We get asked many times a day “What type of holster do I need?” With that question we alway delve into a cavalcade of other questions. After 10 years of building holsters, we know that not everyone needs the same thing. We also know that while one holster may work for everything, it doesn’t necessarily work well for everything.
Knowledge of the use of the holster is a critical thing. A holster that we use and love for USPSA competitive shooting is not the same holster we would use for riding on our side by side on the farm. As we think about that basic question, many people just say “to carry” with that we delve into what they want or need.
So. Let’s start with the idea of carrying a gun every day. The debate of open carry or concealed carry is not a debate we run into headstrong, but we do need to hear what the end user wants. There are two ways to carry a gun daily and most choose an Inside the Waistband (IWB) holster for every day.
An inside the waistband holster sits inside your pants and generally is the most concealed way to carry a gun. In some cases you can still keep a shirt tucked in even with certain options. The second type is an outside the waistband holster designed to pull the pistol into your body. We call ours the Tight and Tuck, the goal is to get everything extra removed and pull it tight. These holsters may be able to be concealed by the use of a jacket, hoodie, or heavy long bodied shirts. For these types of holsters you want a high retention so that the gun does not dislodge under daily wear.
The next type of person we talk to on a regular basis is someone just wanting to use the holster to carry a gun at the range. For this we look at an outside the waistband holster that is easy to put on and off. They want it to be comfortable and secure. The holster should have a solid click and decent retention. We will walk these folks through the options of Tight and Tuck, our 3 Gun and competition style holster.
Our competition holster is what made us famous. A true competition holster should have minimal flex to it. Flex allows the gun to bounce if you are drawing from surrender or some other awkward hand positioning. For retention a competition holster should provide a minimal level to it. We are talking about speed and efficiency, the more retention on the holster the more it will slow down your draw speed. The staff here at Red Hill Tactical call my holsters buckets. I set them so that there is almost nothing touching the gun. With that in mind, a competition holster generally speaking will not hold a gun upside down. Most competition holsters will have a low cut to them to allow the sights to clear. You can have many types of attachments on these holsters in order to meet your needs.
The third holster we offer for a range holster is what we call a 3 gun holster. This holster is built to allow some room between the gun and the body, but the retention is upped some. This type of holster covers some more of the gun and offers security to protect a good portion of the gun.
We try to give that advice to help aid a customer in making their choice well informed.
The last type of holster that is presented is an active retention holster. Safariland is one of the largest and best makers of active retention holsters. This is the type of holster that many police agencies choose as duty gear. This holster has some sort of mechanism that requires you to release what is securing the pistol. This is also the type of holsters we recommend for someone working around the farm on their equipment or back up pistol while hunting. Obviously these are not the quickest holsters, but are designed to keep the gun in place.
In our next blog, we will delve into the world of Inside the Waistband holsters in detail.