Unusual LEO sidearms?

[Deanimator]

He wasn't actually a cop, but when I went to see "Enter the Dragon" when I was in highschool, the security guard the theater hired for extra security (it WAS Chicago) carried a Webley Royal Irish Constabulary revolver in .455.

A cop friend of my father's when I was in grade school carried a Browning High Power. Supposedly, he got into a gunfight with a guy who made the mistake of counting off six rounds fired by the cop, then charging him. He got some portion of the remaining seven rounds in the magazine, center of mass.

 

[freddd]

Not really odd, but I was very pleased to see an officer the other day with a cocked and locked 1911. Not seen too often in a world of tupperware. It really did make my day.

 

[hhb]

Before I retired from the dept., I had to go to a small town in the Missouri Bootheel to get a statement. The Chief, an elected position, carried a cheap .25 auto. The dept. had two other officers. The Chief worked the day shift, one on evenings, andone on nights. The city had one police car, and had budget problems and were slow paying their bills. The battery in the police car died just about the time it was time to elect a new Chief. The garage that did the city work refused to replace the battery unless they paid cash. Each officer announced to the other two that he was filing for the office of COP. Each officer brought their own battery to work, the offgoing officer would take his out and the ongoing officer would install his. Round and Round!

 

[hhb]

There is another town South of mine that had two officers total, Minor, Missouri, home of Lambert's Throwed Rolls, adjacent to the city of Sikeston. There was an armed robbery at the Standard station in Minor, and one of my patrolmen arrested the perp in my city. Two minor officers came up to take him into custody, and they were wearing desert tan uniforms, Stetson hats, cowboy boots, and carried Ruger single action revolvers. I was amazed when I met them. My first question was; Do you guys drive Ranchero's for patrol vehicles? Hacked them off, and I stayed out of Minor for awhile.

 

[Moonclip]

As much as I like the 1911 pattern and I don't feel the 1911 cocked and locked is a good idea for standard issue for a dept(lets not start a flame war please), the Ruger single actions being carried for general patrols duties amazes me much more.

Do foreign cops count? I love how in areas of Europe I've seem SMG's carried as normally as a cop here packs a handgun. I remember also in late 1990's seeing someone packing a Beretta 1934 or 1935 .32 or .380auto in a law enforcement capacity in Italy.

 

[TheFrontRange]

Don't see many these days, but I do like seeing 1911s in duty rigs around these parts. Some more offbeat sightings or recollections:

1. My father was a deputy sheriff for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department in the late '60s / early '70s. The duty sidearm at the time was the four-inch S&W Model 15. He worked with a partner on patrol who, in violation of policy at the time, carried some sort of snubby as a BUG in an ankle rig. Later, my father was assigned to the intelligence unit (SID, or Sheriff's Intelligence Division, I think), where weapons regs were more relaxed. While my Dad stuck with a S&W Chief's Special, he's talked of a guy who carred a Walther P38 in a shoulder rig.

2. The local Sheriff's Dept. where I live is probably the largest in the state, and nearly all deputies I've seen have very squared-away look. The weapons regs are apparently pretty flexible, as I've seen deputies carrying everything from 1911s to six-inch N-Frame Smiths. The Glock is, of course, well-represented also. Once, while getting a traffic accident report taken care of, the deputy who helped me was carrying a 1911 that must have had an extended barrel, as there was plainly at least an inch or two of slide protruding through the bottom end of his duty holster! Maybe he was carrying a race-gun? The gun definitely had a barrel longer than a 5-inch Gov't Model, in any case. I could see compensator ports cut into the top of the slide at the muzzle-end. The weapon was stainless steel and sported ivory (or faux-ivory) grip panels.

3. I've seen a county court security officer carrying what looked like a Smith Model 39, complete with those beautiful wooden grip panels. Another officer from the same organization carried one of the baby Glocks in a duty holster...I didn't know they made duty rigs that small!!!

