...developed in WWII and used in underground warfare." It looks, unopened, like a collapsible baton, but it opens into a handle joined to a powerful spring, which multiplies the force of the striking knob on its end. This weapon is probably not as useful for police work as a standard collapsible baton, but it is probably the most deadly small impact weapon you can get.…as suggested from Kill or be Killed, by Rex Applegate.
In Kill or Get Killed, there is instruction on grappling with the stick also. Rex classified the spring baton in the category of “blackjack” as was mentioned. So the following is really a stick/blackjack discussion, specifically.
I have one of those. And I have pounded away with it on the wooden war posts. I am sure it will hurt. I discovered that it takes however a certain amount of uninterrupted velocity to develop a significant striking speed to injure or most certainly to kill. Killing must be the head? It also takes the target being in exact position at the right spot to feel the maximum velocity of the spring delivery.
The stick swing, it is said, can crack or crush in a skull at about 20 MPH, an easily achieved speed with a solid stick, clocked at 50 or 60 MPH by medium-skilled swingers. It can push an arm out of the way and a two-hand solid stick shove to the face, only three inches worth to the face or throat is a real disruptor.
The solid stick, expandable or otherwise, offers so many advantages, least of which choking and even grappling that a loose, spring stick cannot. "More bullets in your gun." More possibilities.
Solid sticks, expanded or otherwise, better block knives and other expedient weapons like sticks or chairs, or whatever... the spring version is useless.
What if you fall in CQC battle with a madman? We use solid sticks in ground fighting all the time. The spring version is almost useless in this very possible, probable environment. The spring version's solid handle could be used in ground fighting, but the spring and knob does nothing but flop around and get in the way.
For every one reason to have the spring version, there are probably 5 to 10 reasons to have something that pops open into a solid, fixed stick.
Pros of the solid stick:
Do not need a precise target in a precise position, at a precise velocity
Stabs with the tip (beware cheap expandables!)
Hits and hurts with the entire length of the shaft, not only a knob
Pushes the enemy
Pulls the enemy
Turns the enemy
Blocks enemy attacks
Chokes the enemy
Controls prisoners
"More bullets in your gun." More possibilities.
Hock