Are there police or armed forces still using revolvers as primary weapon?

[Rob454]

I saw two CHP officers with wheel guns recently at a burger joint. Other than that wheel guns are becoming rare for LEOs to carry.
I used to see them all the time but now everyone is into the semi autos

[Interloper]

I saw two CHP officers with wheel guns recently at a burger joint. Other than that wheel guns are becoming rare for LEOs to carry.
I used to see them all the time but now everyone is into the semi autos

Interesting.
In a conversation with two CHP last year they told me that their S&W 4006's in .40 were mandated for all officers.

[jshoebot]

I notice some of the federal government contracted security officers require them to use the .38 special S&W's as a sidearm. Is there any reasoning why the revolver is chosen over a semi-automatic?

The only contract company that uses revolvers is Wackenhut. From what I've heard it's just company policy. I guess they want to keep the image of ye olde security guard.

[jchen76@gmail.com]

When I lived in nyc, the nypd made switch from revolvers to glocks. Officers during the switch had a choice to keep their revolver until they left/retired. Of course, nypd was one of last big police city forces to switch from fmj to hp back in mid 90's. Newspapers calling hp's deadly killers. The switch was more for ricochet control than stopping power according to nypd.

[rp55]

Ships such as Frigates and Destroyers that deploy light ASW helicopter squadron detachments used to have .38 SPL Ruger Security Six revolvers in the armory for issue to aircrews in the event of hostilities. They were parkerized and looked like they had been magnaported or something.

These may still be floating around out there since the thing about Navy ships is that they usually keep the small arms they were outfitted with when commissioned regardless of what happens in the meantime. This was the case back in the day when the 594 class SSNs had M-14s and the 688 class had AR-15s. And yes they were AR-15s, select fire, Colt manufactured with some weird USN property mark on them.

[blackfalcon]

Outside the US, I'm sure there are lots of countries still using wheel guns. I remember watching the HBO Terror in Mumbai, where India's officers had wheel guns and bolt action rifles (Enfields I think) against the terrorists AK 47.

[tyrist]

Mini 14s because; I know this will be hard to believe, the legislature screwed up the AW exemption for some state LE agencies. Some state LE agencies were left off the LE exemption because the Legislature forgot they existed.

Where did you come up with that nonsense?

All their mini 14s are assault weapons. All of them have a flash hider and many have pistol grips and collapsing stocks.

[CSACANNONEER]

A friend of mine retired from Ventura County SO two or three years ago, He was the last deputy who was grandfathered to carry a wheelgun in his agency.

[Mark in Eureka]

I was in Texas five years ago, and a half to a third of all the officer I saw were carrying revolvers.

[JBBenson]

The semi-retired cops who are hired on film sets often carry wood gripped S&W .357 magnums.

They also wear mirrored aviator glasses all day. And night.

[SVT-40]

The semi-retired cops who are hired on film sets often carry wood gripped S&W .357 magnums.

They also wear mirrored aviator glasses all day. And night.

Got to be Ex-motor officers

Probably carried the wheel guns in drop clam shell Hoyt made rigs...

Not that I ever did....

[Mad Jax]

My Dad used his Fathers .38 until we bought him a 9mm. according to him there is a list of authorized firearms you may use as your duty weapon or you can just carry what the state provides.

[homemade]

spec war armorer in the navy 10 years ago I had about 20 s&w 357's stainless with wood grips.
saw an officer in the hospital the other day also with a revolver on his hip didnt catch what dept he was with.

[steelrain82]

at panda express today and some pilots from the navy base were there. so i asked them and they said that flight crews and some pilots still carry them.

[BillCA]

Yup, street cops with wheelguns are becoming as scarce as turkey lips.

A few years ago, a 20-some year veteran officer decided to retire. As a Sergeant, he'd spend the last 6 -8 years "indoors" in different departments. He wanted to spend his last six months back out on the streets. With his wheelgun. A Python he carried "back in the day". He managed to get his way.

A funny thing happened.

All of the other cops on the East side of SJ wore autos. All of 'em. After a few weeks in the East side (which was obviously some Lt or Capt's way of making his last six months "memorable") the other cops were getting asked of Sergeant Brown or "Officer" Brown was working that night. Even the known gang members would ask politely about him. Cops were astonished when they managed to get a few gang members to spout off.

They were scared to death of him.

Why? Any cop who carried a six-shooter just had to be a crack shot and that scared them spitless. He didn't help things much by gluing the center of a B-27 silhouette's on top of his briefcase... with just one hole in the 10-ring and the rest in the X-ring. His being six foot four helped too.