choosing a s&w revolver for a green beret

[stantheman86]

The year?

It would depend on what year your fictional SF guy is in for the story, we had advisors there as early as the 1950's.

The classic Model 10 4" is always a safe bet.

And also if you want to go the route of a "self issue" gun or one that he found from an Army source. You could have him winning a revolver in a card game or trading some VC trophies to another guy for a rusty old M&P-Model 10.

The Army did issue 4" Model 10's but I don't know what years.

A safe bet to stay historical would be a 4" S&W Victory .38 Special, since there were surely plenty of those floating around.

I tried to make my 1971 produced model 10-5 6" into a "Vietnam SF" carried revolver, or at least what one would look like......I got it used with some rust pitting on it so I figured it fit the bill perfectly for a jungle carried blued piece, and was the right year for an "impression" of a revolver sent from home to a guy in the later years of Vietnam. No "bling" no nonsense, no T-Grip or Trigger shoes, just a worn old Model 10 with beat up stock wood grips.

 

[moosedog]

I'd suggest that you outfit your character with a S&W Combat Magnum, which later became the model 19.
Combat Magnum sounds cool and it's 357 four inch which could have fit into an issue shoulder holster.
Just my two cents.

 

[cp1969]

Brother in law was on the Ranger and Enterprise as a flight mechanic. He acquired a M15 over there. Still has it.

 

[3-gun]

I found this from Shooting times,
" Model 60 Chiefs Special Stainless (1965)
Completing this list is the world's first factory-production all stainless-steel firearm: the Model 60 Chiefs Special. Putting the same basic configuration on the list twice might raise some eyebrows, but the original Chiefs Special started a revolution in form factors while the Model 60 started a completely different revolution in handgun manufacturing materials.

Actually, the Model 60 was not the first all-stainless revolver S&W had sold. In 1959 Hellstrom had authorized a limited run of polished stainless-steel Model 15 Combat Masterpiece revolvers on special order for a law enforcement distributor in Chicago. Six years later, the Model 60 was an instant runaway best-seller, as were the other police-format stainless models introduced in quick succession afterward. And when S&W's sportsmen's stainless guns hit the shelves, in the form of the Model 63 stainless .22 Kit Gun, the six-inch version of the Model 66, and, spectacularly, the first stainless-steel .44 Magnum Model 629 (December 1978), the cake was fully iced. All other handgun manufacturers were in full pursuit, and today there are vastly more new handguns introduced in stainless steel with no blued counterparts than the reverse. (I have a personal attachment to the classic Model 629 as my report on it in the March 1979 issue of Shooting Times broke the story to the world. That write-up was my first cover story for ST.)"

 

[Gatofeo]

The Air Force carried S&W Model 15s pretty much. Pilots carried the 2" model, while Air Police carried the 4" model.
When I was in the Air Force from 1974 to 1979, all the dog handlers -- regardless of branch, carried .38 revolvers. The Army dog handlers carried fixed sight revolvers, probably Model 10s.
Dog handlers carried .38 revolvers because one hand was busy holding the dog's leash. Thus, they couldn't pull a .45 and rack the slide. Army personnel were not allowed to carry .45s with a loaded chamber. Surely, that didn't apply to combat, though.
I even saw Marine dog handlers in Panama wearing .38 revolvers. I think it was the only occupation in the Department of Defense where weaponry was absolutely mandated, without exception, and for a good reason too.
As for Special Forces ...
The S&W Model 60 stainless steel was a rare bird during Vietnam, because of incredible demand. Like the other poster, I didn't see one in a gun store until about 1976, after Vietnam was over. They were THAT hard to get.
There was no backorder, I was told at the time. You could backorder, but some colonel or general would call the factory and -- zip! -- your revolver would be gone and you'd be back down on the list.
At least, that's what an S&W employee told me years ago. They were also popular presentation pieces for retiring chiefs and commissioners of major police departments. Not that they needed the blamed thing, but it was a status symbol to own one.
For your book's purposes, I'd say a Model 10 fixed sight. Or a Model 15 with 4" barrel that SF traded from the Air Force. For something different, have him load it with .38 Special tracers, or perhaps Super-Vel ammo that used a 110 gr. jacketed hollowpoint. Such ammo began to be made about 1967 or 1968. Such ammo was produced, but often hard to find because it was so novel.
If your character carries the standard 130 gr. ball ammo, you may emphasize that it was a very poor performer. A number of old sergeants told me this. One sergeant shot at a fleeing vehicle at Clark Air Force Base and all four bullets bounced off the trunk and rear window.
Yes, the 130 gr. full metal jacket load was that weak!
The wadcutters we qualified with had more oomph.
Well, that's my take on it. I was never in Vietnam, but spoke with many sergeants who had been there, in the field and at airbases, some of them very remote airbases that got attacked nearly every night.
Some Air Force personnel, especially Air Police, air traffic controllers, medics and dog handlers saw a lot of combat in Vietnam.
There was probably more than a little swapping back and forth between Army, Air Force and Marines in the field.