Oof...happiness then sadness...

[Evil_Ed]

My dad offered to send me an N-frame he said was his 2nd service weapon (he transitioned to a Sig P226 in the early-mid 80s, this was his service revolver from the mid-70s until that time). It was sitting in his safe doing nothing, so he offered to send it my way. Got it in today!









But as I was picking it up...the guy behind the counter said "I popped the grips off to get the serial for the book; um, you need to look under the grips..." Uh oh. That's never a good thing to hear. And...







There's a mark on the cylinder where it's been resting against the wax paper for the last 30+ years, and under the grips...all I can guess is the frame front/back/bottom wasn't really wiped down before the Pachmayrs were put on, and/or it was out in the rain at some point and not detail cleaned? Or, simply the rubber grips wouldn't let any moisture/sweat from practicing in the summer escape, and 30 years did a job...either way.

Not a big deal...some 0000 steel wool and some oil, and it was more-or-less resolved, give or take:





It's pretty clear that it wasn't as detail cleaned as it could have been before storage...guessing no one was sure this whole 9mm thing would ever take off back then. A good chamber and barrel scrubbing and she should be ready to run again in no time...

I'm probably going to spend some more quality time with 0000 and a brush to get into the serrations a bit better, but otherwise..

Now to figure out grips and holsters, I guess? Not that the Pachs are bad or anything, but after looking at what happened underneath...just a little less sanguine about them.

[blues]

My friend, I was expecting to see some sort of horror or travesty. That is a gun well traveled, and you are very fortunate to have had it handed down to you.


Enjoy every minute with that treasure. It'll outlive us all.

[Evil_Ed]

My friend, I was expecting to see some sort of horror or travesty. That is a gun well traveled, and you are very fortunate to have had it handed down to you.


Enjoy every minute with that treasure. It'll outlive us all.

Oh, no no no, don't get me wrong...it's awesome and I'm hanging onto it until ...well, until I physically can't anymore Just seeing that rust, ugh. And I totally get how it happened, too...any sweaty day in the summer with those grips on it would have done it. Plus, it's a service gun...that's kind of what happens to them.

If/when he passes on his mid-80s P226 to me, that's going to be preserved and hung on to as well...I've got plenty of other shooters. And this one, fortunately, my dad has voiced he'd be very happy if I took it out and used it for it's intended purpose, since he never really used it very much. The town he was a cop in had a staff of 8 cops, had 1 blinking red light in town, etc...it wasn't exactly a hot bed of criminal behavior. At least, not publicly

[Duelist]

That’s a sweet gun, and a nice thing to get passed along.

[blues]

Oh, no no no, don't get me wrong...it's awesome and I'm hanging onto it until ...well, until I physically can't anymore Just seeing that rust, ugh. And I totally get how it happened, too...any sweaty day in the summer with those grips on it would have done it. Plus, it's a service gun...that's kind of what happens to them.

If/when he passes on his mid-80s P226 to me, that's going to be preserved and hung on to as well...I've got plenty of other shooters. And this one, fortunately, my dad has voiced he'd be very happy if I took it out and used it for it's intended purpose, since he never really used it very much. The town he was a cop in had a staff of 8 cops, had 1 blinking red light in town, etc...it wasn't exactly a hot bed of criminal behavior. At least, not publicly

'

My first service gun issued to me was a 2" Model 15 in the early 80's...followed by a Model 36...and later a 2.5" Model 19.

[Oukaapie]

Cool revolver, clickbait title. I’d be happy with it.

[Lex Luthier]

Try a little bit of Flitz on a 100% cotton flannel rag. You'll be surprised how much rust comes off, and how much of the blueing stays where it should.

Congrats on what is probably a fabulous revolver.

[Evil_Ed]

'

My first service gun issued to me was a 2" Model 15 in the early 80's...followed by a Model 36...and later a 2.5" Model 19.

The little town we grew up in in NY, the chief was pretty plugged into gun culture at the time...my dad started off in the early 70s with a Colt revolver of some kind (he said he doesn't remember and sold it off), mid-70s the mandate was for everyone to get a Model 28 (which was why he sold the Colt); the duty load was a 38 Special +P load of some kind. I'm told precisely one cylinder of 357 went through it for familiarization, and that was it; 38 Special from then on. Mid-80s the mandate was for everyone to move to a Sig P226 as the authorized duty gun, so that was what he did; this was on the heels of the M9 trials. He put the revolver away, until about 3 days ago when I said I was going to start scouring the shops for a Model 10 or something else to play with, and he offered to send this instead. I'm tickled pink about it.

[Oldherkpilot]

That 28 is a family heirloom! I have one just like it that belonged to my neighbor. His father had possession for 20 years and it had not prospered out in the garage on top of a cupboard. I gave my neighbor a bit more than it was worth but it was worth it to me. I cleaned it up and it is a keeper. Treasure it, they don't make.them like that any more.

[FrankB]

If it’s in wunderbar condition mechanically, spend $200-$250 to get it re-blued. Your dad would be proud to see it restored. 👍