choosing a s&w revolver for a green beret

[mg357]

dear smith and wesson forum i am an amateur writer working on a fictional novel about a green beret's tour of duty in the vietnam war. an i am trying to decide on s&w revolver to arm him with as a last resort weapon i have narrowed it down to the follow 2 choices a s&w model 10 or a s&w model 60 any and all help from my fellow forum members would be greatly appreciated sincerely and respectfully mg357 a proud member of the smith and wesson forum

 

[Dan M]

I deleted your other posts as they are basically the same. Sorry I cant give you an answer

Dan

 

[BE Mike]

A former Special Forces friend and co-worker carried a S&W model 19 revolver during a tour in Viet Nam. He said that his Vietnamese counterpart kept bugging him for it. He said that he finally gave it to his counterpart. Supposedly the counterpart kept flipping the cylinder closed on the revolver and finally sprung the crane and made the revolver unserviceable.

Once, while I was at a SF camp waiting for the weather to clear for a mission, one of the SF guys organized an impromptu target shooting session. It amounted to setting some 40mm empty grenade cases, previously fired from an m79, which were set on a log. We aviators backed off about 15 yards and tried to plink them off with our 4" model 10's. IIRC, the SF guy had a 2" S&W. I don't remember which model, but probably a model 12. The SF seemed to be able to get just about anything they wanted. It would be believable that some would have had model 10's.

You may be able to get a better answer from the horses mouth.

 

[Brian41]

How about a S&W Model 15 in 2 inch as they were USAF issue and he could have gotten his hands on one easy there? The 4 inch was more common in the 15 with the 2 inch mainly for pilots and some others.

I understand about anything was available on the black market there so he could have about any model he wanted with the model 10 very common.

 

[redlevel]

Didn't we have this discussion once before?

I'll give the same answer I think I did before. Since you specified that the S&W would be his last resort weapon, I would, if I were writing such a book, arm my Green Beret with a sent-from-home Model 60 Stainless Chiefs Special.

Somewhere in the dim recesses of my memory there is a story, possibly by Charles Askins, of an officer in Vietnam who stepped in the boonies to relieve himself. While he was in a less-than-handy position to get his carbine, he was confronted by an enemy soldier. Luckily, he had his handy Chiefs Special (either a Model 36 or Model 60) laying in the grass beside him, and he used it to dispatch the enemy.

I could be confusing the story with the supposed claim of Charles Askins that he killed the first man ever killed with the then-new S&W 44 magnum. That would have been in the '50s, and the soldier would have been called a Vietminh, I believe.

 

[kraigwy]

I wasnt SF, but I was infantry, (2/502 Inf, 101st Abn Div, 67-68)
We had several guys in our unit write home for and were sent revolvers. Most common were 2 in Model 10s. I didnt, I had a 1911a1 that suited me.

 

[daa9mm]

The big thing that guys wanted were the stainless S&W Model 60s that came out in the mid to late 60s. They were impossible to get because everybody wanted them for the rust resistance in the humid jungles of Viet Nam.
My dad was career Navy and he was looking desperately for one for his first tour in 1965-66, and again in his second tour 67-68.

 

[Chili Vega]

A friend of mine carried a S&W mdl 1917 in a shoulder rig. That might work for your SF guy.

 

[roaddog28]

Hi,

A possible revolver for a green beret would be a model 65 in either 3 or 4 inch barrel. A fixed sight K frame magnum that would resist rust and be able to shoot 357s when the need arises. Fixed sight revolvers are good for carry and there is less chance of clothing snagging versus a adjustable sight revolver. Just about any K frame S&W would make a good carry gun. They are natural pointers and to me they are the best handling revolver I have ever had. I have a total of four K frames and love them.

Good luck with your novel,
roaddog28

 

[BE Mike]

I never saw a stainless steel revolver in Viet Nam in 68-69. The first one I ever saw was in a gun shop in the early 70's. It was an original S&W model 60 with high polish. As the model 60 was in production, it would have been possible (unlikely, but possible) that an SF soldier could have had one, but most found their way to police departments as department purchases. As the model 65 wasn't in production until 1972, it is unlikely that one would have found its way to RVN before the end of the war.

