I have seen several references to GIs using privately owned Magnums in combat in Vietnam.
Guess that they would have really nocked out the soft body armor the VC wore.

How prevalent was this and how did they get ammunition? I know one guy said he used the powder from 45 ball ammo and rolled his own.

Well, I consider myself fortunate to be able to read this thread. I'm 60 next month and have never served in our military. My late father never spoke of his service in the Pacific Theater of WWII until very late in his life. He got me started on my S&W hobby when he bought a K22 in '48. I'm looking at it right now. Thank you veterans

There is some discussion above of posers claiming time in Nam. I am sure there are some. Another interesting discussion could get into the tooth to tale of our forces in Nam. The story I have always heard is a vast majority of our forces were never involved in combat operations. The number frequently tossed about is 75% were in rear support to the 25% seeing time in the field.

I was in Thailand.
My Buddy Don was in Nam 3 times.
He carried a 1911.

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0331’s did have an issue 45!

I was lucky enough to be born a couple of years late to have gone there. Living in the same area all my life I know the people who went to VN and the ones that served in the reserves here at home. My brother in law served 2 tours in the army there but was not fighting in the jungle he was working on a base. He told me the base did get attacked one night and it scared the hell out of him but that was about it for his war stories. I still have 1k percent respect for his service over there and thank him for his service often.

i was air force,an e-1, in 1964. voluntered for nam and went. at that time we were consided advisors and did admin process at clark. very little admin in nam. i was air frieght. sent to bien hoa, ( mortor central ) to det 5 8th aieial port. got off the plane, go right to the armory, issued ar15, asked if i was going to be flying, what the heck, siad sure. was issued a .38 special revolverr. later i found a smith model 19 in nickel with half a box of .357, bought it $ 5o bucks. hoarded the ,357 ammo,never found more,shot a lot of .38spec. i'll tell you in those days bien hoa was not a bunch of remf's. i flew a lot with the first air commando,as a loadmaster, no remfs there either.

I was stationed at Phu-Cat in '68-'69. the only handgun I knew about was a SSgt in Civil Engineers had a Ruger 357 magnum he brought with him. He also had a CB with boots and would talk to his wife in California when the atmosphere was right.
SWCA 892