Earliest Stainless Steel S&W Revolvers

[Sebago Son]

My earliest 60 is 477,181. According to Dr. Jinks it shipped in November, 1966. It has an olive colored finish to the lockwork, which was an early attempt a color hardening to alter the contact surfaces and prevent galling. Later, the hammer and trigger were flashed chromed for the same reason.

 

[VaTom]

My Model 64 2” round butt. Bought in new in 1976 as my off duty carry for $145. If I recall stainless S&W revolvers were hard to find back then. I wonder if popularity and durability of stainless revolvers caused nickel to be dropped over time. After many years of carry still looks nice. We carried Model 10 4” nickel in uniform (see picture) until Glocks. Never liked the Model 60 due to its smaller size. I found it easier to qualify with a similar score with a K frame 2” when you carried a 4”.

 

[Rock185]

I can recall the first ad I saw for the model 60; must have been in '65. IIRC, outdoorsman with a canoe, wet environment, etc. In early '74 I started looking for a 66. They may have been introduced in '70, but they were still unobtanium around here when I started looking for one 4 years later. Finally acquired one at what today would be big $$$$. Shot the heck out of it; had S&W overhaul it in '80, and add a target trigger and hammer. I started carrying a 686, but still have the old 66...

 

[two-bit cowboy]

I can recall the first ad I saw for the model 60; must have been in '65. IIRC, outdoorsman with a canoe, wet environment, etc.

Here's an ad like the one you remember, but this one is from 1968 due to the $100 price. I've seen the one you likely saw with a $90 price.

 

[Obe]

According to the Standard Catalog of Smith & Wesson, 4th Ed., Models 64 and 66 came out in 1970. Models 65 and 67 came out in 1972.

For what it's worth, as an employee (1973-1978) at Ashland Shooting Supplies in Ohio, a large Smith & Wesson distributor, the very popular Model 60s were still rather few and often far between. The Model 64 ("pencil" barrels) shipped next, and if I remember correctly, the 66 and the 67 began showing up at about the same time in our shipments from Springfield, MA.

 

[b737lvr]

My Model 64 2” round butt. Bought in new in 1976 as my off duty carry for $145. If I recall stainless S&W revolvers were hard to find back then. I wonder if popularity and durability of stainless revolvers caused nickel to be dropped over time. After many years of carry still looks nice. We carried Model 10 4” nickel in uniform (see picture) until Glocks. Never liked the Model 60 due to its smaller size. I found it easier to qualify with a similar score with a K frame 2” when you carried a 4”.

I love past times like these. It’s a reminder of a time when being a patrolman was something you put pride into, when even the little things mattered. Having a clean well presentable pistol in your holster said a lot without saying a word. Clean car, clean gun, clean bracelets, clean everything. I’ve mentioned here before but I see young officers out here today driving around dirty cars and then they get out with dusty shoes wearing shorts and a T shirt with a tac-vest on top. Can’t forget the tattoos coating their arms and legs or the “disabled veteran” tag they got on their POV because they witnessed a squirrel fall out of a tree during their 3 year army stint

 

[jscott]

In 1973, the Detroit Police Department received a batch of Mod 60s that were sold to officers for under $100. That no dash was my BUG and UC piece for 3 years with DPD and then 30 with Miami-Dade, always performing admirably during annual quals. Now it is relegated to kayak trips and bike rides in the South Florida heat and humidity. It has even spent time on gator and salt water croc duty in the Everglades. Always worked, never rusted. I may just keep it.

 

[Exchipy]

There’s always that one, and you were him! Were you a motor officer or car? I can’t imagine a 6” barrel would play nice in a car but I’d be happy to know. Speaking of the CHP, what were the general feelings about the TV production down in LA from the perspective of a Bay Area patrolman?

Until maybe a year ago, I’d ridden motorcycles my entire adult life. However, though seeming to be insanely reckless at times, I try very hard not to be stupid. So, I rode my motorcycles when and where I chose, not when and where some sergeant might whimsically demand that I must. So, I was never a motor officer.

Never had any problems at all sitting in a patrol car with a 6” revolver in a Hoyt high ride breakfront holster, mounted on a Sam Brown duty belt with no “keepers.” There was no safe and effective way to draw a belt holstered handgun of any style in an emergency, while seated in a patrol car. There were, however, effective alternatives, all unauthorized of course. But, it was always better to be a live garbage collector than a dead patrolman. Saw a lot of early Model 60s peeking out from patrol jacket pockets. Lots of looking the other way.