 

[The Proffesor]

Just a couple of "thoughts".

1. What era ?? What Task ??
SF involement was varied according to the above.

2. Depending on the era, certain Hand guns may or not have been avail. even to SF attatched to the "company"

3. "Personal" side arms were up to the individual ( in many units ) & as to BUGs they ran the gamut, from .22s to .45 ACPs, Foriegn & domestc. Many, or so the "rumor" goes, carried either S&W or Colt "snubbies", chambered in .38 spl. BUT with some very nasty rounds ( not "Geniva" approved")

The Proffesor

 

[daa9mm]

I never saw a stainless steel revolver in Viet Nam in 68-69. The first one I ever saw was in a gun shop in the early 70's. It was an original S&W model 60 with high polish. As the model 60 was in production, it would have been possible (unlikely, but possible) that an SF soldier could have had one, but most found their way to police departments as department purchases. As the model 65 wasn't in production until 1972, it is unlikely that one would have found its way to RVN before the end of the war.

The S&W Model 60 was almost impossible to find. My dad was the senior NCO in CB battalions in Viet Nam and wanted one with a passion.
My uncle, a state trooper, and dad spent weeks looking for one.
I remember him buying a Hunter shoulder holster for his issued 1911A1 for $7.
The Model 60 was what he and lots of other service men wanted. The price for an S&W revolver at the time was under $60.

 

[K Harris]

I suggest you go to Maj. John Plaster's web site Ultimatesniper and read about Jerry "Mad Dog" Shriver. If you scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on shooting articals you will see one entitled "The Untold Story Of Mad Dog Shriver". It has been said that at times he had up to 6 38's on his person. What model was not specified. However, you can safely assume that some of them were Smith & Wesson Model 10's.

 

[GatorFarmer]

Period gun mags, and some from the immediate post Vietnam era, have numerous anecdotes about M60s used in Vietnam and how they were obtained.

Often forgotten is that if you had green money (pref'd over the monopoly money MPC stuff), you could simply buy a gun in South Vietnam. The price was lower with green stuff, higher if you ddi negotiate a sale in MPCs. Leppelman in "Blood on the Risers" writes about simply buying himself a Smith and Wesson in a store.

Model 15s were also used by Army aviators, but a lot of WW2 victory models were still floating around. The cool guys has BHPs, but 9mm was hard to obtain at times. .38 and .45 were plentiful. The .38 Super Vel rounds were sought after at one point, other times there were various home craft "dum dum" .38 rounds.

1960s and 70s gun mags are full of information on the topic.

Interestingly, Jeff Cooper was a fan of the Model 39 for use in Vietnam for a while circa 67/68.

 

[S. Kelly]

Vietnam vets I worked with spoke about guns they'd never get rid of-"5 screw" Chiefs Specials, so I'd think that J Frame .38s were very popular.

 

[AKAOV1MAN]