4. While working a private security job, one guard carried a Makarov in the brown leather flap holster that used to (maybe they still do?) come with those pistols.

 

[Richard]

I saw a court officer in Michigan with a Walther P38/P1 for a sidearm. Regards, Richard

 

[RustyShackelford]

1 more strange sidearm...

Since these posts have got off of LEOs and sidearms, I'll add the time I saw a uniformed armored van driver come into the loading dock area where I worked with an old SA .45 Colt in a leather rig on his hip. I asked him about about it and he said his revolver was one of the few guns left from a house fire.

RS

 

[Archie]

Long ago in my mis-spent youth...

I was humble but loveable Border 'Troll in Calexico, California. For those not familiar with the area, Calexico is the northern most suburb of Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico.

One day, two of the Mexicali police approached me and asked if I could buy them guns. They were looking for Smith & Wesson .38 Special revolvers as duty guns. I asked what they had currently. One was carrying a five shot, top-break, Iver Johnson 'owl's head' revolver in .38 S&W caliber and the other had some sort of ancient Colt double action with no finish left.

As it happened, to 'export' revolvers to Mexico required special licensing (still does) and I couldn't do it. I think I might have been able to pick up some old and interesting guns in trade, but I didn't want to risk a federal gun smuggling charge to do it. Sigh...

One other cop in Mexicali carried a Ruger Mark I target .22 lr.

Probably the strangest sidearm I ever carried was a S&W Combat Magnum revolver. It was the four screw revolver that later became the Model 19. It was a collector's item at the time and I didn't realise it. (Best shooting gun in the station, by the way.)

 

[Moonclip]

I have distant family in Calexico. Most TJ cops I see have standard sidearms like a Beretta 92 of some sort. I've seen Federales and such though in TJ with folding stock FALs and G3's!

 

[ahpd1992]

guilty as charged

carried a h&k p7 "squeeze cocker" for about 5 years then new chief was hired and allowed other that 9mm. while figuring out what I wanted i carried a 586 w/ full power 125gr .357 magnums and those wonderful original wood grips. I had guys offering to loan me money to buy a "real gun" cops are funny, most sont know **** about guns.

So I finally ended up w/ a Glock 35, w/ a KKM barrel in .357sig, hows that for different?

Tom

 

[akodo]

When I commented on the relatively lackluster performance of .380, he said, "Well, I wouldn't want to be shot by one."

Deputy, your gun isn't for shooting yourself

Well, I wouldn't want to get shot with a squirt gun full of cow piss, but that doesn't mean it'll stop a badguy

 

[Rexster]

I wouldn't worry too much if a peace officer carried a reliable .380. Not my choice, either, but some guys can really shoot those Walthers. If I happened to be in a gunfight, and had to use my wife's German-made PP, I would not feel helpless; that thing is accurate. I think detectives with my agency can still choose to qual with a .380 as primary, though if they ever put on a uniform, they must follow the same rules as everyone else.

Until 1997, we could carry pretty much anything, .38/9mm up to .45, auto or DA sixgun. After 1997, we could keep carrying the earlier weapons, which were "grandfathered," but all new duty handguns after that time had to be certain specified .40 autoloaders, with the early list being a certain, now-obscure decock-only S&W model, the Beretta Cougar, and the SIG P229. The list is a bit larger now. I used grandfathered 1911s until 2002, but now am "with the program" by carrying P229s. We do still buy the weapons ourselves. The G22 is the single most popular duty pistol now, and my P229 marks me as as being either wealthy or a "gun guru," neither of which are really true.

Unusual duty handguns I carried before 1997 included HK P7, S&W M58 .41 magnum, Browning Hi-Power .40. Only the .41 was carried for very long, from 1985 into the early 1990's.

I have seen several Taurus clones of the Beretta 92 in other officer's rigs. Other unusual pistols included HK P9S, VP70Z, and P7M13, various Stars, one Grizzly .45 Winchester Magnum, S&W Sigmas, and quite a few Colt Delta Elites.

