Re-Inventing the Wheel
In Part I of this series, we discussed the birth of the breakfront holster with the Berns-Martin design, as well as the development of competing designs from popular police holster makers Hoyt and Safety Speed.
We now pick up the breakfront saga where we left off . . .
Continue reading “Fighting Leather: The Breakfront, Part II”
While some of the nation’s oldest uniformed police departments trace their roots back to the mid-1800s, it wasn’t until the early 20th Century that the majority of American police sidearms moved from tunic pockets to openly-carried duty holsters. The earliest rigs were generally substandard in materials and design, and it wasn’t long before the search for the perfect police duty holster occupied the minds of uniformed lawmen from coast to coast.
When the double action, swing-out cylinder revolver began to take shape in the late 1800s, it seemed like the designers had already used up all their energy by the time they got to the back end. The grip frames on these guns were universally small, and the grips (or “stocks,” in S&W parlance) almost looked like they were afterthoughts.
Back when the revolver was King, wheelgun shooters and manufacturers paid attention to details that are sometimes overlooked today. A great example of this, is the host of trigger and hammer options that were available back when sixguns still filled most of the duty holsters and won most of the matches.
My dad subscribed to many of the gun magazines back in the mid-1970s and I’d leaf through them, pausing to read a story when something special caught my eye: a Fitz Colt. One article in particular featured a photo of a stubby revolver with a short barrel, a short grip, a bobbed hammer, and a cut away trigger guard. That last feature was the most intriguing to me. Continue reading “A Special Fitz: My Fitz Colt Official Police”
