[IrishCop]

...on Netflix and got to Season 5. That's when they switched from 6" K Frame S&W's to 4" (looked like M-15's to me) and started using Clam Shell holsters. This was the 1973 season, the year I graduated high school, and before I ever got to play with handguns.

I know those clam shell holsters weren't around long, but I was wondering if anybody out there ever got to play with any of them. Just wondering where the release was, what they were made out of, and if anybody other than the LAPD ever used'em.

 

[Charlie Petty]

I never carried one on the job but did have one ages ago. IIRC the release is the same as the old Jay-Pee "safety holster" where the latch is on the inside of the trigger.

I never was very fond of their police work 'cause it didn't seem to have anything to do with the real world.

However I think "Dragnet" may have been an infulence.

 

[dfariswheel]

As I recall, the clamshell holster used by the LAPD was made on an Indian reservation as a way to give them some aid.
On and off, over the years a number of cops used various brands of clamshell holsters, and I'm sure some departments officially allowed it for use.

The last time I remember seeing them for sale was in the mid-1970's and were listed in Austin Behlert's catalog.

The holster has a formed metal lining between an outer and inner leather covering.
The release is inside the trigger guard and is pressed with the trigger finger, (which is why it was discontinued for safety reasons....too many accidental discharges).

Other problems were that it was "shaky" when re-holstering the gun because you had to sort of "hang" it in the holster and hold it there with your hand while closing the clamshell.
If you did it with the same hand, the gun could just fall out.
Another sometime problem was the clamshell release could get bent or really dirty and the holster wouldn't open.
Since the gun can't be removed out the top, the gun was locked in the holster.

At some point, the guys in "Adam-12" were using Colt Trooper Mark III revolvers.

 

[stand watie]

IrishCop,

I remember the "clamshell" from my rookie year but never owned on or even wanted to.

JORDAN Border Patrol holsters filled with model 27 & 28 S&W were what was popular, where i did my early days on the job.

yours, sw

 

[IrishCop]

I never carried one on the job but did have one ages ago. IIRC the release is the same as the old Jay-Pee "safety holster" where the latch is on the inside of the trigger.

I never was very fond of their police work 'cause it didn't seem to have anything to do with the real world.

However I think "Dragnet" may have been an infulence.

Charlie, I kinda get a kick of how straight arrow ol' Malloy and Reed were. Never a foul.word or bad attitude towards any "citizen", ...drunk, druggie, thug or hippie. Fair and even handed, and wouldn't even take a free cup of joe.

"Dragnet", now how can you not like Joe Friday? I am still trying to.figure out how he walked with his butt cheeks scrunched so tight together.

I have been splitting my time between "Adam 12" and "Southland". The difference in how street law enforcement.is portrayed is...measured in magnigudes.

 

[TommyGunn]

Ah, ADAM-12.
Have the series on DVD. Can't say much about the holsters...
One of my favorites was when Reed & Malloy went to serve a warrant on a woman. They knocked on the front door of a house and a big hulking guy opens the door. When Malloy tells him about the warrant, which is for the bigguy's wife, he flips out and drags one of the two (forget which) inside and the other busts in the door. The ensuing fight knocks furniture askew and paintings off the wall. At one point Reed & Mallow each have one of this guy's arms pinned against a wall and even that isn't enough, he breaks free.
Then his wife shows up. When she discovers her house with all the mess, she starts yelling at her husband.
The big thug who'd been tossing two police officers around is now being attacked by his slight of stature wife who is beating him with her purse .... and he's begging her to stop....just begging her ......

Atleast the guy respected women ..... if not the LAPD.:cryinlaugh:

I enjoyed the series ....Dragnet as well. Didn't find Sgt. Friday as ....uh, "tight-cheeked" as some.

Neither series was as good as an older goodie, The Naked City. RTV is running the early half hour version with John McIntyre and James Franciscus Sunday evenings at 6:00PM.
Martin Milner, who played Officer Malloy was also in Route 66 which I just obtained on DVD, although I haven't had the opportunity to see yet....liked that old Corvette though.

And now back to holsters....:mrgreen:

 

[ExSarge]

I have one of those "Safety Holsters" JP? My uncle who was a cop back in the 40's & 50's used it. He always thought it was pretty cool. Latch kind of scratched up the .38 he carried. I still have the .38 with his name engraved on it.

