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It depended on the maker.
HD; I don't know - I mean, it sure looks convenient for a pack of cigs and a lighter, but I'm not so sure they would base pretty much the entire design of the jackets front around it. I'm thinking that keeping your hands warm has got to have some priority over smoking.
Nick123; I was thinking that too but it's just so... peculiar, like it's really meant for something. Pistol really does fit well inside the thing, and the cargo pocket can hold two magazines of a 1911, but was it really based around a weapon?
The origin is lost in the mists of time, but here are a few facts:
These jackets started out as patrol jackets for motorcycle cops, at a time when the revolver was standard issue for cops.
A six shot revolver runs dry very quickly in a gunfight, so many police departments either sanctioned or mandated a second compact pistol.
The best known and most common of these up until the mid Sixties was the Colt Detective Special, built on Colt's "D" frame, which gave six additional shots of 38 special in a highly compact package.
A Schott Perfecto D-pocket will, as I have verified personally, accept a Detective Special, or Colt's other compact revolvers such as the Banker's Special, or indeed the 5-shot S&W 36. A map is a poor fit by any standard, however.
Reloading in the era before speedloaders involved what were called speed strips, rubber straps with pockets that held the base rims of six shells, which could be quickly pressed into an opened revolver cylinder two at a time.
A standard Safariland speed strip fits into the snapped pocket of a Perfecto.
The placement of the D-pocket is ideal for a right-handed officer bent over the handlebars of a Fifties motorcycle to reach his back-up piece.
Interesting story...but...
I grew up in the '50s and don't ever remember Cops wearing D-pockets. The leather Cop jackets(even MC Cops) in my locale were entirely of different design with a much less hardcore civi MC style.
Kinda difficult using handwarmers to warm your hands while riding a bike. Gloves are better at doing that.
A pack of unfiltered luckys or Camels fit nicely in the cig pocket in those days. Never saw anyone carrying a gun in the D pocket..especially a revolver..although one could..but anything larger than a small flat semi auto would 'print'. Many of my friends back in the day had their gloves stuffed in and partially hanging out of the Zippered D pocket..cause they were 'cool'..Man..!!
HD
Buco is calling it a change pocket while Sears, which also produced the style, is referring to it as a cigarette pocket. Cigarette package would also print over time, true?
Maybe...but what would be so revealing about a cigarette pack print..?? Who would care that you were carrying a pack of cigs..!!
HD