S&W Victory Revolver sent to USMC in 1944 marked Boston Police Dept - Questions.

[Ben Cartwright]

I have a Smith and Wesson Victory Model that letters to the United States Martime Commission in San Francisco in 1944. The gun is marked with what appear to be the proper Boston Police Property Marks. The letter acknowledges that Boston may have received it at that time. However to my mind it could also be some other department who used the markings B.P.D. and a number and letter. Boston always used one of 3 markings on Colts B-P-D, on Smiths until the 70's B.P.D. and since BPD and they used a number or a number and a letter. This Victory has "B.P.D. 296V"

The question I have is I have heard that with the DSC you can get archive records of where their guns were shipped, is that the case with the USMC?

Does anyone have any idea how I might track who the USMC might have sold or transferred this gun to?

Information

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[Johnny Peppers]

I am not sure, but I don't believe the United States Maritime Commission was considered military even though it was a branch of the the U.S. Government. The pistol could very well have been a guard gun at one of the shipbuilding facilities. After the war a lot of the surplus S&W's were given to all sorts of police agencies.

[Bruce McAskill]

Many of the WW2 revolvers went post war to Civil Defense Command and from there to different states and finally to CD units in cities and towns with most of the units working out of the local Polce Departments. The guns were quite often held by the Chief of Police and many times they would issue one of these free guns to there personal instead of buying new ones. Small town Police Departmens often had the whole department armed with these. Most of the time they were a mix of S&W and Colts with barrels of 4 to 5 inches. Most were .38 spls but a few were .38 S&W. Even have seen a few in .22 with target sights yet. Over the decades many of these were just traded in on new ones and the old ones went out into the market place.

[Sergeant Possum]

I used to own a Colt Banker's Special, 2-inch, .38 S&W, that was marked "BOSTON POLICE DEPT." on the backstrap. The marking appeared to be done with a roll stamp.
I'm wondering why other guns were marked only "BPD". Could it be that they are from another city? Buffalo, NY, for example?

[Ben Cartwright]

My Colt Bankers Special from 1930 is marked B-P-D and a number, it has a Factory Letter from Colt lettering to Boston Police. I have 13 guns, Smith and Colt's ( my oldest is a Colt PP from 1909) that all letter to Boston and are all marked BPD. A friend has about another 15.
The only guns I know of that are marked "Boston Police Dept" are the Glocks. Did you ever get it lettered? Could it have been done later, or may have been a special order.
I will contact my friend, a Boston Detective, who has done lots of research into the Boston guns through the years.

[HOOKED ON HISTORY]

Would love to see photos if you care to post.

[Ben Cartwright]

Happy to show off

the display is at the Willminton MA gun show











---------- Post added at 08:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:46 PM ----------

Weird the pictures show huge and some didn't show

[HOOKED ON HISTORY]

Very nice! I will now have to be careful not to go on a police weapons tangent. Only one currently in the collection. S&W 5946 "lead sled" MPD contract Stainless DAO 9mm. Hard to believe female officers carried that beast. I have fairly normal sized hands and it is a bit large for me. Weight is just short of that of a Remington 870.

[Ben Cartwright]

I had started collecting "Police marked guns" got a Detroit Glock and a Nazi Luger with East Police Markings, then I traded a 1911 WWII Rem Rand for a Boston Smith and realized that there are too many police marked guns to collect even a representative sampling. I decided to specialize on Boston Police. Have never regreted it.

[HOOKED ON HISTORY]

Have never regreted it.

I do not believe you ever will. Very nice set. Combination of pistols patches etc. makes for a very nice display.