 

[Kevin Gibson]

I don’t recall any cops in my hometown of Sacramento carrying in a clamshell, but you really wouldn’t know until they opened it up. Otherwise it could often be mistaken for a Berns-Martin breakfront style unless you got REAL close to look at it. I can recall many new cops training with the breakfront holsters, and you could always guarantee that someone’s revolver was going to go skidding across the pavement in front of them as they lose hold of it doing the breakfront draw.

 

[Charlie Petty]

I have a coupe of the old Jay-Pee holsters that came with guns I wanted. Both are for Colts, one OP the other a New Service. Both are the swivel style with either six or 12 cartridge loops. I tried one and the swivel drove me mad in the car.

I had an experience like the one Tommy Gun related.

We went to pick up a guy on a warrant for assaulting his wife. We were talking to him through the screen door and everything was peaceful. We explained the warrant and all was well until we told him he had to come with us. The next thing I knew was two cops, a screen door and the subject were all rolling around in the front yard. Same story : the fight wandered around awhile, ended up back in the house where furniture was assaulted and finally all three of us were lying on the floor trying to catch our breath.

I said, "stop this *** or I'm gonna hurt you."

"OK. but you didn't win" he said.

"Fine by me"

Then we all got up and went to jail.

 

[William R. Moore]

I lost a long post about the Speed Safety. One of the big problems with the holster was the vulnerability to pranksters hitting the release button and dumping your piece on the ground. I also recall a guy having to have the hinge cut with a welding grinder 'cause the release broke.

One of the speeches I used to hear was on the lines of "You a man and I'se a man. In a fair fight I'll whup your ***." My reply was to agree and then state that it wasn't gonna be a fair fight. Usually worked.

 

[stand watie]

WilliamRMoore,

rotfl.

yours, sw

 

[IrishCop]

Ah, ADAM-12.
Have the series on DVD. Can't say much about the holsters...
One of my favorites was when Reed & Malloy went to serve a warrant on a woman. They knocked on the front door of a house and a big hulking guy opens the door. When Malloy tells him about the warrant, which is for the bigguy's wife, he flips out and drags one of the two (forget which) inside and the other busts in the door. The ensuing fight knocks furniture askew and paintings off the wall. At one point Reed & Mallow each have one of this guy's arms pinned against a wall and even that isn't enough, he breaks free.
Then his wife shows up. When she discovers her house with all the mess, she starts yelling at her husband.
The big thug who'd been tossing two police officers around is now being attacked by his slight of stature wife who is beating him with her purse .... and he's begging her to stop....just begging her ......

Atleast the guy respected women ..... if not the LAPD.:cryinlaugh:

I enjoyed the series ....Dragnet as well. Didn't find Sgt. Friday as ....uh, "tight-cheeked" as some.

Neither series was as good as an older goodie, The Naked City. RTV is running the early half hour version with John McIntyre and James Franciscus Sunday evenings at 6:00PM.
Martin Milner, who played Officer Malloy was also in Route 66 which I just obtained on DVD, although I haven't had the opportunity to see yet....liked that old Corvette though.

And now back to holsters....:mrgreen:

I saw that one just the other day. And don't get me wrong, Tommy. I LOVE Jack Webb...he just had that strange way of walking..

 

[IrishCop]

I have a coupe of the old Jay-Pee holsters that came with guns I wanted. Both are for Colts, one OP the other a New Service. Both are the swivel style with either six or 12 cartridge loops. I tried one and the swivel drove me mad in the car.

I had an experience like the one Tommy Gun related.

We went to pick up a guy on a warrant for assaulting his wife. We were talking to him through the screen door and everything was peaceful. We explained the warrant and all was well until we told him he had to come with us. The next thing I knew was two cops, a screen door and the subject were all rolling around in the front yard. Same story : the fight wandered around awhile, ended up back in the house where furniture was assaulted and finally all three of us were lying on the floor trying to catch our breath.

I said, "stop this *** or I'm gonna hurt you."

"OK. but you didn't win" he said.

"Fine by me"

Then we all got up and went to jail.

Classic, Charlie. Just classic.

