When did Pachmayr Presentation Grips

[quinn]

come on the market? Could S&W service department have shipped a gun in 1969 with these?
In a quandary. Thanks for any insight.

 

[ace22]

this is a semi-educated guess which means i could be wrong but although i don't know when pachmayr grips started production i seriously doubt that smith shipped any guns with them all the way back in 1969.

after a little more thought i don't even think those grips were made back then but again i might be wrong. sorry that i can't give definite answers i'm basically going by my fading memory.

 

[kthom]

I don't know exact beginning dates for Pachmayr grips or grip adapters. I do know that my first knowledge of the Pach Presentation grips came along in the late '60's. I wrote a letter of inquiry concerning my M-19 K Frame SB revolver and in return, I received a very nice reply by letter with a set of these grips to fit my revolver at no charge, asking only that I try them and if I liked them to let my fellow officers know where to get them. They also asked that if I was not pleased with them in any way to please report that to them. I liked them, and I highly recommended them. Several fellow officers purchased them for themselves. They were not as "pretty" as a set set of OEM target grips, but they fit my hands better than those, and they had the great benefit of not being negatively affected by door frames, chair arms, or seat belt buckles as the wood grips were. Bonus was that they made shooting magnum loads a more comfortable event!

I have been a fan of Pachmayr grips ever since. I will say that I don't believe S&W began shipping of guns with rubber grips until considerably later in time, and at some point, there were Pachmayr made grips shipped on some revolvers as I recall. But unless proven wrong, I am firmly of the opinion that no revolver was shipped from the factory in the 60's and maybe not in the '70's with Pachmayr grips. I will say that I saw a great many of them installed on S&W revolvers to replace the OEM wood grips that came on them!

 

[sceva]

Weren't they Mershon before Pachmayr took them over?

I do not believe either Mershon's or Pachmayr's were a factory option until MUCH later than the 60's. Then the choice would have been Magna's or Targets ( On revolvers) made in their own wood dept.

 

[quinn]

The reason I originally posted this question is that I recently acquired a 39-44 Heavy Duty that was shipped to the Colorado Highway Patrolin 1935. They returned it to the factory in 1968 for refurb. CSP took the guns out of service in the mid 1970s. The gun I got shows very little use after the refurb and came to me with Pach Presentations on it. As many know, the prewar N frame had slightly longer grip frames which a 1968 stock would not fit correctly. So, I was curious as to who might have put the Pachs on my gun. Admittedly, it might have been much later. Also, I did not know if rubber was a standard for CSP with ice, snow, etc.
Thanks for the info.

 

[Texas Star]

Did CSP wear their guns crossdraw? I noticed that in Denver PD officers back in the 1960's.

What about Washington State Patrol? They carried 6.5 inch .38-44's and later, maybe M-28's with six-inch barrels.

I think I was using Pachmayr grips by about 1970, and early ones weren't cut for speedloaders. Not sure about the date, though.

The first I saw made for use with speedloaders were on a M-19 owned by a Dallas tactical officer. I'm pretty sure this was after my divorce in 1980 and he came by my apartment soon after. I handled his gun and knew I had to get the newer sort of Pachmayr Presentations. I've used them since, on most of my guns.

 

[LoboGunLeather]

1. The Mershon company offered rubber grips and a grip adapter prior to Pachmayr acquiring the company and continuing with a similar product line. The older Mershon grips were very large and not so easily used by those with smaller hands, and were not compatible with speed loaders (which did not appear on the market until the mid-1970's). Pachmayr offered both 'large' and 'small' sizes in the Presentation line, and later added the finger-grooved 'Gripper' style. Late 1960's sounds about right for the changeover from Mershon to Pachmayr; I recall seeing magazine ads for Mershon and for Pachmayr Gun Works (a LA-area custom gunsmithing company) until nearly the end of the 1960's. Bought my first Pachmayr grips about 1976, and still have them.

2. My older brother was a Colorado State Patrol officer throughout the 1960's before transferring over as an investigator for the Colorado Department of Revenue, from which he retired. At that time CSP issued Colt Python revolvers with W-W Hi-Speed .38 Special ammunition, and the standard uniform holster was a cross-draw with outer snap release (similar to a thumb-break but located on the outer side of the hammer). CSP firearms were roll-marked "Colorado State Patrol". Along about 1980 or so CSP changed to Smith & Wesson revolvers, first the Model 66 and then the Model 686, carried in a strong-side thumb-break holster from Don Hume Leather Goods. That is also about the time CSP changed from the old "bus driver" billed caps to the campaign hats now in use, and officer were no longer 'patrolmen', but referred to as 'troopers'. Plainclothes officers working State Capitol, governor's security detail, and auto theft investigations adopted the new S&W Model 469 in the mid 1980's. CSP has since adopted the S&W 9mm full-size service pistol (not sure which specific model).

 

[sigp220.45]

Here’s a poor “picture of a picture” of an issue CSP Python from their range facility. Note the factory grip is broken. I’m not sure if they allowed Troopers to replace the standard grips with Pachmayrs.

 

[Golddollar]

2. My older brother was a Colorado State Patrol officer throughout the 1960's before transferring over as an investigator for the Colorado Department of Revenue, from which he retired. At that time CSP issued Colt Python revolvers with W-W Hi-Speed .38 Special ammunition, and the standard uniform holster was a cross-draw with outer snap release (similar to a thumb-break but located on the outer side of the hammer). CSP firearms were roll-marked "Colorado State Patrol".

WOW! Colorado really took care of its law enforcement people if it was issuing Colt Pythons!

 

[LoboGunLeather]

WOW! Colorado really took care of its law enforcement people if it was issuing Colt Pythons!

I don't know about "taking care of" patrolmen, back in the day. Salaries were relatively low, and my brother worked part-time for an ambulance company as a driver and paramedic (don't think that term was in use back then, probably just "ambulance attendant") trying to keep the house payments current and feed 4 hungry kids.

By the early 1970's I was a puppy policeman on a good-sized municipal department, and we all had part-time jobs or side businesses in order to stay ahead of the bills and keep the kids fed. $657 per month salary, after federal taxes, state taxes, retirement fund contribution, and Blue Cross-Blue Shield premiums my take-home pay was $192 every two weeks. My house payment was $182 per month, so there was usually a lot of month left at the end of the money!

Used to save my pocket change every day, usually added up to $150 or so per year. That is what I used to go hunting in the fall. If I didn't get a deer or an elk my kids might go several months without knowing what red meat was. Shot a lot of rabbits through the winter (limit was 10 per day) and we got very creative with recipes!

Made my first holster for sale in 1972. Basic pancake style was $6, pancake with thumb-break was $8, steel-reinforced duty holster with thumb-break was $15. Made them on the kitchen table, cut by hand, stitched by hand, took about 3 hours to make each one, so I was probably making $1.50 per hour. But I was glad to have it when the light bill and gas bill came!

Oh well, long time ago now.

 

[Texas Star]

In college, I made $1.43 an hour as a library page, and GI Education Bill checks were often late. I know how you must have felt.

But you got through it, and that takes a determined man. You are entitled to feel a sense of accomplishment. And you were making the streets safer for decent people!