Weapon retention is by far the most important criteria in a duty holster. A “quick draw” is of course lost in that process, but retention is a higher priority - in a fight the suspect or especially a second suspect snatching the officer’s sidearm is a very real possibility. A simple thumbsnap holster is just not good for weapon retention on a Sam Browne belt IMHO.

Kinda true. Gould was product manager for S&W Leather in the 1970s and at some point Bangor Punta wanted out. The operation was sold to Gould on very good terms in 1985 and continued to be S&W Leather. In 1990 it became Gould & Goodrich when the right to the S&W name had ended. Today it's owned by Point Blank Enterprises; and originally was Wolfram Leather in the late 1960s. The various companies' designer was Al Kippen who also was J.M. Bucheimer's designer. And Heiser's. And Colorado Saddlery's.

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Red Nichols The Holstorian

Thanks RED. I do know that my friend bought several thousand S&W Holsters from a distributer that was really ticked off by Smith & Wesson for their making them buy Holsters to get guns and then announcing that they were no longer making S&W Holsters. I am quite sure it was 1983 possibly as late as 1984 he got the holsters which he sold for $12.95 each for a very nice profit. I did not realize that Gould was using the S&W brand for another 5 years.

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Gun Safety is no accident.

LAPD Hoyt breakfront with my issue M67. Different times (and guns) back in the '80's.
Bob

By popular request, here is another old school cop gear thread.

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In Omnia Paratus

I made this group up for a post on another forum several years ago.
The holster us a S.D. Myers and the Iron Claw was mine from when I started as a L.E.O. The claw was removed from service after an officer broke a non compliant prisoner's wrist, used it with to much torque.

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SWCA 1932 SWHF 135

After retiring from military in Dec 85 I started a career in LE Jan 86. I carried my Smith Model 28 in a set up like picture #1. About 2 years later I ended up using a Bianchi breakfront with my model 586.

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Vietnam Vet 6/66-12/67

Our department issued that holster back in mid 80s along with Smith 681s.

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Vietnam Vet 6/66-12/67

When I graduated the academy in 1983 we were issued model 66's in a Jordan holster. Our cruisers were Plymouths and I couldn't figure out why the steering wheels in all of them had big "bite" marks taken out of the rubber all the way around. Turns out it is from right handed officers exiting the vehicle and the exposed hammer spur dug out a chunk of the rubber on the steering wheel. This also led to officers walking around with cocked revolvers in their holsters from where the hammer had bitten into the steering wheel and cocked the weapon. Not uncommon at all to be waiting for court or out at docket and have someone inform you your weapon was cocked. No one freaked out. No big deal. We just took the weapon out, pointed it at the floor and eased the hammer down.

Yep, times have changed.

Early '80's, our department went from the Border Patrol Jordan style holster (Don Hume IIRC) to the above pictured Gould & Goodrich 'Safety' holster after a weapon-snatching incident. Their plant was ~1 hour from our city.

In a struggle with a deranged suspect, officer's gun was taken from the Border patrol - style holster, suspect ran with it and discharged 6 rounds at a dumpster in his flight. Weapon was recovered, and the officer very lucky.

With the G&G 'Safety' holster there were many growing pains. QC was very spotty and some M66's went in, but were VERY difficult to remove, even with the proper 'forward-rock' motion it was designed in mind with.
Range Officer would literally hose down the interior with spray silicone, which helped some.

I found the best break-in was repeated drawing/re-holstering and storing the holster in off days/off-time with the revolver drawn to the point of greatest resistance and left there.
After awhile, they worked fine.
Later, there was another incident with a large resisting suspect who literally broke the G&G holster off the shank and took off with it. Suspect couldn't extract the revolver and was caught.

I didn't retain any of my duty gear - in fact I was glad to hand it over.
Do still have my first plain black leather Bucheimer Sam Browne belt that'd been 'Leather Lustered' many times, and when held in a circle with the buckle where it had always been - it's incredibly small!

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Ret'd LEO
SWCA #2275

Frankly I don't remember the first duty holster I carried afterbeingsworn in in 1982.. We had to buy our own. But in pretty short order I bought a Bianchi "Judge " for my S&W 66 4" (had to buy that too). Great steel shank duty holster. Solid retention and really good speed with the break front. Somewhere in my stuff I have an almost brand new Judge that I purchased as a replacement after the original got covered in blood (someone else's).

Never really used it much thereafter as I was promoted to Detective and carried in a Safariland 3 hole Pancake OWB, or a Bianchi X15 shoulder rig in black. Still have the X15 too. It's a very comfortable and versatile shoulder holster and accommodate both medium sized 4" revolvers and 1911 sized autos.

Below is a recently acquired Aker, non steel shank holster that I've been using for field use. It too is a pretty nice piece of kit. Straight up cant, high riding, with good gun protection when prowling around in the swamps.

As an aside, wide duty belts and duty holsters are a pretty comfortable way to open field carry your iron. And you can find almost amazing deals out there. A lot more comfortable too without cuffs, baton, and radio.

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