Last edited by SD; 11-15-2020 at 10:37 AM.
If I wanted a sap shipped to my door next week - who, what, etc?
Something that might fit in the utility pocket of some Carhartts.
There's nothing civil about this war.
When I hired on in 2002 the legendary status of the Gonzales sap was well established but I was largely ignorant to it. Fast forward several years and going out to patrol I knew a bunch of people who had them and I wanted one so bad but Gonzales wasn't making them any more and no one was selling theirs. I remember hearing about parents gifting saps to their kids when they graduated the academy and people retiring passing them down to people. Did I say I wanted one soooo bad!?!?!
Fast forward a few years and our department store all of a sudden had "415" saps in stock. Turns out Robert Gonzales (so I was told) had allowed the maker of the (at the time) current saps, Bill Lopez in Idaho, to produce a sap to the proper specs to be department approved. It was around $70 and I bought it immediately. I carried it on patrol for a few years before moving on to a full-time firearm instructor spot. The department store hasn't carried the Lopez/Gonzales 415 saps for years. I see a repro version is available and it's tempting just because.
When I saw this thread I knew I needed to post a picture, and it needed to have a bunch of memorable things in it. It took a few days to put it all together, but here it is with a bit of a description. The centerpiece is obviously the sap I described above. If you like saps, you should check out as much as you can about Robert Gonzales and his various designs... I think it's very cool that my department still approves the 415 and I'd carry it any day instead of the expandable we're required to carry - but since the expandable is required I'll carry the sap in addition just because I can.
Then there's the shotgun... an Ithaca 37 that was a department gun and I was fortunate to purchase it. It's the same type I frequently checked out and used on patrol until we converted to the Remington 870, and my memories of some of the incidents with the Ithaca make it a serious nostalgia gun for me.
The Beretta is the 92FS I was issued in 2002 and while it's been updated with the appropriate (and still department approved) "G" kit, LTT grips, extended mag release, and "D" spring, is still largely the way it was back in "the day". On the first day of our academy range training, our instructors blacked out the three dots on the sights. I left the rear blacked out but as soon as I was done with range training I cleaned off the front dot. It's still that way. I converted to the M&P back in 2012 or 2013 so I was able to buy my Beretta back so now it's mine. It sits in the original Safariland 280S holster I was issued. It was designed specifically for my department and while it's different, I really liked it. It's no longer made and with WMLs all the rage (as it should be), this is relegated to a storage tub for old stuff I'm not ready to part with.
The S&W M-15 4" revolver was a gift from a friend and it's an issue revolver from my department. It pre-dates me but the 4-digit department-applied number happens to have the last three digits that match the unit I worked when I was an FTO. He didn't know that when he got it for me, and because of that it's another "never sell".
The snubby 2" revolver was purchased in (if I remember correctly from the box) 1992 by a partner of mine that retired a couple years ago. He bought it as a backup and carried it for years before selling it to me. It's a really nice S&W 640 .38 Special with some action work (after I aquired it) and the only snubby I've ever been able to shoot accurately. It's sitting in an old Mika pocket holster. Robert Mika was an LAPD guy (I'm not going to research his rank right now) and made holsters on the side that became a big thing. The one in the picture was first introduced to me sitting, along wtih a couple dozen identical holsters, in a plastic tub in a police supply store in southern California. It was cheap... I can't remember how much, but I needed a pocket holster for my S&W 342PD backup gun after having just graduated the academy. I walked into the store and the employee greeted me. He'd been a role-player for our "critical role playing" in the academy. The greeting went something like "HEY! YOU ALMOST BROKE MY FINGERS!"
...Sorry...
The Streamlight SL20 was used while I was assigned to custody and patrol and was upgraded with a Terralux 600 lumen engine later in my patrol time. I have another that got a more modern Malkoff drop-in but that was later and after I left patrol. I left this light as it was when I worked my last (assigned) patrol shift. It will stay that way. The other light is a Surefire 6Z. It was a trade back in 2001 (I think). I'd won a Surefire M2 at the Steel Challenge and a buddy (who was funny enough in SoCal a well-known stunt man and shooting enthusiast) got a 6Z. I ended up trading him because he wanted the "better" light and I wanted a good light for work and the one that was "issued to the FBI". There was a time when I wasn't nostalgic and was actually idealistic. Oh the days.... I carried that light on patrol for years. The rubber switch has been worn smooth and it was eventually "upgraded" - if you can call it that - to the Surefire LED (80 lumens or something...lol). I could drop in a new light engine like I have in a bunch of other lights, but this one will stay the way it was like the Streamlight.
Oh yea.. the picture:
Anyway...
Sword Leatherworks 1800s style soft loaded sap. And it came with a free monogrammed key fob
Plenty of pics:
https://www.swordleather.works/colle...assic-jack-sap
My town is still Mayberry-by-the-Sea but one thing I discovered is that there is a summer occasional transient population with dogs.
A 14 year old kid got bit pretty hard by some kind of GSD mix belonging to one of them in front of the grocery store a few months back, so the one update I have to this is that now, I actually can think of a non-fish application for that thumping stick. And Erin's keys are on a Foster cable jack for the same reason.
The pepper spray options here are more oriented around bears - every creek that reaches the salt water down at the bottom of the hill is a salmon spawning stream, so this time of year, there are bears that come down out of the hills. They're common enough that that's a reasonable precaution, so lots of people take big cannisters of bear spray into the bush with them. But they're the size of a big can of spraypaint and you wouldn't have one handy going to the grocery store.
But big dogs I see while out walking...yeah, if I'm with the previously indicated tender morsel, I've probably got a thumb hooked casually in my right front pocket, and the loop of that thumper around my ring finger as soon as I see a dog that looks capable of doing damage.
This is a thread where I built a boat I designed and which I very occasionally update with accounts of using it, which is really fun as long as I'm not driving over logs and blowing up the outboard.
https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....ilding-a-skiff