There are some good firearms deals out there these days. “Good guns cheap.”  America’s 800,000 some-odd cops trade in their old guns every few years and, except for agencies who are afraid of their guns ending up in criminal hands so they destroy them instead of trading them in, they end up on the law-abiding civilian market.

Back in the late ‘80s when the sea-change switch from six-shot service revolvers to higher capacity semi-automatic service pistols was in full swing, I bought several excellent-condition .38 Special and .357 Magnum revolvers for a hundred bucks apiece.  In the 1990s my then-wife and I were in South Dakota at the famous Jack First Gun Shop when I spotted a rough-looking Smith & Wesson Model 15 .38 Special Combat Masterpiece for $95.  I examined it. The outside looked as if it had been rubbed down with a Brillo pad but the barrel and chambers were pristine, and the action was so smooth and lock-up so perfect it could have just come out of the Smith & Wesson Performance Center. The mother of my children whipped out her Federal Firearms dealer’s license about as fast as I quick-drew my credit card. When I got it home  I found it would group five shots in one inch at 25 yards with Federal Match target loads, and in 2010 it won me First Master in Stock Service Revolver class at the East Coast IDPA National Championships.

Fast forward to now. FBI, who law enforcement listens to the way Fortune 500 companies listen to Harvard Business School, declared a decade or so ago that the .40 Smith & Wesson caliber was equal in their testing to the best 9mm ammunition.  The .40 S&W,  introduced in 1990, had become the nation’s most popular police pistol caliber by the year 2000, but another sea change occurred: the snappy-kicking .40 got replaced by the milder 9mm pistol.  All of a sudden, .40s were traded in so heavily that they became dirt cheap.

The height of that bargain era is passed, but by no means is it gone.  The last advertisement I saw from AimSurplus, they were offering 13-shot .40 caliber Glock 23  compact pistols for a piddling $279.95, and relatively recent production 16-shot .40 caliber full size Gen4 Glock 22s for $299.95. For perspective, back in the day (early 2000s) I carried a privately-owned department-approved Glock 22 for three or four years, on and off duty, taught classes with it, and won three law enforcement state champion titles in a row with it.  I loaded it with 165 grain hollow points at 1140 foot-seconds, which departments using the same load found put bad guys down as fast as the 125 grain .357 Magnum rounds they had been using in their previous service revolvers.

Suffice to say you can get damn good deals today on traded in police handguns, most of which have been “carried much and shot seldom” in the words of the late, great gun expert Jeff Cooper. I’d never buy a traded-in police car – I know what happens to those vehicles all day, every day – but traded-in cop guns are still a helluva good deal. Remember “Aim Surplus.”

12 COMMENTS

  2. Let’s see if any adopt the new Ruger RXM modular pistol in 9mm for EDC. I just picked one up, very promising indeed!

  3. Police trade-in shotguns can be a good deal, too. I saved about $200 on a used Mossberg 590 12 gauge in real good shape, with a length of barrel barrel of 18 and 1/2 inches, a good length for predator control in close-contact environments, especially (under suitable permit) in Canadian wilderness areas. I really like that the barrel length is stamped into the muzzle, which can help show Canadian customs when I pass through into The Great White North that the barrel length has not been altered since manufacture. The 590 is also reliably and conveniently dismantled according to any known rules. A three-shot magazine plug to fit the magazine length is a wise and possibly necessary accessory. I am going by past experience, and will update any and all all pertinent facts before I head out, if I do travel north. Arriving well prepared for emergencies when crossing back in Alaska is especially wise.

  5. AimSurplus was/are selling overseas police trade in K-frame Smith & Wesson revolvers. The Model 10 was rough on the outside but pristine inside. The Model 64 was like new after a good cleaning & polishing. Both got new Hogue stocks and shoot great.

  6. I had never before shot a .40 S&W, so about 10 years ago I rented a Glock 22 at a local range along with a box of 50 rounds. I felt the recoil impulse was rather nasty, and follow up shots more difficult. I would rather a .45 ACP.

    • Me too. The math says the 45 recoils more than the 40 but it doesn’t feel that way. I converted my G22 to 9mm and use it as a training gun. Same manual of arms as my G19 and G30 I use for carry guns.

  7. I recently added a Glock 22 to my Glock 35 and Glock 23 as my .40 S&W shooters. I saw the Glock 22 for the first time in the early 90s on the hip of a local deputy who was my partner when I volunteered as a reserve deputy for my county. I carried a Kimber CDP Custom 45 ACP but got grief for carrying a “cocked pistol”. I succumbed to peer pressure and got a Ruger P90, based on a Massad Ayoob article on the utility of the 45 ACP as a year around cartridge choice, especially winter heavy clothing. Today life is slower but I see the need for less recoil and higher capacity in city carry. The 1911s are mostly around and farm and range guns now. Deer and steel targets beware!

  8. I also prefer 45 over 40 but during the Panicdemic sometimes the only handgun ammo you could find was 40. The online retailers currently have great prices on police trade in hollow point 40 ammo by Winchester, Speer & Federal.

  9. These days, I find myself much more interested in older used guns than I do in the newest models on the market. Personally, I’m not impressed by overpriced “custom” handgun features such as fancy slide cuts, deep slide serrations front & back, extra-tall sights, custom triggers, threaded barrels, suppressors, expensive red dot sights, rail mounted flashlights, & other accoutrements whose main purpose seems to be to persuade customers that $2,000 or more is a “reasonable” price to pay for a handgun. It reminds me of the days when some people tried to make cars look like high performance vehicles by adding mag wheels & racing stripes to them, when in fact, they were not.

    The fact is, a lot of the older guns are better than the new models being made today. I like the original Sig Sauer P220 series models way more than their more recent Legion series or P320 models & some cost less than half as much! I have an old police trade-in Sig P226 that is probably the most accurate semi-auto handgun that I own, & I own a lot. I also prefer the older Glock Gen 2 & Gen 3 guns over their newer models, & as Mas pointed out, they are dirt cheap now. One other advantage that I consider when buying a used gun is that if it has some wear to the finish (while being mechanically perfect), I’m much more likely to carry it & use it than I would be with one that is in mint condition.

    Don’t misunderstand me, I’m not opposed to any of the new designs or features. A wide variety of choices is a good thing for all of us. In fact, I’m happy that so many gun buyers seem to prefer these things, because their lack of interest in the firearms that I like makes it much easier for me to acquire the pistols, revolvers, rifles & shotguns that I admired, but could not afford to buy, when I was young.

    On the subject of 40 S&W caliber handguns, I own several & I think it’s still a great caliber. It does have more snappy recoil & more muzzle flip than some 9mm or .45 ACP guns, but it doesn’t bother me at all. In fact, several of the 9mm micro-compact handguns that are so popular now have snappy recoil, too. It largely depends on the load you shoot, as well as the size & weight of the gun you are shooting it with. In 40 S&W, I prefer the lighter weight bullets. My favorite is the Cor-Bon 135 gr. JHP @ 1325 fps.

    One other advantage of buying a 40 S&W handgun is that you can shoot 357 Sig caliber ammo out of it just by buying a 357 Sig barrel & putting it in place of the 40 S&W one. The 40 S&W magazines, springs, slide, & everything else is the same as those for 357 Sig, which is a great caliber also, but with less felt recoil.

    Thanks for the tip about AimSurplus, Mas.

  10. Yep. Scored a 10-6 from them around 2019 for less than $300 and a P226 in .40 a few years before for not much more.

    The 15-3 I bought (not from them) was about $300 and I’ve used it in a number of matches. Great gun.

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