Through attrition, most duty pistols seen after day shift leaves for the day will be the currently specified .40 autos, though 1911s and BHPs have a large enough following that they can be seen any time. Many older officers who had originally grandfathered their heavier guns eventually bought .40 Glocks, which were added to the approved list in the early 2000's.

 

[Rexster]

Deleted my double-tap.

 

[Mp7]

...

the very fat and stubby sherriff of the lil appalachian town i lived in
carried 2 pimped up 1911´s on his belt. And 2 pairs of cuffs, a giant walkietalkie a baton..... probably a fridge and a microwave too

When he pulled idiot high school kids over
he usually also got his grey-matte finished
combat-pumpaction with him.


... on the other hand... it was deep in the "sticks".

 

[DougDubya]

Rexster, seeing a Grizzly as a law enforcement sidearm really made my day.

 

[RustyShackelford]

"Shakedown"/ .45 WIN Magnum

The only cop I ever saw with a big stainless .45 WIN Magnum pistol was Sam Eliott's undercover cop character in the great action flick; Shakedown(1989 www.IMDB.com ). That .45 Winchester magnum Grizzly was huge!

I did also see a cop/bank guard in an America's Most Wanted clip that had a .357magnum IMI Desert Eagle

RS

PS: Speaking of Desert Eagle pistols, I also saw a funny bit on the old TV series; In the Heat of the Night. Carrol O'Connor's police chief handed the "Bubba" character his big Desert Eagle pistol and Bubba had this look on his face like; "What the *&%? " CLASSIC!

 

[Erik]

Define "unusual." Pretty much anything off of hte list of 5-10 popular makes and models would qualify, if the definition takes the pistols "usually" issued or allowed into consideration. Mind you, many (most?) popular makes and models would end up on an "unusual" list complied like that.

Some great guns shown, by the way.

 

[DougDubya]

Another great "Heat of the Night" episode was when Bubba had to fend off some crooks trying to kill him while he was at the Chief's cabin.

All he could find there, though, was a Thompson Contender.

And Bubba still kicked patootie.

 

[RustyShackelford]

"Burn Notice"-USA network

The hit TV series; Burn Notice will return to USA this summer. I'm not a big fan of the show, . The main character(an ex-CIA officer) could not fire a SIG P-228 in a shoot out scene and used a paper clip to try and get one round off, . I could not watch anymore...

RS

PS: I know this post may be off topic but I wanted to add it, .

 

[Archie]

Just to settle one particular part of this discussion:

The Walther PPK is not suitable for uniform carry. That is the function of the Walther PP.

The PP is - literally translated - "Police Pistol" and is (was?) a full sized pistol. The PPK - literally translated - is "Police Pistol,, Detective" is a shorter and cut down sized pistol for concealment. They were both chambered in .32 ACP, .380 ACP and .22lr.

Big gun for holster, little gun for hideout. All minds clear?

 

[aryfrosty]

Oweno...I actually also carried a GB years back. I liked the 19 round capacity, but didn't carry it long because it had a horrid trigger reach and pull. The Department started issuing Beretta 96D Centurions in 1993 and went to Sig P-229s in 1994. Prior to that we carried what have you. For a couple of years I carried a beautiful Colt New Service in .44-40. Loved it. HKS M-29 speedloaders worked perfectly and the action was right on the mark. I carried it in a Safariland duty holster for a Smith M-24 6". That got some looks. Usually from folks who thought it was a "rifle caliber". They were the same guys who would approach if you were carrying a 1911 in condition 1 and whisper to you, "did you know that your 'gun' is cocked?"

 

[aryfrosty]

Akodo...I'm not certain where the maxim came from, but I heard it as a mantra in the early 1970s. "Don't carry anything you don't want to be shot with..." Makes a degree of sense. You are subject to be disarmed under the wrong conditions. I was dumb. I carried what I knew would get the job done and made myself a vow that they would never get my weapon unless I was already dead and they weren't.