(Another) glowing JMCK AIWB holster review

[iheartglock]

Cliff notes for the TL;DR crowd: I love it. There's pictures, too.

First of all, being a longtime lurker here, I have spent many hours reading so many good threads. I can't thank you guys enough. It seems to me this is the best shooting forum on the internet. No matter what I'm looking for handgun or concealed carry related, I end up back here. No drama, no actual trolling, all adults (by age anyway ), it's amazing. Anyway, on to the review.

This review really is nothing that hasn't been stated in multiple other threads on this forum - one of which is up to eighty-some odd pages now if I remember correctly(!) - but that goes to show the quality of JMCK's work. A little (lot of) background: I've had my concealed permit for nine years now; not all of that time was I exercising the right. There were some circumstances years ago that made me stop carrying because I was not mature enough to be carrying a weapon. I got back into carrying again a while back and since I have recently revamped the majority of the pistol selection in my safe, it was holster searching time. I have the obligatory drawer full of holsters so I wanted something that would become the be-all end-all. Good luck with that, huh! I had been carrying in an Alien Gear Cloak Tuck 2.0 (don't flame me too hard) for a good while now and honestly, it's really not a bad holster. Had a badly trimmed trigger guard on one shell (could see 90% of the trigger), they sent another one out with no questions asked. It's a cheap hybrid but has held up quite well and for my body style is comfortable and conceals decently.

I stumbled across the AIWB monster thread a while back and my interest was massively piqued. AIWB? Appendix? What is this "junk carry" that everyone is speaking of?? I read every single page and post of that thread, I shit you not. What a goldmine! After the 100+ pages of reading, I realized that CCC, Raven Concealment, Dale Fricke, and JMCK seemed to be the common denominators of quality AIWB rigs. I considered adding the Incog to that list after doing more Google searching but every picture I looked at, even a G19/G23 had the grip poking through baggy t-shirts! After looking at websites the above mentioned sites, I narrowed down to the CCC Shaggy and the JMCK AIWB holster. I decided to send JMCK an email (no reason other than his site had many more pictures). I expected a reply within a day or so. Apparently, guys on here weren't kidding as I was replied to within hours. I bugged the absolute hell out of Mr. Mayer. I had to have been his least favorite person for a couple weeks. He should have charged double just for my annoyance. It started out as a holster to fit my M&P 40c, and ended up being a holster for my G22/G23. I probably couldn't count the emails that I sent on both of my hands. I can't say enough about Tony and his customer service. Working in retail for 13 years myself, he is absolutely top notch. Now we'll get into the good stuff....

I'm 5'10" 175lb. Holster design is as follows -- Glock 22 length, left handed, black .080 kydex, extra tuck, medium sweat guard, 1.5" soft loops, TUCKABLE. My job requires my polo be tucked in, holster had to be tuckable. I was pleasantly surprised when Tony told me that's not a problem, just costs a little more. Let me say this--this holster is a freaking work of art. I've never owned an actual custom holster. All of my experience has been "big box" holsters. Desantis, Galco, Crossbreed, Alien Gear, Blackhawk (yes, I may have a Derpa...or two), the list goes on and on. This thing is beautiful. I mean, as far as you can consider black kydex beautiful.....wow. The fit of the holster around the gun is perfection. I would love to watch him form these things.

The retention was set just how I like when I received it. I might tighten it slightly in the near future but we'll see. Both pistols snap into place very audibly and are held very well. The ONLY thing I had to change was to take a knife and shave about 1mm of kydex off from where it meets the corner of the magazine release (Gen4, changed release to lefty) because it was touching it. I couldn't physically make it press the button, but I'm not going to tempt Murphy.

The wedge and the extra tuck work in tandem very well and they keep my weapons pretty tight against my stomach but somehow allow a full master grip to be easily accomplished. I was a little worried about the "extra tuck" option being uncomfortable. Honestly depending on the pants I'm wearing, the belt, the gun....it can be. However, 85% of the time it is just fine and rests in the pelvic crease just like it's designed to Can you feel a little pressure? Yes. I think that means it's doing its job. It's definitely helpful when I decide to stuff the G22 in my pants before work or before leaving the house in casual clothes. With a tucked in polo work shirt, the G23 is beautifully concealed, the G22 mag base plate can poke out minimally. I was paranoid about it but I'm pretty sure nobody else noticed. Again, this may have been the combination of belt/pants. I decided today that my extremely stiff leather belt works better than my nylon reinforced "instructor's belt." I love the fact that I don't have to crank my belt down really tight like I do when I wear IWB 8 o'clock. Oddly enough, I read a few guys state that it works better for them with a floppier belt. I also think belt loop positioning can play a part in it, too. My Levi's seem to let the holster be in the perfect position, Wrangler's seem to be not so great. My cheapo LAPG tacti-cool cargo pants seem to work very well, however the wide-ass belt loop on the left front gets smashed a bit by the holster's left-most soft loop.

I spent a couple days dry firing at home and getting more comfortable drawing and holstering slowly and safely before finally loading up and heading to the range. I still haven't run any drills at more than 3/4 speed because I'm still new to drawing and holstering in this manner. So far, I like how it works. Again, the ease at which a full master grip can be obtained makes me very happy. Being the plastic pistol fan that I am, I feel I need to start pinching pennies to acquire a "Gadget".
I'm still blown away that I can carry a full sized service pistol comfortably and extremely concealed. Massive kudos to the JMCK operation for an incredible holster and customer service, and also to the members of this forum for your advice and unknowingly pointing me in the right direction!

Here, have some damn pictures.

[Tony Mayer]

iheartglock, that's awesome and glad that it's working for you. Thanks for the review!