Texas Star
US Veteran
A popuar handgun annual that I glanced at in the grocer has an article on the history of M&P/Model 10 revolvers. The author is a member of this board, although he seldom posts.
He is a VERY well known gun writer, and usually knows whereof he speaks.
To avoid possible embarrassment to him, I'll avoid mentioning his name.
In that article, he says the RCMP used M&P/Model 10 guns in especially ordered 5.5-inch barrel length.
I think he may have seen some that the Force took in from other police forces in Canada that were six-inch guns and had the barrels cut just enough to fit the issued holsters. ?? I have seen photos of the normal RCMP guns and they look just like any other five-inch barrelled examples of the same manufacturing period. One was in a photo that I obtained many years ago from a Force spokesperson! It had a ruler under the gun to show size and it looked perfectly normal for the model with that barrel length.
I asked why this barrel length was adopted, and my official correspondent said that maybe it just seemed the best compromise. Personally, I think it was because the Canadian military had used so many five-inch .38-200's during WW II and liked them. It was probably what the adopting officer was used to seeing, although he may well have preferred the balance and sighting radius of the five-inch barrel. And it gives a little higher velocity over a four-inch gun although I doubt this played a role.
So...have ANY of you seen ANY confirmed RCMP M&P/Model 10 .38 revolvers with actual 5.5-inch barrels?
I think that the author saw a few, but that they were anamolies. I'm pretty sure that he'd know the difference between a five and a 5.5-inch barrel.
No, this wasn't an editing error: he's said the same in another article.
He is a VERY well known gun writer, and usually knows whereof he speaks.
To avoid possible embarrassment to him, I'll avoid mentioning his name.
In that article, he says the RCMP used M&P/Model 10 guns in especially ordered 5.5-inch barrel length.
I think he may have seen some that the Force took in from other police forces in Canada that were six-inch guns and had the barrels cut just enough to fit the issued holsters. ?? I have seen photos of the normal RCMP guns and they look just like any other five-inch barrelled examples of the same manufacturing period. One was in a photo that I obtained many years ago from a Force spokesperson! It had a ruler under the gun to show size and it looked perfectly normal for the model with that barrel length.
I asked why this barrel length was adopted, and my official correspondent said that maybe it just seemed the best compromise. Personally, I think it was because the Canadian military had used so many five-inch .38-200's during WW II and liked them. It was probably what the adopting officer was used to seeing, although he may well have preferred the balance and sighting radius of the five-inch barrel. And it gives a little higher velocity over a four-inch gun although I doubt this played a role.
So...have ANY of you seen ANY confirmed RCMP M&P/Model 10 .38 revolvers with actual 5.5-inch barrels?
I think that the author saw a few, but that they were anamolies. I'm pretty sure that he'd know the difference between a five and a 5.5-inch barrel.
No, this wasn't an editing error: he's said the same in another article.
