allowed or registered as a service gun at least for some police units in the US.
I live in Europe and need to prove the revolver in order to get a permission from my authorities to have the revolver registered for my collection permit. I know this sounds unusual to US residents but European gun controls are very different.
Can anybody direct me to any manual or official recommendation, at either state or federal level, naming the 29 as a revolver allowed for use by any police units or other state agency in the US please?
 
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The SCSW mentions that .44 Magnums with 4 screws and within serial range S130000 to S167500 (approximate manufacture 1955-1956) are classified as Curios and Relics. Would your regulations permit ownership on that basis? If you can find one of those, it won't be cheap.
 
In the 1970s & early 80s, the department my father worked for allowed you to carry any handgun you qualified with. I believe minimum caliber was .38/9mm. My dad qualified with his 6 inch Model 29, and his .44 Automag pistol. He said the night shoot was very fun with those two.

IIRC, I believe a PD in Kentucky or Louisiana carried them. I seem to remember a 4” Model 29-2 with police markings that came up on a GB auction many years ago.
 
You could ask Doc44, he is the resident expert on all things 44....

I would be that he has a letter or two for 44 Magnums that shipped to law enforcement agencies.


....maybe he will chime in here on your thread?
 
Might be hard to come up with written proof. But back in the day, many departments allowed officers to carry anything they could qualify with.
I had a good friend who was a retired cop. He carried a 6" Model 29 daily.
 
During the mid-1980s the Fremont County Wyoming County Attorney's office issued 629s to their prosecuting attorneys. They might be able to confirm that. I recall them as being 3" and mostly carried in horizontal shoulder holsters. Funny the memories a post like this can evoke,
 
When my brother started police work in the 1970’s, like a lot of small American. Departments, his agency did not issue handguns. Most ( like my brothers) only mandated either a certain type or minimum caliber. In my brothers case, they didn’t specify auto or revolver just that it hold at least 6 shots and be a minimum of a 380 or 38 special. They had about 70 officers, and duty guns for the patrol officers and detectives ran the gamut from walther PPK 380’s in the case of a couple of the detectives, to every imaginable auto or revolver available at the time. My brother chose to carry a 4” 29 for most of his career. At various times he also carried a couple other S&W revolvers a S&W 39 for quite awhile and even a colt combat commander cocked and locked. By the early 1990’s the mix got so out of hand ( the agency supplying training and duty ammo for a dozen calibers ) they finally standardized on issued glocks.
He still has that very beat up 29, which was his primary gun for over half his 30+ year career.

When his department did go to glocks, a lot of officers sold older personally owed duty guns cheap - at the time I picked up a model 19 ( pinned and recessed) with gun belt holster speed loader pouches two speedloaders and the typical one box of 38’s and one box of 357 each with 6 rounds missing all for $175. Those were the days!
 
Ding_kong said:
Hi, i am new here and joined to seek help. I need some hard evidence that s&w 29 (the Dirty Harry model) was actually a police service gun ie it was allowed or registered as a service gun at least for some police units in the US.
I live in Europe and need to prove the revolver in order to get a permission from my authorities to have the revolver registered for my collection permit. I know this sounds unusual to US residents but European gun controls are very different.
Can anybody direct me to any manual or official recommendation, at either state or federal level, naming the 29 as a revolver allowed for use by any police units or other state agency in the US please?
Click to expand...

Not sure this would help but the S&W Model 29 bears a NATO Stock Number of 1005-00-853-7087. Perhaps it could be licensed as a US military-type firearm?
 
Hi again, many thanks for all replies and hints! I am aware that M29s were occasionally used by police units but unfortunately, this argument is just not good enough for my authorities. I am after written proof (an official recommendation or authorization) that this model was intended for police use.

I already have a 29 which, I am not going to lie here, I bought because of the movie. I have it registered for sport (well, in my country you need to need a valid purpose eg for sport or collection, to get a gun permit) but the revolver is just too pretty so I rarely shot it. I bought its modern brother for actual shooting. However, there is a restriction on the number of guns one can own for sport so I have been trying to move the 29 to my collection. Here I got stuck with the requirement to prove that the 29 was actually a service weapon. The Dirty Harry or occasional factual use is not good enough.
I read that in principle in the 70-ties police officers were allowed to carry whatever guns they wanted as long as they met minimum criteria imposed by local departments.

Does anybody have any idea where I can find any document from whatever police or other state/federal US agency naming M29 as a model its officers are permitted to carry? I tried to google them but at least so far to no success.
 
RM Vivas said:
Not sure this would help but the S&W Model 29 bears a NATO Stock Number of 1005-00-853-7087. Perhaps it could be licensed as a US military-type firearm?
Click to expand...

Many thanks. It is a good hint to follow up on. Anything with a Nato number is definitely intended for the military.
 
Grayfox said:
Might be hard to come up with written proof. But back in the day, many departments allowed officers to carry anything they could qualify with.
I had a good friend who was a retired cop. He carried a 6" Model 29 daily.
Click to expand...

Is this the same model your friend was carrying?
 

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