End of an Era...the Air Force is retiring the last of its S&W Model 15s

The Air Force was almost surely the last major military organization to have a revolver as its standard issue weapon, issuing the S&W Model 15 to its security forces from 1962 until they were finally replaced by the M9 pistol in 1992.

The Air Force retained a few model 15s to fire blanks during dog training due to the unreliability of auto pistols with blank ammunition. With the adoption of the new SIG pistols. which I imagine have better blank adaptors, these last revolvers are going to the scrap heap. the fat lady has finally sung for the military revolver, long after almost anyone would have thought.

I did see today that Smith & Wesson is going to be offering an Air Force commemorative Model 15 this year.

Wish there were some way those revolvers could be saved from the crusher. Sincerely. bruce.

I suppose the CMP could ask for them but after nearly 30 years of shooting blanks for dog training I'm sure they're pretty rough. The good ones were scrapped long ago.

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Originally Posted by Art

I suppose the CMP could ask for them but after nearly 30 years of shooting blanks for dog training I'm sure they're pretty rough. The good ones were scrapped long ago.

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I think that would literally take an act of congress to do,

Carried one for years in the AF. I liked the pistol.

shot a perfect score first time out with one after spending all night and all day prior and part of the night before THAT with SACs Global Shield exercise. i was on an Opfor team and we were busy nearly continuously (we had 23,000 acres of property at my base) and the hospital and CE and SP/LEs would camp out and we'd repeatedly give them crap...

i shot expert with the replacement twice after but i rarely had any reason to draw any of them from the armory. i did LE augmentee duty but was also a cargo courier (for classified material)...

i picked up a copy for myself that i RECALL is circa 1974. wide target trigger and target hammer, with diamond grips...

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Originally Posted by Art

I suppose the CMP could ask for them but after nearly 30 years of shooting blanks for dog training I'm sure they're pretty rough. The good ones were scrapped long ago.

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SARCO bought a bunch 30 years ago that were demilled and welded them into a sign. Some got thru with minor demil and SARCO sold this off at then high prices.
Sam

IIRC, the rejection rate on frames sent to depot for overhaul was 60% or so.

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Originally Posted by edlmann

IIRC, the rejection rate on frames sent to depot for overhaul was 60% or so.

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Also a problem on Model 1911s in the 1980s. One of the reasons for that pistols replacement was the steadily increasing number of frames with cracks that were coming in. You can only re work/rebuild on a heavily used frame/receiver so many times.