Utah Highway Patrol Registered Magnum

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Many of you are familiar with the Utah Highway Patrol marked Registered Magnum formerly owned by Frank Latimer (Art Doc/Saxon Pig here on the Forum). I messaged and spoke with him several times about the gun before he passed away, and despite indicating he was interested in selling, he just couldn't seem to part with it. And in our conversations, he didn't let on that he was terminally ill. After his passing, I certainly didn't want to press the issue and didn't give it much thought until the gun turned up on GunsInternational, listed on consignment for his widow. I made a couple of reasonable offers but never received any response from the dealer, later learning he thought my offers were "ridiculous". Well, long story short, I was finally able to purchase the gun last week.

As I'd never seen the gun in person, despite it residing only about 4 hours drive from my home, I was always a little unsure of the condition, seeing less that stellar photos here. I knew it had been sent back to the factory to have the barrel shortened from 6 1/2" to 4" and to be refinished in June of 1954, and was retired from service in 1955. I'm normally not a fan of refinished guns, factory or not, and prefer original patina, regardless of wear. After receiving the gun, I can say I'm very pleased and it's much better than expected.

Serial number 56459, Registration number 4034, shipped 8/19/1938 to Salt Lake City Hardware Co. and was factory inscribed "Utah Highway Patrol 27". It was one of 50 in two shipments and it's been reported only one other so marked gun is known. (Edit: As Terry Lester says below, two are known.) If anyone knows the whereabouts of that gun, I'd be an interested buyer and think it would be fun to reunite them.

Here is a previously posted photo of the gun as I didn't get a chance to take more photos before I had to return to Kenya for work only the day after receiving it. I hope to be home in early to mid-February and will try to post some better pics at that time.
 

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Two other examples with the "Utah Highway Patrol #" marking are currently recorded in the S&WCA Pre-war .357 Magnum database. They are serial number 49746 REG 1613 which is marked "Utah Highway Patrol 4" and serial number 50056 REG 1771 which is marked "Utah Highway Patrol 12". Both are recorded as refinished with the barrel shortened to 4". I have also seen, handled, and fired one of these guns that a friend of mine purchased from Collectors Firearms several years ago, but I can't remember what number was marked on that gun. I followed that listing on GI for your gun and noticed that the seller had recently reduced the price to something more reasonable considering the refinish and barrel shortening. Congratulations on a nice acquisition! Also, here's another picture of your RM from the GI listing…..
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Photo credit - GunsInternational.com - MidSouth GunSlinger
 
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I've never seen a Utah Highway Patrol Registered Magnum but I'm going to go out a limb here and say, very likely all 50 were stamped that way.

I've seen and handled one of the earlier Utah Patrol .44 Special Hand Ejectors 2nd Models with the same stamping. I've seen a number of Model 28s with the same stamping but all were stamped on the left side.

Good bet there are more out there waiting to be discovered.
 
Congrats on bringing that one home. Art Doc/SP brought that gun up often on this forum. I hope that you find a lot of joy in that historical RM.

In addition to the RM, there were also some 3.5" 27s that were "Utah Highway Patrol" marked. I always loved the one that DRYHEAT posted (and I have always enjoyed his photos of his guns)...

'Utah' is my (shipped May 18, 1967) former Utah Highway Patrol "rescue".

Before:

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After it was refinished by S&Ws Performance Center:

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For years the above gun lived in the AZ. But if I recall correctly, it traded hands several years ago. I hope that whomever owns it now is enjoying it.

Stay safe,
 
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What a piece of history.
Love anything to do with Registered Magnums and LEO guns even more.
Sounds like Utah Highway Patrol had all of the guns refinished and the barrels shortened.
For me that would not lessen the value.
Congrats on your acquisition and thanks for sharing it with us.
 
Here are three Photos I found of the Utah Highway Patrol. I suspect the UHP carried their Registered Magnums in a cross draw holster on a Sam Brown belt. It was common to wear a long blouse coat with the gun belt mounted around the waist outside the blouse. The cross shoulder strap helped to secure the Sam Brown Belt. In the 20's-30's many Highway Patrols used motorcycles.

The use of cross draw holsters was common among State Police & Highway Patrols into the 80's. The cross draw holster accommodated 5-6" revolvers as were commonly used. If a uniform officer carried a strong side 5-6" revolver it was commonly carried high ride or with a swivel holsters. The high ride holster was not very common in the early years because of the long overcoats. A swivel holster was common because many times the revolver could be reached under the coat and swivel out of the way when seated.

Back when it was common for police to place a violator in the right passenger seat it seemed safer to use a cross draw holster on the Officer's left side.

I suspect the Utah Highway Patrol may have transitioned away from cross draw to strong side carry and is why the barrels were shortened to 4" on the Registered Magnums. The first two pictures show UHP Officers on motorcycles using cross draw holsters. The second picture shows UHP Motorcycle Officers from 1933 and 2020.





The last picture of the UHP Officer is after they were using strong side holsters from the late 1940's to early 1950's.

 
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It's a 1950 Ford Deluxe and the caption doesn't show the date when the photo was taken. I think the UHP are using BMW motorcycles in the 2020 picture. I am not a motorcycle guy but I suspect the 1933 cycles are Indian or Harley Davidson.

I'm pretty sure the first motorcycle is a mid 30's Harley Davidson but I can't tell for sure if the 1933 motorcycles are Harley Davidson.
 
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