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Old September 16, 2018, 03:32 PM   #26
2wheelwander
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Mods, please lock this thread! The myth of police trades in being junk and avoided at all costs is being debunked. Less for me!! Can we delete this thread?!

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Old September 16, 2018, 04:22 PM   #27
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I’m not sure if they still do but many Sig trade ins used to be sent back to Sig, inspected, worn parts replaced and new springs installed. They would then be packed into a red color case and sold. The last one I got came in a red cardboard box. I guess they are trying to cut costs.
I’ve gotten a couple of these red box Sigs and found them to be excellent.
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Old September 17, 2018, 10:51 AM   #28
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I prefer police trade-in handguns. They typically, but not always, look a little rough one the outside and typically, but not always, look on the inside like they've been shot very little. I prefer to find them on Gunbroker for dirt cheap and take my chances. So far I have done very well for myself, getting a lot of great shooting pistols for laughably low prices.
This has been my experience as well.

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I love surplus/trade-ins. 95% of the time all you would need to do is drop in some new springs and if you really want, a polishing or some cold blue. Buy em, use em, have fun........
Ditto. I actually enjoy the process of detail stripping and cleaning these pistols, touching up the finish or replacing gnarly grips or small parts as necessary, and replacing the springs to brings these (non-collectible) pistols to like new condition.
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Old September 17, 2018, 11:54 AM   #29
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I’m not sure if they still do but many Sig trade ins used to be sent back to Sig, inspected, worn parts replaced and new springs installed. They would then be packed into a red color case and sold. The last one I got came in a red cardboard box. I guess they are trying to cut costs.
I’ve gotten a couple of these red box Sigs and found them to be excellent.
the Beretta 92s' I picked up have new barrels and springs at least, could be other new parts too. I did hear that a bunch (most?) of them were sent to Beretta for repair/inspection. I did go for the best condition offerings from the place I got them from. Now my Star BMs, one of those was a different story (dropped in, not fitted parts) but the other was in great shape.
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Old September 17, 2018, 07:34 PM   #30
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It is hard to say. Some of the trade-in's go back to the manufacturer and are refurbed before being placed for sale to the public. I've bought Glock and Sig pistols that had been refurbed and it was hard to tell them from new. If someone has gone through the gun and replaced all the springs and any other worn parts they can be a bargain.

In fact SOME are as new. Most departments have spares that are kept NIB to be issued as needed. When a department trades in and switches to a different platform those NIB guns are traded in too.

Others can be worn out. Our local city PD bought Smith 5906's in 1994 for their officers. By about 2010 they were starting to show their age and many of them were becoming less reliable. They spent 2-3 years testing and evaluating different guns before going to Glocks. Some of those Smiths were in sad shape by the time they were traded in.

But to be fair, most departments don't keep the same guns for 20 years. That was exceptional service and they wanted to go back with the same gun. But it was no longer in production. That is why they took so long to decide on the replacement.
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Old September 18, 2018, 10:10 AM   #31
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I have bought several LEO/guard company trade-ins: 3x shotguns, 1x revolver. They all had initial cosmetic/cleanliness issues that were cured by a tear-down and cleaning. YMMV.

Such a gun is great if you are looking for high-value & functional, with little emotional investment. For instance, a gun purchased new for a little less than MSRP is the sort of purchase you might get heartburn over if you take it in the woods or competition and it gets a scratch or nick on the metal. If you pay 1/2 or less of MSRP on a used LEO trade-in, what is one more nick/scratch? Will you even notice, let alone care?
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Old September 20, 2018, 10:07 AM   #32
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My model 28 S&W was a police trade in.. The bluing was worn off the sides of the cylinder but the top and bottom where it was protected from the frame looked like new. It was probably slid in and out of a holster thousands of times without the cylinder being rotated. It was like new inside. I had the cylinder reblued and it looks like a different gun. The rest of the bluing is around 95% and I can live with that...