My first year with CHP was in East L.A. My roommate there, and lifelong friend ever since, was a Central L.A. CHP motor officer, where CHiPs exteriors were filmed. (Central L.A. and East L.A. shared the same radio dispatch frequency.) As you likely know, real law enforcement work is far too boring to support an uncompressed TV show, being hours and hours of pure boredom, with lots of grinding routine, interspersed only occasionally by seconds of sheer terror without prior warning. While the CHiPs TV show did a fair job of conveying some general attitudes and activity possibilities, and some of the riding shown was done for the show by actual Central L.A. motor officers, the stars’ stylish haircuts and their talking back and forth as they rode around on unopened L.A. Area freeways together on motorcycles carried in a motorcycle trailer, were ridiculous. Showbiz.

 

[halfmoonclip]

When I was a cop the stainless steel revolvers were said to lack the quality of their blue brothers. The internals in stainless could not hold a trigger job like a blue model.

Barring some early production that I'm not aware of, the early stainless guns had a hardchromed version of the traditional, forged internal parts. I've done triggers on a number of them, and they have always slicked up wonderfully well, with no durability issues.
They do suffer being wet; a buddy's early 60 took a long soak, courtesy of a roof leak. I insisted letting me take it down, just in case. All was well inside.
Moon

 

[Rock185]

two-bit cowboy, thank you sir. I don't recall price, but that is the ad..

 

[decuerno]

In 1970/1971 I was an LEO in Nevada and a brother was a deputy on a California sheriff Dept. His agency bought the deputies new model 66 in 4”, but had some problems with them, resulting in getting a new issue of the same model a few years later.

As Sgt Rock noted above the early model 66 were all stainless, but had a problem with hammer push-off and also with the bright silver stainless front & rear sights. The sights were changed to blued ones and the trigger/hammer were changed from stainless to Carbon steel hard chromed. Troops were thereafter quite satisfied with them.

I was with a small-town P.D. in the mid ‘70s and the S&W rep came thru town offering the late-model 66’s in 4” with the blued sights and magna grips for $150. I still have mine…one of my most-favored handguns.

 

[SGT ROCK 11B]

Never had any problems at all sitting in a patrol car with a 6” revolver in a Hoyt high ride breakfront holster, mounted on a Sam Brown duty belt with no “keepers.” There was no safe and effective way to draw a belt holstered handgun of any style in an emergency, while seated in a patrol car.

My first FTO carried his pre-Model 19 four inch in a Crossdraw holster. So, I did too for a few years.

 

[SGT ROCK 11B]

Barring some early production that I'm not aware of, the early stainless guns had a hardchromed version of the traditional, forged internal parts. I've done triggers on a number of them, and they have always slicked up wonderfully well, with no durability issues.
They do suffer being wet; a buddy's early 60 took a long soak, courtesy of a roof leak. I insisted letting me take it down, just in case. All was well inside.
Moon

In the early 1970s I could not afford to buy a variety of revolvers (that came with our great pay raises in the 1980s) but I think more of the old timers preferred the traditional look of blue revolvers. When the L Frame was introduced in 1981 most of the WWII Veterans had retired so most cops wanted a 686 but a few were still hardcore blue only and they got 581s or 586s.

 

[b737lvr]

In the early 1970s I could not afford to buy a variety of revolvers (that came with our great pay raises in the 1980s) but I think more of the old timers preferred the traditional look of blue revolvers. When the L Frame was introduced in 1981 most of the WWII Veterans had retired so most cops wanted a 686 but a few were still hardcore blue only and they got 581s or 586s.

I can understand why there were and still are a lot of hold outs. Carbon steel is simply stronger and longer lasting than stainless. All it takes is a soft clean dry cotton rag and a very thin amount of oil in the crevices to stop them from ever corroding. The old timers back then probably never once had an issue with corrosion and saw absolutely no reason to deviate from it.

I mean look at it like this. If you had been carrying a blued 357 L frame as a patrolman for 20 years then suddenly Smith & Wesson came along and offered you essentially the same gun made of a weaker metal at a higher price tag would you have bought it? Probably not. I believe to this day the whole stainless thing, on a functional level, is better suited for either mariners or those who are just lazy. Now if you just like a shiny silver gun then that’s a whole different story. I personally think my Beretta 92FS Ghost is the best looking auto ever made.