As a LEO who is a firearms instructor for a department of 600+, I'd say "it depends".

I can tell you that 5% of the departments knows what they are doing. That 5% maintain their weapons properly and have enough rounds through the gun to say its reliable. If I was to buy one of these officer's guns, I'd throw a spring kit in it, test it, and call it good.

85% of the department qualifies. Sometimes barely, sometimes without much trouble. These officers have guns that are maintained to minimum standards, which isn't saying much. Probably cleaned once or twice a year. That's not good for rainy, snowy, dusty, or sweaty days. I see quite a bit of surface rust on mags and mag releases on our sig pistols from officers that fall into this category. Their guns would probably also be fine after some springs and a thorough cleaning.

The other 10% is completely incompetent. I've seen guns so caked with cat pics and dust that they had to go in an ultrasonic cleaner before they could be disassembled. I've seen magazines ruined by rust. I've seen guns get pulled from the holster at qualification missing rear sights. I've seen dust bunnies the size of mice come out of the holster on that first draw. I wouldn't touch one of these officers guns with a 10 foot pole.

Luckily, departments typically use guns that hold up well and are of good quality. Glocks, Sigs, S&W are all reliable guns by-and-large. I did pick up a trade in P239 in .357 Sig several years ago that was carried by a LEO in that bottom 10%. It took a lot of cleaning, springs, and sights.... and it's still beat to hell, but works.

It takes a lot of shooting to wear out a modern service pistol. As others have said, I'd be more worried about neglect than wear. I've owned quite a few police trade-in handguns, and most of them are excellent mechanically. Most have a good amount of finish wear from riding in a holster and getting banged into stuff, but I've also got a couple that even look like new. Every now and then you'll come across one that's had a really rough life, but even most of those can be made serviceable with some armoring.

My current off-duty carry gun of choice is an LEO trade-in P220 Compact. It was pretty pristine when I got it, but I detail stripped it, inspected it thoroughly, and replaced a few parts that needed replacing. It's definitely got less mileage on it than my current duty gun, and I trust it completely.

quote:

Originally posted by kidcop:

quote:

Originally posted by ElToro:
Atlantic firearms has NC state trooper 320 357 sig trades ins for a decent price.

Wow. While the 320 has been out for awhile, I can't believe that any agency has had them long enough to warrant replacement, unless they are leery of the the 320's alleged safety issues.

357 Sig is a not a popular caliber, ammo choices are limited and expensive.

quote:

Originally posted by 10round:

quote:

Originally posted by kidcop:

quote:

Originally posted by ElToro:
Atlantic firearms has NC state trooper 320 357 sig trades ins for a decent price.

Wow. While the 320 has been out for awhile, I can't believe that any agency has had them long enough to warrant replacement, unless they are leery of the the 320's alleged safety issues.

357 Sig is a not a popular caliber, ammo choices are limited and expensive.

The mainstreaming of optics has driven a lot of change in the LE handgun market in the past few years, and the 320 also had the drop safety issue to contend with. I've managed to start a decent little collection of trade-in P320s off just my own duty guns...I'm sure there are a lot floating around out there from agencies where officers either don't have the option or choose not to buy them back.

I'm on my 3rd agency-issued P320 in 9mm since 2017. Our first guns were purchased before the upgrade was a thing. After the upgrade was announced, Sig sent us new ones and we had the option to return the old ones or buy them out. I bought mine and sent it in for the recall.

A few years after that the boss decided to upgrade us to RDS equipped guns, and it was MUCH cheaper to trade in our existing guns and buy complete factory RX guns from Sig than it would have been to have the existing guns milled and buy optics for them. We had the option to buy those guns at the trade-in price as well.

I can't speak for the Glocks but I can for the several police trade in P239's I own and the one I carry... YES. But then I doubt these were shot much at all... one was obviously bounced around a lot but they all still function perfectly... well one did not hand chamber well but I finally fixed that by polishing the loading chamber really well.

I do wonder about all this spring replacing... does the average LEO shoot enough in practice and training to wear out the springs on their service pistol say after 10 years?

quote:

Originally posted by ElToro:
Atlantic firearms has NC state trooper 320 357 sig trades ins for a decent price.

The ones I saw on a cursory search were $539 for a VG condition model. I was expecting at least sub-$450 for “decent,” and more like $400 (they are used, after all). Then add in the ammo cost like 10rnd mentioned, and those may sit awhile IMO.

As for the OP’s question, without hesitation. I’ve been running an early two-pin G19.3 trade-in for a decade now without issue. Shot a lot of local comps with it and it’s run like a champ. Give a trade-in a good cleaning, replace springs, and put a few hundred rounds through it and I’d be perfectly fine trusting my life to it.

