I seem to be developing a perverse taste for former law enforcement agency guns. Pictured above is my latest of these, a 2" Model 10-5 c.1965 that is marked "MOHAVE S O 412" on the left side of the topstrap. Mohave County takes up the entirety of the northwest corner of Arizona, with Kingman being the county seat. I'd suspect this was a detective's or other plainclothes deputy sheriff's piece. I'd actually seen another just like this in a gun/pawn shop some time back. This example had been languishing in a different gun/pawn shop for over a year until they accepted my offer earlier this week.
One advantage to collecting handguns like this is that you can really lower the bar for condition without affecting the appeal too much. They generally have "character" so to speak. You might think that peace officers would take good care of their sidearms, even if they were just agency issue, but in fact, besides the inevitable holster wear and stock dings, You will see some of these displaying signs of neglect and very hard use, maybe even crossing over into abuse. For instance, there's really no excuse for rust on a law enforcement gun, but you see it all too often. Mine here has a few obvious corrosion caused spots on the sideplate. The lamentable tendency of many peace officers to never wipe down their weapons led to a good many agencies favoring stainless models when they became available, or even nickeled guns (the Detroit Police Department notably being one of these). You also on occasion see evidence of a gun having been dropped or suffering other impact damage.
The big switchover to selfloading pistols in the 1970's and 80's shoved a lot of suddenly obsolescent revolvers, mostly S&W's, onto the open market. On occasion, these might have even been new and unissued, just superceded, but generally as I have said, they will have been carried (a lot) and used (some, primarily in periodic qualifying at the range). Even issued guns may not always be entirely original. Department armorers had no scruples about substituting parts that were more practical, or making repairs that were servicable above all else. Cops themselves also modified guns to suit their preferences, even if such was unauthorized. In particular, it's not at all unusual to find stocks that are mismatched to the gun, or are of the aftermarket oversized rubber variety (in either case, of course, the originals are lost to history). I remember about 25 years ago a large group of 4" Model 10's that were unmarked but purported to be Boston P.D. surplus of which many had been fitted with genuine S&W target stocks, but that's certainly not the norm. So in the case of my Mohave S.O. revolver, I was pleased to find that the stocks were matching, albeit very dull and dry. I have since lightly oiled them for the sake of preserving them, not to mention also restoring their appearance.
Enough of my blather. What do you have in a former law enforcement revolver to share with the rest of us?
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