Originally Posted by Muley Gil

In 1978, I left a small sheriff's office to work for a medium sized city PD (with 3 months in between at a state prison as a correctional officer). My usual duty revolver was a M27 converted a 6 1/2" .44 Special. One day, I decided to carry my 4 5/8" Old Model .45 Colt Blackhawk. My usual assignment was to patrol either our shopping centers or the downtown, driving my high powered cruiser-a three wheel Cushman. I felt at ease carrying the Ruger, as it was my first centerfire handgun and I had put many a round down range through it.

A few months later, another officer told me that he had heard I had been carrying my single action and that if we had been assigned to ride together, he would have refused to work with me. The odd thing was that he carried an early M39 that was known to jam on him. He had been advised to ship it back to S&W to be fixed, but had never bothered to do it. I would rather have 5 or 6 .45 Colt going down range than carry a semi auto that had jammed on me and may jam again.