If I had to guess, it would be that a police trade-in pistol that was filthy dirty with a dust bunny in the barrel and a bit of rust on the trigger would be less likely to have been used much and to have had someone “improve” the factory gun with modifications and after market parts. I’d much rather have a gun like that than the alternative. Guns can be cleaned and, if necessary, factory parts replaced with new.

Atlantic firearms has NC state trooper 320 357 sig trades ins for a decent price.[/QUOTE]

Wow. While the 320 has been out for awhile, I can't believe that any agency has had them long enough to warrant replacement, unless they are leery of the the 320's alleged safety issues.[/QUOTE]
I am glad that LE are trading in the service pistols. Doubt most have many rounds.
My father was a retired LEO. Always a Smith revolver. They just got shorter as he aged. Ended up with 2” barrels. I think he hardly shot the small revolvers.
Earlier this monthI picked up an unissued LEO P226,.40 cal, DAK Trigger, E2 grip. Looked unfired. BOD is April 2022.
AND big thanks to Sigfreund. Wanted to lighten Trigger. Saw he was using 19 pound hammer springs in his. Dropped pull from 6# to 4.4#. Need to run several brands through it. So far shot Norma 124gr, FMJ.
It now has a 5” 9mm barrel now.

quote:

Would you trust a LEO trade-in gun as CCW

I have and did. But a bit different than the answer you are looking for. Both are LEO Model-10 trade-ins from when things went from revolver to semi-auto. One from the Royal Hong Kong Police, and one is from Vitoria Australia. Both excellent in every way.

I looked at the Atlantic Firearms site and could only find those N.C. P320 offered as a pair... have sent them an email about this.... even though I'm a died in the wool (sp?) DA/SA guy... I'd love to have ap P320 in 357sig.

quote:

Originally posted by Blume9mm:
I looked at the Atlantic Firearms site and could only find those N.C. P320 offered as a pair... have sent them an email about this.... even though I'm a died in the wool (sp?) DA/SA guy... I'd love to have ap P320 in 357sig.

Just got a new email today with these. Here are the links.

Excellent condition: https://atlanticfirearms.com/s...l-nc-state-police-ex

Very Good condition: https://atlanticfirearms.com/s...l-nc-state-police-vg

Compact: https://atlanticfirearms.com/s...state-police-compact

quote:

Originally posted by 10round:

357 Sig is a not a popular caliber, ammo choices are limited and expensive.

A victim of bean-counters and HR bureaucrats. Very sad.

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Would you trust a LEO trade-in gun as CCW

It depends, how many notches are in the grip?

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Originally posted by smschulz:
It depends, how many notches are in the grip?

One thing about the P320 is a new one is about $50.

Although if I was getting any LEO trade in on .357 SIG, I'd ditch the recoil spring as soon as possible since you have a 9mm gun firing basically 9mm +p+++.

Yes. like DWP i live close to AIM surplus, they had some LEO trade ins so i had to run by. Got a Sig229 that looked almost new, and a S&W MP .40 with a thumb safety that had just a bit of wear of the edge of the slide, both have functioned 100%

This message has been edited. Last edited by: m.p.driver,

After a spring change though and through.

Bought a police trade-in Glock Gen 3 once. No idea to the round count it had. It “looked” good visually.

Cleaned it after a range trip one day and found the recoil spring had broken along the way. To its credit it was still Running… but I quickly changed out all of the springs and replaced the barrel with a Lonewolf. Good to go.

All of the springs? You changed out the recoil spring, slide lock spring, firing pin spring, firing pin safety spring, extractor depressor plunger spring and the magazine catch spring?

Also, the slide release spring? In a gen3, this would require you to change out the slide release altogether.

quote:

Originally posted by Anubismp:
Maybe you'll get a motorcycle cop gun, and it will need a good cleaning but maybe you get a lieutenant or captain's gun and then you get a brand new unfired gun for cheap?

I did get a Motorcop’s gun, mine
It got good maintenance throughout its career
I was also Dept firearms instructor So my 229 DAK40 gets carried regularly, along with its predecessor 229 40 da/SA. I bought them both after new sidearms were bought

I would say yes, maybe swap out some springs I have purchased used glocks 19 and 23 Sig P229 40 and M10 and M15 S&W all previous department guns. They all ran fine without spring changes all have at least 600 rounds through them since I purchased them.

I ended up finding a LEO trade in locally. Tree-fitty $$ out the door. The gun is in excellent condition and the barrel barely shows any wear. I'm confident enough to not replace any springs. This gun was barely shot.

A buddy was going to the range before I could get out and I asked him to give it a run. He said he shot one of his best iron sight groups.

Overall I'm very pleased.