RM Vivas
US Veteran
Nickel plated guns have a long and somewhat controversial history within the New York City Police Department (NYPD).
There was a time when a certain amount of customization was tolerated when it came to your on-duty departmental piece. Custom grips in stag and bone were not especially uncommon. I’ve seen off-duty guns with pearl and ivory.
A man who really knew what he wanted could order a New York Police Target Model revolver from Smith & Wesson (S&W) and have a gun with special sights, special trigger and customized frame and the whole thing would look, at a quick glance, like every other revolver Johnny Law was carrying.
Some folks would also decide to go for nickel plating. TO THE BEST OF MY KNOWLEDGE, all revolvers shipped to the NYPD were blued. Nickel plating was done later with the gun either returned to the factory or nickel plated locally. I have never seen anything in the documents I’ve seen at HQ and in archives to suggest otherwise. One time I did see a factory letter that stated a gun was shipped to NYPD nickel plated, but I suspect that the letter was in error. If a nickel gun was shipped, it was either in error or a very very special order for someone.
The Department started to get a little spooked about nickel after a couple friendly-fire incidents that were blamed on the nickel guns. In these incidents responding uniforms would come across an off-duty or undercover officer making a collar with gun drawn and mistake the officer for a bad guy and perforate him. The Departments stance on this was that the responding officers mistook the fellow for a Bad Guy because of the nickel gun, rationalizing that only hoodlums carried such a revolver (I’m not making this up, that was the theory). The result was by the late 1950’s/early 1960’s there was a moratorium on nickel guns. Existing ones were grandfathered in, but no new ones. There was a nother friendly fire incident that was, again, pinned on the nickel gun and an edict went forth: No more nickel guns, grandfathered or otherwise. This was around 1967.
All of this comes to mind as I document the only nickel plated NYPD gun I have; a 4-inch M&P serial number S846463.
I can’t recall where I picked it up. It’s in relatively good shape although the nickel has turned milky in most places:
One of the earlier post-war guns. The NYPD expanded tremendously after WW2 and it’s appetite for revolvers was ferocious. In at least one instance the Department needed guns so badly and so quickly that they actually dispatched city trucks to go to the Factory at pick up the order!
Serial number S846463:
A letter from the factory confirms shipment as a blued gun:
A quick look through the NYPD records turns up the following:
NYPD Equipment Bureau Book 42-46 page 73
This data jibes with the shield number stamped on the backstrap:
Barrel and cylinder are numbered to frame serial number:
Barrel has the classic 2-line address:
Unfortunately the grips are not a match; different serial numbers:
As long as I had the grips off I very carefully checked the frame for any indication of a factory refinish and didn’t see anything. This suggests that the nickel job was done locally. Maybe so, but whoever did it avoided the all too common mistake of nickel plating the hammer and trigger; in this instance, both were left unmolested. Guy knew what he was up to!
So what do we know about Probationary Patrolman Ralph WUGMAN, who bought this gun from the Department in 1946?
Well, he started out with cars, as indicated by his draft card:
In July of 1942 he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served as an Aviation Machinists Mate 3rd Class. He was assigned, amongst other commands, to the USS Bunker Hill but seems to have had the good fortune to have left that particular command before their date with history on 11MAY45.
After the war he used his veterans status to get a few extra points on the Patrolmans exam and appeared on the 23JUL46 Eligibles list:
The 19OCT46 copy of The City Record on page 4587 lists Ralph WUGMAN as being appointed a Patrolman on Probation at the pay rate of $2,150 per year ($2,500 when off probation) and an appointment date of 21SEP46:
So how did he do as a cop?
From what I can gather, he was a Patrolman in the 61st Precinct (I used to live in the confines of the 61st) in 1949 and at least through 1951. In 1953 he was a Patrolman in the Prospect Park station. He was a commander of a Jewish War Veterans post in Brooklyn in 1963. There isn’t much to be found on him until 1967 he was a CPT commanding the 101st Precinct in Far Rockaway. He retired in 1969, taking an administrative role in a hospital as his retirement gig before retiring for good to Florida where he died in 2014.
New York Daily News 07DEC72
So, that’s the only nickel plated NYPD I have in my collection thus far.
