Navy overrun Chief for the Chief

[mrsig]

Super pick up. Wish I was so lucky.

 

[MCorps0311]

Sweet very nice looking revolver.

 

[dpast32]

I 'think' I recall these being offered by either RSR, ASHLAND, J & G, & perhaps one or two others. Please excuse the fact that I haven't read all the prior Posts on on this Thread. However, the ones I seem to recall were very similar, although they exhibited 'U.S.A.' stamped on their Backstrap. I too also recall something about being Contract Overruns for the Japanese National Police, along with an so!omar Contract for 7.65mmm / .32 ACP Sig-Sauer P-230's.
( IIRC, in Stainless, although I could be wrong. )
It seems like every other week S&W was offering up assorted Contract Overruns, primarily from Foreign Export orders. If, if I only had the money back then, but unfortunately I didn't !!

Best, dpast32

 

[Shipbuilder]

My guess is shipboard watch standers, probably on submarines. The armory on subs is usually a locked cabinet in the stbd side aft, in the engine room. Pretty small cabinet as space is tight.
Submarine watch standards are prone to drop guns overboard, hull is round and once dropped, over the side it goes.
Cant tell you the number of time I sent the shipyard divers to retrieve a dropped overboard side arm. The got pretty good at it.
Usually a bored 19 year old playing with the weapon !

 

[Art Doc]

Never seen a J frame with a ring. Very cool. I like rings.

 

[AJ]

Nice catch of a not common Chief. I fired a few Chief's Specials when stationed at NS Long Beach. Worked as the Marine Cadre there for about 14 months. Our Security Department Detectives carried them as did the Chief of Police. The Chief's Chief was taken from him when he could not qualify with it. Boy, was he smoked. Had quite a discussion with the Base Security Office and the C.O. of Navsta about it.

 

[ISCS Yoda]

Wow! Nice weapon, shipmate. I never saw anything like that in the Navy. Not in the Army, either!

 

[dcopper]

Very Nice Piece of S&W History You have there! I Love it!

 

[AJ]

Some Navy aviators bought their own revolvers. I think the guy who wrote, Flight of the Intruder carried a M-19 .357 like his fictional character did. The author flew A-6 Intruders in the Vietnam war. Name is Stephen Coonts.

His book became a quite good movie, marred for me only by one piece of casting that stank of Hollywood's preoccupation with PC.
You can see clips on YouTube.

While in the USAF, I occasionally saw Navy aircrews on our bases. They were in transit or refueling, etc The guns I saw were always WWII S&W Victory Model .38's. Knives showed more variety.

I spent 20 years working on A6's, in country, state side, in the Med and anywhere we could land one. Most of our aircrews carried their own sidearms. Lots of revolvers, mostly .357's, a few liked autos and carried those.

 

[two-bit cowboy]

Update to this two-year-old thread

I've been documenting all of these odd little Chiefs, and I've only come up with seven serial numbers. They range from J5737XX to J5837XX, and there are many other blue and nickel Model 36s, some 36-1s, and some 37s sprinkled in there, too.

According to one prominent seller on the big auction site, "S&W shipped them to the Naval Supply Center, Craney Island, VA, on June 29, 1977."

Most of the the ones on my list shipped in the fall of '78, and the latest one shipped in June '80.

Many have grips with no serial number stamped inside the right grip, and one has a stamp with a mis-matched serial number.

 

[The Old MSgt]

An old friend flew USAF KC-99s and then later KC-135s, apparently they gave aircrew parachutes then took them away in both types at different times. (Why, who knows. Based on the price of silk?)

I flew as an inflight avionics tech on KC-135A's at Pease AFB, NH from 77-79. All our tankers had a half dozen chutes hanging in the pax/cargo compartment. Never had a use for one.