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Old September 20, 2018, 07:41 PM   #33
Robert J McElwain
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I've owned a few police trade ins, and they are excellent guns. Generally, large police departments trade large portions of their inventory in one shot and replace them with wholesale purchases. It works well for everyone involved and we get the advantage of buying quality guns at good prices. And, if it's a large police agency, they have a gunsmith on staff to assure the guns are well maintained.
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Old September 23, 2018, 04:23 PM   #34
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I don’t think you can really say, it’s all over the place depending on the cop and the department. I’ve carried a Glock 23 since 2008, has about 15000 rounds through it. Yeah, I always volunteer to repeat drills and what not when it’s offered but even somebody who doesn’t like to shoot and is doing the bare minimum would have at least 8500-9000 through their weapon in the same period of time.
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Old September 23, 2018, 04:30 PM   #35
Robert J McElwain
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I don’t think you can really say, it’s all over the place depending on the cop and the department. I’ve carried a Glock 23 since 2008, has about 15000 rounds through it. Yeah, I always volunteer to repeat drills and what not when it’s offered but even somebody who doesn’t like to shoot and is doing the bare minimum would have at least 8500-9000 through their weapon in the same period of time.
I'm guessing you fire your Glock far more often than the average cop in a large department. I used to volunteer in a major ER that always had at least one off duty cop on hand. Their experience convinces me that most cops only fire their guns for qualification, and they never clean them. They leave the cleaning to their gunsmith. Again, some of the best guns I've owned, but the first thing I did was to do a thorough cleaning. After that, excellent.
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Old September 23, 2018, 06:47 PM   #36
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I’m saying for me, at my agency, an officer doing the bare minimum training in a year would fire 850-900 rounds. Definitely some friends at other agencies only put 50-150 rounds through their guns a year. Some guys though with task force,swat, or other specialty assignments shoot a bunch! I guess I just feel like it’s a roll of the dice on anLE but back, at least via mail order vs looking at it first.
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Old September 24, 2018, 09:44 PM   #37
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Not all police trade-in pistols are from the US, either. So like Deadcoyote said, it's all over the place.
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Old September 29, 2018, 03:59 PM   #38
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The only police trade-in gun I have is from the Austrian Police, Browning Hi Power bought in 1968 at a San Antonio gunshow. Mint condition with holster and mag serial numbered to the gun. I paid $75. The guy had a table full of them. Weren't those the days ?
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Old September 29, 2018, 04:07 PM   #39
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99% of police officers never fire their gun outside yearly qualification.
Oh, thanks for filling us in
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Old September 29, 2018, 04:12 PM   #40
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The only police trade-in gun I have is from the Austrian Police, Browning Hi Power bought in 1968 at a San Antonio gunshow. Mint condition with holster and mag serial numbered to the gun. I paid $75. The guy had a table full of them. Weren't those the days ?
Yea, sort of. What were we making an hour back then? $3.00/hr?

Ive always found, that if youre not right on it, when things first pop up, you usually dont do as well, especially once the word gets out. Damn internet!

The old "snooze ya loose" thing.
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Old September 30, 2018, 06:09 AM   #41
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I bought a Sig 220 "Red tag", Police trade in... I dont believe it was fired or carried at all. I verified with Sig NH, that it was indeed a trade in. Remember, most Departments only qualify 1X a year, due to budget constraints. And often there are spare weapons locked away in the armory, unfired. I lucked out and got one of those. Super accurate for a Commander sized .45, one of my favorite carry guns when I'm not carrying a wheel gun. But even the used police trade ins have been shot minimally (100 rounds a year, possibly more), cleaned and checked over prior to being resold. The issue, is worn bluing, and various dings and scratches from holster wear and banging off car door frames, etc. Looks can be deceiving though and many have low round counts and are quite accurate. As long as the muzzle crown is good, you may find a great bargin.
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Old September 30, 2018, 07:04 AM   #42
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This is, without any doubt, a very interesting question and is making as much sense as establishing a round-count average for the members of this forum.

My son is an officer in a Texas police department that gives every officer that goes to the range a free box of 50 rounds per month. Obviously many officers do not use this opportunity and my son usually gets 150 to 250 rounds when he goes shooting, plus he buys also his own ammo.

