Model 29-2 used by park rangers?

[Pete66]

I've got a 1976 29-2 that I bought a few years ago to carry in the woods, so I didn't care that the bluing was nearly entirely gone when I got it fairly cheap. It's got some scratches here and there, but otherwise it's in good shape. When I brought it to the gunsmith (a retired cop and police armorer) to have the timing adjusted, he said he'd never seen so much finish wear on what he figured was some kind of law enforcement revolver. I later had some more work done by a former armorer for multiple federal agencies and he said that he thought it was a park ranger sidearm from someplace out west for protection against big bears. He said he's seen wear like that before on similar ranger handguns because of holster wear while riding a horse all day. I did buy it from a shop in Las Vegas, so that possibly places it somewhere out there. I recall seeing rangers on horseback with some kind of S&W revolver in Yellowstone while hiking the back country in the 80's and 90's, but I don't know what model they were It's not marked for any agency, but does anyone know of the US Park Service or other agencies that used 29's? Did/does the USPS mark their weapons? Thanks.

 

[Pete66]

I forgot to mention that it's got a 4 inch barrel.

 

[Laketime]

Great story on that 29-2. Any pics? Nothing more beautiful than a finished worn blue revolver.

 

[Pete66]

29-2 park ranger issue? - Photos

Here are a couple of photos. The sight insert was missing at the time these were taken.

 

[Pete66]

The stocks are not original - they're in new condition and have a 1998 date on them, BTW.

 

[Nightowl]

Only a historical letter will tell you if it was shipped to the Park Rangers. As a government agency, if it was used by them, it probably was dropped shipped from the factory to them.

 

[Pete66]

Yes, I was thinking about getting a letter, since the curiosity was getting to me. Thanks for the reply.

 

[flundertaker]

Here are a couple of photos. The sight insert was missing at the time these were taken.

That is cool. Get a set of crusty well worn set of football targets for it and it'll be perfect.

 

[policerevolvercollector]

In my years of collecting police issued wheelguns, I've known of one agency (Louisville KY)that issued the 4" Model 29. I got this one from a retired LPD officer. It was issued primarily to their SWAT team.



There were a lot of places where it was BYOG (bring your own gun) that would allow anything you could qualify with as a service revolver. If you get a letter, please let us know if was police issued!

Very nice looking .44 BTW!!

Charles

P.S.,

Is the park service part of the Department of the Interior?

 

[AKRuss]

I was a firearms instructor for the National Park Service in Alaska for a number of years. We had a few 4" 629s that were used by natural resource types for wildlife protection. I believe these guns were purchased through small business LGSs, as was the ammo. They were not marked in anyway beyond what was standard from the factory. The one I carried was a personal gun. I'd be interested in hearing about special order .44s. You had to qualify to carry a handgun by shooting both a PPC and a special "Alaska" course of fire. Not many were able to shoot well on both courses in a single day with full factory.44 magnum ammo.

Yes, the National Park Service is under the Department of Interior.

 

[BSA1]

I agree with Laketime. It's just a great story.

I have rode a lot of horses and worn handguns at the same time. I have a Model 10 that has a well worn blue finish and it's documented history was a private security company gun. I used the same holster for riding as I did (do) for driving and walking so I would love to hear his evidence that it was used by a Park Ranger on horseback.

Remember buy the gun not the story.

 

[Malpasowildlifer]

My FA instructor at FLETC was NPS. He said there were either 29s or 629s in Alaska, but wasn't a S&W guy so he didn't know more that that. An NPS rangers get a caliber choice of the Sig P series line up and an NPS classmate said the 220 is supposedly required in AK: I'm sure AKRuss would know the full scoop.

I heard the Forest Service SAC in Alaska allowed personally owned Glock 21s for a while, but the director stopped that.

Terry Grosz, was a warden for CA Department of Fish and Game for a few years and then was a special agent for US Fish and Wildlife Service for many years. He carried a personally owned 29 in uniform and a Colt lightweight commander in plain clothes with the state. When he went to the 'Service, the commander was his primary and sometimes had the 29 in a shoulder holster. In his books he wrote many agents carried personally owned 29s in the back country. He switched to a P220 in the late 90s before retirement.

