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Review: Milt Sparks Summer Special 2 for the SA-35

I've had a summer special for quite a few years. Everything Jeremy wrote is true. Back when I ordered mine it was nearly 8 months to get one, That was when Milt Sparks was turning the business to the current owner. It is still the most comfortable holster I own.
 
I've had a summer special for quite a few years. Everything Jeremy wrote is true. Back when I ordered mine it was nearly 8 months to get one, That was when Milt Sparks was turning the business to the current owner. It is still the most comfortable holster I own.

I've had a summer special for quite a few years. Everything Jeremy wrote is true. Back when I ordered mine it was nearly 8 months to get one, That was when Milt Sparks was turning the business to the current owner. It is still the most comfortable holster I own.
A friend sent me the blog post or I'd've not known about your forum. Very polished are both :)

Milt and I were contemporaries when he arrived on the scene in 1972; I'd joined Bianchi Holster in 1970 to replace both Bruce Nelson and Gordon Davis (who created Neale Perkins' line) who were resident there in the late 1960s. The tale repeated in the blog post is essentially fact-free (I was there) and even Milt did not tell his story that way, nor did Bruce.

Instead Bruce was not an LEO in 1967 which is when he created the Summer Special, which he copied from a design by Bob Angell who was at Seventrees at that moment (with a little help from Jeff Cooper). Bruce became an LEO early 1970s after leaving Bianchi Holster while he and the rest of us were dealing with the threat of being drafted, each in our own way.

Even Milt acknowledged in his interviews that he copied the Nelson design first beginning '72ish, then asked later when he encountered Bruce at the 1976 formation of IPSC in Columbia. I was there at the conference, too. Milt did not ever create any unique designs; all were copied from Nelson, Anderson, Sloan, even Bianchi and Davis (the high slide guard behind the pistol was his and before him it was used by Heiser in the late '40s. On Heiser's IWB with the rough flesh side out!).

It's a shame that a new article would simply parrot the myths that were first created by Tony Kanaley when the company incorporated in 1990 and Milt retired and left Kanaley to run things for him, then died in 1995 (as did Bruce). There is a mass of literature that tells us the truth; why take the word of Sparks Co's current owner? The true story is told in my book with John Witty that is titled "Holstory -- Gunleather of the Twentieth Century". Researching the book to learn just who really DID accomplish what, was humbling for me :).
 
My 'temporary' field holster for my SA-35 is a Bianchi holster I bought in the 60s college days for my Colt Govt Mdl!
 

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Lol, the website does suck but I am fortunate that the Sparks office is 2 blocks from my office. Walk in and talk and the boys are great!!
 
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