I spent a lot of time "in country". I was an Army Aviator, we were issued a lot of 38 specials, mostly S&W 10s, with some Colts thrown into the mix. In one of our arms rooms there were a couple of 2 inch 10s and Colt Detective Specials. One could also easily get a 1911 service 45. The revolver concept originated with USN, USAF and Marine pilots because arm injuries were frequent in jet ejections and a revolver could be got into action one handed, they also fired the little 38 caliber flares that were issued. Or it could have been a holdover from WWII when pilots were routinely issued revolvers because of a shortage of 45s.
A lot of our revolvers were old and some were WWII issue.
I never saw an M60 over there, I did see a lot of M15s, 19s, and 36 types. I also saw the odd Colt Python here and there. As previously indicated the M15 was USAF issue for MPs and aircrew, either 2 or 4", with the 4" being used by MPs and the 2" by aircrew.
One unit I was with was co-located with the AF at Ubon, Thailand and the AF lived well there. One of the unit armorys there had a guy who did the best action job on a revolver I ever had.
No offense to The Professor or anyone else, but the Geneva Convention had to do with treatment of prisoners of war, and nothing at all to do with weapons/ammo.
Weapons and ammo were addressed by the Hague conferences of 1899 and 1907 and resluted in the Hague Accords of 1913 (just in time for WWI) which dealt with ammo that caused uncessarily grevious injuries and the like. Seem kind of funny, fighting a war and trying not to do too grevious an injury to ones enemy.
In any case individual soliders honored that agreement more in the breach than by conformance. I never carried anything but FMJ ammo because that was all I could get, I suspect that the 38 Special FMJ might not have been the greatest stopper out there, of course neither was my BHP in 9mm with a FMJ round. But the Browning did have a lot of them on tap. Eventually I saw the wisdom of the 45 ACP and got a 1911 and a 1928 Thompson SMG (won it from a AF zoomy in a card game). The SMG proved to be quite heavy, and with a couple extra drums or a few extra mags it could become a significant weight in an AC. Wound up with a nice 1897 Winchester, loved it-still got it.

 

[The Proffesor]

No offense to The Professor or anyone else, but the Geneva Convention had to do with treatment of prisoners of war, and nothing at all to do with weapons/ammo.
Weapons and ammo were addressed by the Hague conferences of 1899 and 1907 and resluted in the Hague Accords of 1913 (just in time for WWI) which dealt with ammo that caused uncessarily grevious injuries and the like. Seem kind of funny, fighting a war and trying not to do too grevious an injury to ones enemy.
QUOTE]

No OFFENSE TAKEN, insted THANK YOU for the "correction".I knew beter.

The Proffesor.

 

[Jeff423]

FWIW: All the pilots and "backseaters" in my squadron carried revolvers except one pilot who carried a BHP. The standing joke among the riggers was that if he ejected over water he'd drown due to the weight of the ammo he carried for it.

Jeff

 

[JJ_BPK]

dear smith and wesson forum i am an amateur writer working on a fictional novel about a green beret's tour of duty in the vietnam war. an i am trying to decide on s&w revolver to arm him with as a last resort weapon i have narrowed it down to the follow 2 choices a s&w model 10 or a s&w any and all help from my fellow forum members would be greatly appreciated sincerely and respectfully mg357 a proud member of the smith and wesson forum

John Wayne was in a movie called "The Green Beret's" and there are a lot of service men that wear green hats called green berets, but when you refer to the individual, they are Special Forces soldiers. It's a small nit, but we try to keep the 4th estate on the straight and narrow.

From the initial deployment in 1956 thru the withdrawal in 1975. The Special Forces units were the poor *** trailer park kids of the Army. Ike & JFK understood the mission.

Under LBJ, McNamara and Westmoreland did not espouse any warm fuzzies for the "Green Berets". They wanted division sized units to match their ego's.

Consequently, the pipe-line for SF equipment consisted of the left overs from WW II and some new toys paid for by the CIA.

So,, Back to your question,, just about any thing can be and was scrounged for personal use.

I carried a M10 & a 50 rd box of ammo. It weight less than a 1911 and I didn't need to worry about dirt & mud in the action. It was passed to me from the last Lt who had my platoon. Bluing was maybe 40%, the stocks were taped on because of a split, but it went bang every time I practiced with it.

I repeat,, ANYTHING YOU WANT. If you're writing pure fiction for air-softers or semi-factual history, you can give your protagonist anything made before 1975.

Be inventive,, I knew some individuals that took M79 grenade launchers and turned them into short barrel PISTOLS. The results was not bad, weight wise,, but recoil was very very abundant.. Here is a web page that shows a Ranger that cut down his M79.

M79 Grenade Launcher

But I got's 2 tell ya,, even the NVA liked revolvers,,

YouTube - The Deer Hunter (the Best Scene)

Good Luck..

 

[1 old 0311]

I was not a Green Beret, Marine Grunt, but I 'acquired' a S&W 60 when I was in Vietnam.