Since the ammo is counted and accounted for, it still means that every officer shoots 50 rounds per month on average but it clearly does not carry over to the individual gun.
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Old September 30, 2018, 08:34 AM   #43
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There are visible signs a gun has been shot a lot. I think if youre paying attention, they are pretty easy to see. Just look to your own guns with known higher round counts for the signs.

Theres no way to know what that round count is, but I would think you should be able to pretty easily spot regular, if not heavy use.
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Old October 14, 2018, 08:51 PM   #44
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Not sure if this means anything,, I n the nearby village, the police dept didn’t age care fo their guns, but them a retired sheriff filled in as chief for a few moths and things changed. I checked the local sheriff’s department,,, they are careful with their guns, and now,, all must qualify,, not so ten years ago.... then I visited the state police post in the same town... OH, my gosh,, staties are proud of their guns,, eager to show off, every gun was shiney, but guess what, two years ago, a statie got killed because he didn[t follow protocol.
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Old October 15, 2018, 04:29 AM   #45
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I and many others have answered this same question before if one would do a search on mthe topic. Like mentioned above one would need to know the origin of the firearm. In our case I ordered in excess of one hundred thousand rounds of ammo per year for training and issue purposes as we trained with the same ammo as carried on duty. Some of the officers fired a great deal more than those who appeared only as directed, two shoots were held monthly and the officers were required to attend at least one of the training days each quarter however, it was open to any who wished to fire even if they had fired already that month.
I utilized movement, hostages, moving targets and props like a fire plug or police vehicle sonthe scenarios were as challenging as possible.
Rarely did I have a S&W or later Glock pistol fail in the field even so I kept a supply of parts expected to fail.
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Old October 26, 2018, 11:31 PM   #46
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I reread the posts and find glaring comments suggesting police officers do not train with their firearms. No sources of these statements were included so I can only conclude they are personal opinion. I worked for thirty years for a police department in an area where there are dozens of autonomous cities and counties
each having a law enforcement agency. I was in charge of the firearms training program for many of those years at my department and upon retirement served another eleven years providing training exclusively with firearms.
Each of these entities had training programs in place which included firearms and tactics, the officers are trained in their profession and do not “qualify only once a year” rather are in constant training.
Liability today for negligent acts is so acute that it is much cheaper to train than pay one lawsuit because the officer could not handle his fire arm in a safe and prudent manner.
Our trade in pistols always had seen many rounds go down the the tube but were still in excellent condition due to t(e maintenance program in effect.
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Old October 27, 2018, 11:27 AM   #47
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IBMikey; Personal opinion, yes. And I'll stand by it too. Why? Based on firsthand knowledge. "Glaring" comments? Wasn't intended as such. Subject was LEO trade in weapons. I certainly wasn't insinuating Police are not trained.

My department qualifies only annually (spring), but has a fall / "skill builder", with an unofficial qual course. I know of several departments in the Northeast that only qualify annually, with zero practice during the year. No low level light, weapons retention, etc.

Sounds like you worked in a region fortunate enough to have a good training program, and a budget large enough to support the additional costs. A supportive Administration is nice too. The US is big and not all areas are as "Progressive" as the west coast, which may or may not be a good thing, depending upon the topic.

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Old October 29, 2018, 07:46 PM   #48
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Police trade in 1187's can be found online for under $500 with a little searching.
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Old October 30, 2018, 11:32 PM   #49
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Sureshot, Yes the budget was “big” as were those of moist surrounding agencies, the indoor range facility cost 12 million....The officers are well trained and most had four year degrees...politics are as bad or worse than the NE coast..maybe worse because all the nuts inhabit the west Coast from Mexico to Canada. They have good officers who are under constant pressure and if a mistake is made you can bet there will be dozens of liberals and freethinkers with telephone video and a vindetta to destroy careers.
I “got out of Dodge” just as soon as I retired however even though I live on the East border of Washington the whole state is controlled by the population centers on the coast...I should have gone at least one state further East
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Old November 1, 2018, 08:32 AM   #50
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If anybody sees a 'police trade-in' of a Glock 25 or 28, let me know..I'm in the market!!
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