What Leather Holster Makers Make The Grade For Heavy Use FOF Testing?

[jetfire]

For mass market leather, Galco makes three products that I'd recommend without hesitation. For traditional IWB, the Royal Guard and Summer Comfort are GTG, they're based off well thought out designs are well made products. For OWB, I've been using a Combat Master belt holster as my daily for the last 5 months of this deployment, and it's done everything I've needed it to do.

The thing to remember with leather holsters is that they're wear items, and will degrade with time, use, and exposure to the elements. For example my Combat Master will probably be fine for the next 5 years, but as a matter of habit I tend to replace them every two years or so just to be on the safe side.

[nalesq]

The thing to remember with leather holsters is that they're wear items, and will degrade with time, use, and exposure to the elements.

I think degradation is probably particularly accelerated with a pancake-style holster that is getting crushed repeatedly under your body with no gun to keep it in its proper shape as you are rolling around in FOF evolutions that go to the ground.

With a Kydex holster, cracks from damage due to such abuse will usually be pretty obvious. But with leather, the main thing is to make sure that the holster opening (mouth?) is not deformed, but remains properly shaped so that you can reholster without having to push the mouth open by rooting around with the muzzle.

For this reason, if one did a lot of FOF training involving handguns (obviously with a sims gun or other training simulant), it would probably be wise to do so with a dedicated “training” holster, rather than risk damaging the holster you may need to depend on for keeps.



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[Maple Syrup Actual]

I've taken an SME and a Watson special through pretty harsh FOF and they were both unscathed afterwards. The temptation to run my Alessi Bodyguard in FOF is real but I probably never will. Or will I? Actually that would be a fun experiment, even though I think we could all predict how it would end.

I have personally ripped kydex holsters off people, twice by breaking belt loops and one I got a hold of the butt of a blue gun and wrenched it towards me and the holster body split. It's hard for me to imagine doing that to almost any decent piece of leather.

That said I do not hesitate to take my Dark Star stuff to ECQC. I think my Todd Green orange special has been through twice and it looks new and has had no issues. My Clinch Pick also rides in a Dark Star sheath and I have no concerns about it breaking. QUALITY kydex I think can keep up with leather pretty well but in general, I would take almost any sturdy leather rig and I would only take a handful of kydex holsters into FOF.

[jetfire]

That said I do not hesitate to take my Dark Star stuff to ECQC.

I did ECQC with a G17 AIWB holster from DSG and it was fine, except for when a cave troll fell directly on top of me and put his entire weight on the gun/holster combo. The resulting bruise was pretty spectacular. But that also would have happened with any gun/holster combo in that position.

[M2CattleCo]

Injection molded belt loops are the best thing that ever happened to Kydex holsters.

It also seems the stuff they use now is better than 10+ years ago. Or maybe the molding method is easier on the material.

Back in the day cracked Kydex was not uncommon.

Fun tip: You can make a cracked kydex get by patching it with Barge Cement and those big USPS Kevlar envelopes. DO NOT patch the inside of the holster.

[JodyH]

Highnoon Holsters has always performed for me, I only buy the horsehide versions because horsehide holds its shape better, holds up to sweat better and is more comfortable against the skin than cow in my experience. Natural finish horsehide also blends in very well with my khaki Duluth pants and khaki belt for the rare occasions I'm only lazily concealed. One caveat is their sweat shield design sucks, so I only buy their non-sweat shield versions.
I used a Hideaway (horsehide w/clip) for four years of daily AIWB carry along with 2 ECQC classes and plenty of mixed combatives training in the gym. It's still serviceable but looks nasty after all that sweat, blood and gun oil.
I'm currently using both a "Tomahawk" at 3:30 OWB and a "Bare Necessity" 3:30 IWB for my Glock 26 (both in horsehide) and they're holding up great.
I have a "Skyhigh" (horsehide) on order for my Glock 19 for when I ride my dual sport motorcycle and want a concealable OWB with retention.

[JTQ]

Highnoon Holsters has always performed for me, ... One caveat is their sweat shield design sucks, so I only buy their non-sweat shield versions.

I agree, they make a solid product, but their sweat shield is much too tall for my tastes.

[MDFA]

Mllt Sparks or Mitch Rosen Holster with a Graith Specialist or similar belt in my experience.

[medmo]

Kramer makes (or made, not sure) a paddle holster that was issued to the Michigan State Police for years.

Kramer still makes the MSP Paddle Holster. It’s my factory OWB holster. Comfy all day carry and easy off/on. Just received one Christmas Eve for a project Ruger Security Six I picked up in October. Milt Sparks is definitely top quality also based on my experience.