Question for the NYPD Six-Gun Collectors!

[maxelah]

Thank you for the amazing information, Rich! So great to get a good source. Any sense of where I could get information on the feel of the guns? My character hasn't used a gun since the 1970s, and I want her to miss her shot when she picks up the new Glock 19 because she isn't used to the...something. I don't know what would be different!

 

[RichCapeCod]

Thank you for the amazing information, Rich! So great to get a good source. Any sense of where I could get information on the feel of the guns? My character hasn't used a gun since the 1970s, and I want her to miss her shot when she picks up the new Glock 19 because she isn't used to the...something. I don't know what would be different!

Max, the trigger pull of a semi-auto pistol use by the NYPD has a distinctive feel to it due to an excessively hard trigger required by the NYPD today, called the NY trigger. It's a rather hard to pull 12 lb. pull. Although a revolver may have the same pull weight, for whatever reason a well-used S&W revolver will feel "smoother" and much easier to control, even though the poundage required to pull the trigger through might be the same.

You really ought to find someone with one of each of those handguns (you'll have trouble finding a Glock with the NYPD trigger, trust me!) and see for yourself.

Rich

 

[combespaul]

Dabney, regarding the DW revolver carried by NYPD. Carsten Stroud was a crime reporter turned author. He did time with the NYPD in researching his first novel Close Pursuit. The book was published in the mid 80's, so his research and time with them would have been the early 80's. He goes into a lengthy description of one of the side characters carrying a Dan Wesson revolver. I know its not much, but something.

 

[dscampbell]

Hi. NYPD 1969~1990 and served as a Sgt and Lt at the Firearms and Tactics Section. Early 1970s the woman might have had a S&W 36, either 2" or a 3" heavy barrel (Police Woman's gun, so called.). No model 60 would have been allowed (guns had to be dark or blued in color).



Today a police officer, male or female, would very likely carry a Glock 19. There is no Glock 10.



Best,



Rich

(and fellow writer)

Rich. Just ordered your book and am enjoying reading it.

 

[RichCapeCod]

That's great! I do hope you enjoy reading it. (Which one did you order?? Practical Handgun Training? There are seven books I've published floating around in the ether.)

Rich

 

[dscampbell]

Practical Handgun Training. Would you PM me a list of your books please

 

[RichCapeCod]

Done! My first four are out of print but available on Amazon. I've published a few since then, including the one you purchased (Practical Handgun Training). I tell people that writing books keeps me out of the local bars...

 

[Checkman]

Way out here in Idaho I've come across exactly one NYPD S&W. It was a Model 64 DAO with the 3" barrel and round butt. I recall it had the proper stamp and the action was tight and timing was good. It was for sale at a local gun show. The dealer was a professional out of Utah. He wanted $650 (that is the figure I remember) for it. I really wanted it, but I just didn't have enough that day. Couple hours later I walked by his table and it had sold. Darn it. that was several years ago and I've never come across one since. Probably never will out here.

 

[kbm6893]

Ladder 13, great photos. They're only plain-vanilla service revolvers, but I won't carry anything else.
I remember the Bronx back then, how FDNY had to install 1" armor plate (no joke) over the rear platform where firefighters would stand en route to a call. When newer vehicles had an enclosed cab for the firefighters to ride in, that also had an armored roof. Yes, people used to throw bricks from rooftops onto the firefighters who arrived only to help people and save lives. Some were grievously injured.
Folks of today would say we were lying if we related to them the gratuitous violence and abuse we public employees experienced in the Bronx (and other boros) on a daily basis over a 20+ year period.
Many thanks for your likes!

Anybody who wants to know what NY was like in the 60's and 70's should rent Death Wish, The Warriors, or Fort Apache, The Bronx. Those scenes are accurate. People today can't believe that the NY of today used to look like that.

And the lone cop walking the beat with his Six gun and twirling his coco bolo nightstick used to be able to clear a corner full of miscreants with ease.

Is RMRivas still a member here? He had crates of cop guns and the records to support their lineage.

 

[RichCapeCod]

... People today can't believe that the NY of today used to look like that. ...And the lone cop walking the beat with his Six gun and twirling his coco bolo nightstick used to be able to clear a corner full of miscreants with ease.....

I've 41 years in law enforcement, the first 20 in the NYPD, 1969~1990. I worked lots in both the Bronx and Brooklyn, in high crime areas as a detective in; narcotics, homicide, robbery squad, others. When working in the 46 pct (Bronx Central Robbery) at night we'd hear shots going off every evening (not hyperbole). Since the reverberations of gunshots bounced off the hard surfaces of the large buildings in the area we had no idea where they were coming from. We ignored them.

That time period, working in the NYPD, was an experience. The inner areas of NYC were like working in a 3rd world country.

Rich

Some old NYPD photos:

Warrant at a Bronx "social club" around 1976.


Bronx Central Robbery. I was a lot tougher back then...


Bronx 9th Homicide Zone. Good bunch of detectives. I was the handsome devil with the beard.


Sometimes it just got so lonely... Meet Harvey Homicide, our squad mascot.

 

[mj2008]

Great post Rich. I like the part about hearing rounds going off and ignoring it. If you traveled to parts of Brooklyn today you would still swear that you were in a foreign land.

 

[Aquarik]

Rich, we've traveled some of the same trails, although I came on the job later and retired in 2002. I spent several active years in the Bronx in the Emergency Service Unit, and ultimately retired from the Detective Bureau.

Correct me if I'm wrong, the gentleman standing to your right in the "handsome devil with the beard" photo is Lt. Vernon Geberth, author of "Practical Homicide Investigations" and noted lecturer on the subject of homicide investigations.

I enjoy your posts.

 

[RichCapeCod]

Aquarik, nope! Not Vern, who I know well (just spoke to him about a week ago), but Sgt. Bill Brady. When Vern was in the 8th Homicide Zone I was working in the 9th.

Rich

 

[Checkman]

Are those shotguns on the table Ithaca 37's?

 

[ImprovedModel56Fan]

RichCapeCod,

Could you post or PM me the list of your books? I have Rookie Cop, Sky Cops, and The Murder of Old Comrades, and I seem to recall having read one on K-9s, but I was not even aware of the others.

Thanks!