6 Mar 01

Latest on the New Jersey State Police and their new pistols. This is from a trainer with the NJSP. We must keep in mind that any new equipment coming into a system will always be greeted with skepticism. However, this is what they have to say so far:

"We are quickly discovering that these new pistols are going to have a rocky break-in period. The honeymoon with the NJSP never even started!

Most of the pistols came with exceptionally rough feed ramps. We've had many feeding problems as a result. We complained about it, and S&W sent us new barrels. Unhappily, the new barrels are no improvement over the old ones, and the problems persist.

During our orientation, we were told, ‘It doesn't matter when you decock. You can even decock after you have holstered. Just remember to decock prior to drawing the next time.' This is from the lips of one or our senior ‘instructors.'

No surprisingly, we didn't have long to wait for our first AD with the new pistol. A Sergeant AD'd in his car after leaving the range. Taking his instructor's advise, he attempted to decock while his pistol was in the holster. He said that had forgotten to decock earlier. He stopped his vehicle on the way out of the range parking lot and tried to decock. He somehow got his finger on the trigger. No injury, but a nice hole in the patrol vehicle. We have every confidence that this will not be the last.

Some of the difficulties are not S&W's fault. For example, our blithering idiot colonel decided that the sixteen-round magazines which were supplied with the pistol allowed for one round too many. So, he sent them all back to S&W to have them modified to hold only fifteen rounds! (I'm not making this up!). The magazines came back marked, "Caution-15 rounds only," and (You guessed it!) they are now causing no end of ADDITIONAL feeding problems. Management is so embarrassed that they are issuing each trooper a rubber mat, which he is supposed to put in front of his when he goes to the range, so that the new magazines won't be damaged during reloading drills.

Morale is about normal here!"

...the blind leading the blind

/John