Best,
RM Vivas
There was a time when a certain amount of customization was tolerated when it came to your on-duty departmental piece. Custom grips in stag and bone were not especially uncommon. I’ve seen off-duty guns with pearl and ivory.
A man who really knew what he wanted could order a New York Police Target Model revolver from Smith & Wesson (S&W) and have a gun with special sights, special trigger and customized frame and the whole thing would look, at a quick glance, like every other revolver Johnny Law was carrying.
Some folks would also decide to go for nickel plating. TO THE BEST OF MY KNOWLEDGE, all revolvers shipped to the NYPD were blued. Nickel plating was done later with the gun either returned to the factory or nickel plated locally. I have never seen anything in the documents I’ve seen at HQ and in archives to suggest otherwise. One time I did see a factory letter that stated a gun was shipped to NYPD nickel plated, but I suspect that the letter was in error. If a nickel gun was shipped, it was either in error or a very very special order for someone.
The Department started to get a little spooked about nickel after a couple friendly-fire incidents that were blamed on the nickel guns. In these incidents responding uniforms would come across an off-duty or undercover officer making a collar with gun drawn and mistake the officer for a bad guy and perforate him. The Departments stance on this was that the responding officers mistook the fellow for a Bad Guy because of the nickel gun, rationalizing that only hoodlums carried such a revolver (I’m not making this up, that was the theory). The result was by the late 1950’s/early 1960’s there was a moratorium on nickel guns. Existing ones were grandfathered in, but no new ones. There was a nother friendly fire incident that was, again, pinned on the nickel gun and an edict went forth: No more nickel guns, grandfathered or otherwise. This was around 1967.
All of this comes to mind as I document the only nickel plated NYPD gun I have; a 4-inch M&P serial number S846463.
I can’t recall where I picked it up. It’s in relatively good shape although the nickel has turned milky in most places:
One of the earlier post-war guns. The NYPD expanded tremendously after WW2 and it’s appetite for revolvers was ferocious. In at least one instance the Department needed guns so badly and so quickly that they actually dispatched city trucks to go to the Factory at pick up the order!
Serial number S846463:
A letter from the factory confirms shipment as a blued gun:
A quick look through the NYPD records turns up the following:
NYPD Equipment Bureau Book 42-46 page 73
This data jibes with the shield number stamped on the backstrap:
Barrel and cylinder are numbered to frame serial number:
Barrel has the classic 2-line address:
Unfortunately the grips are not a match; different serial numbers:
As long as I had the grips off I very carefully checked the frame for any indication of a factory refinish and didn’t see anything. This suggests that the nickel job was done locally. Maybe so, but whoever did it avoided the all too common mistake of nickel plating the hammer and trigger; in this instance, both were left unmolested. Guy knew what he was up to!
So what do we know about Probationary Patrolman Ralph WUGMAN, who bought this gun from the Department in 1946?
Well, he started out with cars, as indicated by his draft card:
In July of 1942 he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served as an Aviation Machinists Mate 3rd Class. He was assigned, amongst other commands, to the USS Bunker Hill but seems to have had the good fortune to have left that particular command before their date with history on 11MAY45.
After the war he used his veterans status to get a few extra points on the Patrolmans exam and appeared on the 23JUL46 Eligibles list:
The 19OCT46 copy of The City Record on page 4587 lists Ralph WUGMAN as being appointed a Patrolman on Probation at the pay rate of $2,150 per year ($2,500 when off probation) and an appointment date of 21SEP46:
So how did he do as a cop?
From what I can gather, he was a Patrolman in the 61st Precinct (I used to live in the confines of the 61st) in 1949 and at least through 1951. In 1953 he was a Patrolman in the Prospect Park station. He was a commander of a Jewish War Veterans post in Brooklyn in 1963. There isn’t much to be found on him until 1967 he was a CPT commanding the 101st Precinct in Far Rockaway. He retired in 1969, taking an administrative role in a hospital as his retirement gig before retiring for good to Florida where he died in 2014.
New York Daily News 07DEC72
So, that’s the only nickel plated NYPD I have in my collection thus far.
Best,
RM Vivas