 

[nyeti]

I have a .44 Magnum Marlin lever gun with a similar story. In the early 90's at the Pomona Gun Show (back when they had real gun shows in California) a dealer who specialized in "Black Guns" that I dealt with had a really cool cut down and parkerized Marlin .44 Magnum 1894. I aksed how he got it as it wasn't his normal fare (it really stood out amongst the FAL's, AUG's and HK's). He said a game warden had traded it in and had used it as a back country gun. I traded a scope for it, and it is one of my favorite guns. I got a matching shortened and parkerized Super Blackhawk in .44 Magnum built by Hans Vang to go with it in custom Sparks leather. I carried that combo a lot in the Sierra's during fishing trips.
That Model 29 sounds really cool. I love guns like that with real wear and missing their blueing from use.

 

[Tom_R]

Really nifty gun you have there.

Get some Renaissance Wax and apply a coat over the exterior of the gun to help protect the metal that is not covered with a finish. The Renaissance wax will protect it from any rust.

Are you going to get a new red ramp put on it?

How does it shoot?

 

[Pete66]

I did replace the insert. After being reworked (timing, action job, yoke straightened, ejector star deburred, hand replaced, endshake corrected with a shim and ejector rod straightened) it works tightly, feels like brand new and it shoots very accurately for a big revolver despite having a 4" barrel.

Thanks a lot to all of you for all the feedback!

 

[Jim Watson]

I recall an old gunzine article about how park rangers learned to shoot .44 Magnum revolver, .300 Win Mag rifle, and shotgun with slugs to deal with troublesome wildlife.
This no doubt came as a great surprise to some of the eastern liberal wildlife biology majors looking for a career that would let them commune with nature.

 

[Pete66]

There's a great double-book set by a Park Service ranger in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park called The Bear in the Back Seat that tells many tales of dealing with troublesome wildlife over his 30-year career, if you're interested. His particular job was dealing with these particular troublemakers and he says Park Service policy was that they went out of their way to find other ways to deal with them other than shooting them, if they could. It's a great set of books to read and there are many funny and interesting tales too, including the title story about when he looked in the rear view mirror of the Jeep that he was driving and saw the the bear he had just tranquilized prematurely awaken and who was now sitting up looking at him as the ranger was moving him to a new location.

 

[AKRuss]

I was asked to comment further on my experiences as a NPS firearm instructor in the Alaska Region. When I first hired on in 1986, we had an assortment of old (pre-'64) Winchester model 70s in .375 H&H and 12 ga. model 21 shotguns. They had seen extended and rough use. As much as I loved these old Winchesters, I was instructed to dispose of them - a real heart breaker as they were destroyed as per guidelines. Our standard weapon for wildlife protection was the 12 ga. Remington 870 with slugs. I purchased some cracker rounds and rubber ball for bear management that were used only by those trained in such things. Although buckshot was used in some of the qualification courses, it was not allowed for wildlife protection. I purchased four 4" 629s for wildlife protection that were meant for backup to the primary weapons - the 870s. I am not aware of any others .44s although there may well have been others. Qualification was tough with the .44s as you generally wound up shooting over 100 rounds, including some practice rounds, during the course of a single day. If you were not experienced with the gun prior, your shooting hand generally was shaky and often bloody by the end. The ammo was American made 240 grain jacketed magnums. This may sound somewhat torturous but a high level of expertise was necessary considering the potential task. Some, myself included, carried their own .44s but they had to qualify like everyone else. LE carried .38 S&Ws (I think they were model 19s, but frankly I can't remember) and fired the Treasury +P+ loads. For wildlife protection, they used .357 magnums but had to qualify with that load separately. The switch to 9mm soon followed with Sigs being the weapon of choice. Since I was a non-LE natural resource type (geologist), I had little interest in such anemic rounds. The big artillery was geared towards large brown/grizzly bears but they generally don't get that way by hanging around people.

Someone mentioned that "liberal" (?) east coast biologists may have been shocked by such having to qualify with such weapons. I recall a group of archeologists that opted not to qualify with any weapons and setup camp in a remote location. Within a few weeks their camp was inundated with black bears that became increasingly more aggressive. I had to make a special trip to get everyone up to speed. No atheists at sea in a storm, I guess.

 

[Pete66]

Thanks very much for sharing your experiences - I'd missed the fact that you were one of the ones who'd earlier commented.