Quote Originally Posted by tenOC View Post
You are assuming again. The police probably swapped wrong parts around just as likely as anybody. Midway lied that these aren't refurbed or even refinished. There's no getting around that.

I've been one of the only people who points out how everybody gets holy about how rebuilt Carbines from an armory, but nobody respects the same type of imports and just parts them out. Well, maybe this crop of imports will be different. I don't think it will though. It's an import with a story that got debunked right off. I remember being almost the only one exposing this.
You are probably correct. I mostly know about the Boston Police Dept and their armorers. They stamped B.P.D. and rack numbers on two of the S&W Victory models that BPD got, they did it so hard that they bent the backstraps. They also when the dept needed snubbies cut down 4" barrels to 2" both those are documented (they even recrowned the barrels). I have a S&W pre-Model 45 (.22 LR) one of 25 guns the dept got that is part of a limited run by S&W of a total of 6 inch barrels ever made in the "Post Office" model, extremely rare (check the S&W catalog) and the cylinder belongs to another of the BPD pre-model 45's, they took them apart and putting them back together weren't careful at all. The serial number on the cylinder is from another of the BPD pre-model 45's.

what I am getting at is that departments change things around, so I am sure the Italians probably did, but I know the M1icon's are as they came from Italyicon.

However that being said if I ever track down the other pre-45 would I get the person who has it to swap cylinders? I would. The problem is that there are only 2 other guns still known, although I heard a rumor that there is one existing in SE Massachusetts, but that was just a rumor. It is interesting having 1 of 3 guns known ever made by S&W in that configuration.