 

[IrishCop]

I lost a long post about the Speed Safety. One of the big problems with the holster was the vulnerability to pranksters hitting the release button and dumping your piece on the ground. I also recall a guy having to have the hinge cut with a welding grinder 'cause the release broke.

One of the speeches I used to hear was on the lines of "You a man and I'se a man. In a fair fight I'll whup your ***." My reply was to agree and then state that it wasn't gonna be a fair fight. Usually worked.

Honest, Mr. Moore, you still hear that to this day. Most of the time, it's just like you said...you agree, but let'em know that they'll still lose.

 

[stand watie]

IrishCop,

When i was a deputy with the NOCSO in NOLA, I've been known to tell a tough that, "You may win the one on the street BUT we will definitely win the one at the Old Parish Prison.".
(The brighter creeps understood; the DUMB-bunnies found out the hard way.)

yours, sw

 

[shep854]

Good reading! Thanks, Terry, for starting the ball rolling.

 

[dfariswheel]

For a REAL eye opener, catch the original 1950's "Dragnet" movie.
It was certainly a different day.
The detectives pick up some hoods and take them to a downtown hotel and sweat them for most of a day.
I can't imagine what would happen these days if a cop did that.

The movie itself was very much not like other movies of the era. There's a really (for the day) brutal shotgun murder.

One of the funniest situations was on the old "Police Story".
There's a heavily muscled oriental guy standing on a table offering to take on a bunch of very reluctant cops.
A veteran cop walks in, take a look at all this then walks over to the table.
He motions the big guy to bend over and whispers in his ear.
The guy breaks out in this huge smile and gets off the table and cuffs up with no problem.

One of the rookies asks the old timer what he said.
He replies, "I told him that if he didn't get off the table and come quietly, I was going to break my night stick over his head".

 

[William R. Moore]

Sparks a memory of a cop in an emergency room fixedly staring at his sap. When I asked him if he was OK, he replied "I bent my sap on him!" Sure enough, the lead weight at the end was shaped to the guys noggin.

 

[Kevin Gibson]

Perps are just a different breed. I can't even recall how many I brawled with and I wasn't even a cop. The perp for some dumb ass reason thought he had a chance with two paramedics, 4 firefighters, and at least one cop there. They'd take a swing at me usually because I was big and had a baby face. Never met a one that whipped me, but usually they didn't get much of a chance. After I floored them, 5-6 guys would play dog-pile and that was the end of the perp's day.

And the other thing was, cops would often give them the option of going to the hospital with me, or going to jail with them. 99% of the time, they'd take jail...I'll just never get that. If I were on the wrong end of a cop, I'd do ANYTHING to keep myself out of jail...but they just don't care. Jail is just something that comes from time to time to these people. If not for the Grace of God, there I would be.

 

[IrishCop]

Perps are just a different breed. I can't even recall how many I brawled with and I wasn't even a cop. The perp for some dumb ass reason thought he had a chance with two paramedics, 4 firefighters, and at least one cop there. They'd take a swing at me usually because I was big and had a baby face. Never met a one that whipped me, but usually they didn't get much of a chance. After I floored them, 5-6 guys would play dog-pile and that was the end of the perp's day.

And the other thing was, cops would often give them the option of going to the hospital with me, or going to jail with them. 99% of the time, they'd take jail...I'll just never get that. If I were on the wrong end of a cop, I'd do ANYTHING to keep myself out of jail...but they just don't care. Jail is just something that comes from time to time to these people. If not for the Grace of God, there I would be.

For most of us, jail is something that is almost unthinkable. The closest I ever want to come to being in jail was my 6 weeks in Basic Training.

But there are folks that view it as just a normal part of life.

Okay, I guess I gotta throw in a cop story...

Had just come on duty on third shift patrol and heard a local small town unit and one of our guys out at a domestic. Took me about 15 minutes to get from my house to our Central station, which was located in the small town where the disturbance was located. The guys were still there and hadn't cleared up, so I eased on over there.

They were all outside. The offender was standing up next to his car and refusing to turn around and put his hands behind his back. I walked up to our deputy and asked, "Is he under arrest?" He replied "Yeah."

So I grabbed the guy, bent him over and put him in a choke hold and told him he could breathe again when he put his hands behind his back.

Worked out just fine.