My last piece I wrote was about service pistols going back 20 years, the Smith and Wesson 10mm series of pistols. The 10mm was created as an ideal police cartridge to bridge the gap between the 9mm and the .45 ACP. This time we’re going back another 20 years (closer to 30, actually) to a rarely remembered Smith and Wesson M&P.
Today, when we mention the Military and Police in many circles, it conjures the image of a sleek auto pistol chambered in 9mm, 357 SIG, .40 and .45. But the term Military and Police goes back to around the year 1900 when Smith and Wesson set the world on it’s ear with a hand ejector revolver that would be marketed to law enforcement. And it would go on in one shape or fashion to rule what was in police holsters for the better part of that Century. The .38 Military and Police had many variants from from about the year 1899 and later became a modeled number of the Model 10. Modeled numbers were introduced in the late 1950’s. There were different versions of the Military and Police. One was chambered in .357 Magnum as the Model 13.
In the mid 1960’s, at the insistence of several prominent revolver shooters of the day, wanted to bridge the gap between the .44 Magnum and the .357 Magnum. In late 1963, Remington announced the cartridge .41 Magnum. Smith and Wesson answered the call by introducing the Model 57 that year, and induced the Model 58 Military and Police in early 1964. The main differences between the Military and Police models are noticeable. The Military and Police models all have fixed sights, and the ejector shroud from their counterparts are missing. Most Military and Police pistols had barrels that were four inches or less.
The .41 Magnum as a police round suffered the same fate as the 10mm did decades later. While the concept was sound, it just never caught on. I actually think that what the founders of the .41 Magnum actually wanted was probably closer to the .40 Smith and Wesson we have today. At least in the concept of ballistics.
The Smith and Wesson Model 58 Military and Police saw limited police circles in mass circulation. The only two large agencies I could find in my research that ever adopted the Model 58 Military and Police was the San Antonio, Texas and San Francisco, CA police departments. The first Model 58 Military and Police I saw in a gun shop was marked “SFPD”. That was 25 years ago, and I wish I had purchased it to this day. A neat piece of history it was.
The Model 58 Smith and Wesson is a neat piece of history to round gun buffs. Limited numbers were produced, and they are a collectors item today.
I believe it was also issued by the Rapid City, SD PD. When I moved to eastern Wyoming in 1981 for my first LEO job, I saw plenty of used M41s for sale in the area.
Smith recently did a run of M58s in both blue and nickel. The blued version was SKU 150500. Some are probably still available from wholesalers.
I worked for a small town department in Virginia in the early 1980s. I met officers from a lot of county, city and town departments. Seemed like nearly every department, that allowed it, had one or two officers that carried .41 Magnums.
A deputy and good friend had a Model 57. He handloaded ammo to about 1,000 f.p.s. that was much more controllable than the factory full power loads. As much as I wanted to, I could never shoot the N-frame pistols nearly as well as the K-frames and Rugers. The larger pistols didn’t seem to balance right for me and I could never find grips that I liked.
About 10 years ago, I passed on a Model 58 with a lot of finish wear, but still tight, for $275. At the time, I couldn’t justify adding a new caliber, ammo, bullets, dies, etc. to the inventory. I still kick myself.
I had an M-58 back in the mid-1970’s. There were only two factory loads available then. There was a full-power 210gr JSP that had all the recoil and flash of a full-power magnum. The alternative was a less speedy 210gr lead SWC “police” load. The lead was dead soft and leaded the barrel badly after just a few shots. Handloads could have made it a useful and fun revolver, but I didn’t reload at the time and the M-58 was traded off. Wish I still had it.
Jerry,
The Amarillo, TX and Richardson, TX PDs issued the Model 58 back in the 60s. I recall seeing several of those great guns in the RPD Property lockup when I started there in 1978 and really wanting to buy one of them. They wouldn’t sell them and they were later destroyed (!!) on the orders of an anti-gun Chief.
We had on our SO in the late 70s that carried a Mdl 57 and when I went to FL in the early 80s one of our guys had a 6″ 57. One year our qualification course has us shooting from 3 feet. His muzzle blast set the target on fire. When I started in the mid 70s, the “real cops” carried S&W 19s or 66s. Being a contrarian, I carried a 4″ Colt Python. The heavier gun made shooting magnum loads more controllable.
Back when I was in college a nice San Diego P.D. officer named Roy Huntington took me to my first police shooting match (yes, THAT Roy Huntington). I watched guys like Roy run their K frames at some amazing speeds with light .38 loads. I ran what I had….A full house 6″ Magna Port model 57 shooting full house loads. I finished middle of the field, but felt good knowing I did it shooting full .41 magnum duty loads that really boomed. Unlike most L/E guys of my era, my first duty gun was a N frame Smith model 25-5 in .45 Colt (The Hebrew Hammer). I carried a 3″ model 13 off duty as my back and forth to work gun for a couple of years. I also got a Model 58 former SFPD gun that I bought from a DEA agent. I got a solid compromise between my duty 25-5 and the model 13. I really love my 58, but it is currently “sick” and needs a trip back to Smith. I was going to try to have Bowen Custom Arms convert it to .45 Colt, but I think just letting the Performance Center bring it back to a solid shooter will be the best bet. It is really a great handling gun and would make a solid defensive revolver, especially as a woods gun.
I have always loved the N frames, so its great to know I am not alone as most of my “circle” of gun pals all like the K frame guns.
Ooop’s, that model 57 I shot in the match was a 4″….for the record, it was a boomer.
At least twice a year (and usually in 2 consecutive months), I commit to using revolvers in IDPA matches-either (or both) my 1978-vintage stainless steel Security Six, or my thoroughly gone through/customized (but still Stock Service Revolver blued GP100. They’re great revolvers, and for those two months I pretty much totally dedicate myself to them-using them for both carry, nightstand use, and IDPA. I never feel under-gunned when using them (although, as Massad Ayoob aptly put it, when using a revolver in an IDPA match, you’d best realize that EVERY stage is Vickers Limited…).
The skill-set I use with them significantly carries over to my semi-autos-especially my DAO Beretta 92D.
Best, Jon
I passed on a 58 several years back at a local pawnshop, but four years ago nabbed a mint no-dash 57 4-in. I shoot factory ww 175 STs which are ballistic twins to ww’s 10mm 175STs. Got reloading stuff but haven’t fiddled with it yet. Hope to show it to a whitetail this fall.
I’d recommend trying the 210 grain Hornady JHP under 21.0 grains of
IMR 4227 as your whitetail load. This load is Lyman’s recommended “accuracy” load and is indeed very accurate in my gun.
Be sure to apply a good roll crimp to ensure complete burning of the powder along with consistent velocities. This is a compressed load.
Back in the early 1980’s had a 4″ M58 and a 3″ M13 that looked like siblings…
The North Carolina Highway Patrol issued nickled Model 58 revolvers sometime in the late 60s or early 70s I think. I remember seeing a neighbor with one of them in the mid 70s. I finally found a used (blued) model 58 around 1986 at a gunshow in Raleigh. It had been refinished and had a good amount of wear. I had to have the crane stretched twice in the short span of time I owned it. Unfortunately I traded it for some new gee whiz firearm (another youthful mistake). I wish I could find another original 58. The recently released “classic models” with the safety key hole in the side plate just don’t cut the mustard for an old school Smith & Wesson revolver fan.
There was another reason that this handgun was developed for Law enforcement use that us rarely mentioned.
I’m old enough to remember when these guns first came out and in 1965 when I was in high school a friend of mine bought one and let me shoot it, and I have one of my own today.
Back then Hollow-point ammo was first being develo5ed but it was strictly forbidden fir police as well as military use.
As such, the 357 magnum with lead or jacketed soft point ammo was not as reliable a manstopper as the later 125 grain hollow points that eventually LE agencies would be able to use.
Therefore it was reasoned that a powerful larger caliber cartridge with non-expanding ammo would be superior to the 357 magnum, which it was. But there was a big problem with the ammo.
The advocates of this new cartridge, notably Elmer Kieth, saw it as a dual purpose hunting and police cartridge and ammo was manufactured at two power levels; the “police” load driving a 210 grain lead SWC @ 950 fps and a hunting round driving a 210 grain jacketed softpoint at 1400 fps.
I originally fired my friend’s gun back in 1965-66 with the lead SWC police loads and it was very pleasant to shoot. But I learned many years later when I was finally able to obtain my own model 58 along with a box of the original Remington softpoint hunting loads that in spiet of years of experience with magnum handguns that it was extremely painful to fire the gun with this ammo mainly because of the factory square butt “Magna” grips which are thin at the top unlike the later “Target” grips.
Some say that the gun might have succeeded if it had been chambered in a 41 Special instead of a 41 magnum and that might have been true but if that were the case, it should have also been a K frame and not the heavier N-frame because that’s what rank and file officers at the time complained about most, was how heavy the gun was.
But really the 41 M&P was only a transitional firearm until the K-frame model 19 was developed and police agencies were allowed to use 125 grain JHP’s, and that gun, along with medium frame Colt D/A’s, was used successfully by many hundreds of police agencies for decades afterward until the wondernines came to be..
Today I’m able to fire mine with full power ammo with the addition of a Tyler T-Grip adapter that helps to give me a better hold on the gun and then if I want to use it as woods protection against bears with some really hot heavy bullet ammo, I’ll put on a pair of Hogues.