It's Andy Fish!

Veronica pointed out the obvious the other day when we were cleaning out our walk-in closet.

“You have too many holsters.”

Common problem, right? Well it is for folks who exercise their Second Amendment rights. Holsters are, I would imagine, like handbags, you struggle to find the perfect one, and then from there the perfect one reveals its flaws over the years and thus another one enters into the fray.

The other thing I never thought of was the idea of owning multiple pistols (and that doesn’t include the rifles and shotguns I have). Philip Marlowe and Peter Gunn only seemed to have one pistol, I know my cowboy heroes MIGHT have had two– but they were usually identical so you just needed a right handed and a left handed holster.

Now, I don’t carry every gun I own- some are safe queens– meaning they exist in my gun safe until they get taken out to the range for use. Some of these I keep because a friend likes it– I have a Walther PPQ22 that one of my best friends really enjoys.

I also have a .44 Magnum which, as Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry explains to us is the most powerful handgun in the world. It may or may not be. Mine has a 4″ barrel rather than the 8″ barrel Harry used. Why? Because I carry it when we go walking in the woods in case some friendly wild animal decides not to be friendly and I don’t want to carry essentially a rifle on my hip.

It’s a VERY heavy gun too– they don’t talk about that in Hollywood– I remember in Die Hard Bruce Willis carrying around a duffle bag full of ammo and he tosses it like it’s filled with dirty laundry. Ammo is very heavy which is why you’re selective in what extra you carry with you.

Probably the most comfortable holster I have is a Hungarian shoulder holster made out of leather. It can sometimes bite at the neck if I don’t have a collar and you have to wear an outer layer to conceal it.

Inside the Waistband holsters (IWB) are extremely popular– the holster sits inside your pants and so does your gun. I don’t like carrying anything inside my pants so I use Outside the Waistband holsters (OWB), but even then there are a number of different options.

Leather is by far the most comfortable holster. It forms to both your pistol and your body as it ages and it can get to the point you forget it’s even there.

The simplest of the leather holsters is this one above. It’s not pistol specific and sized solely for a small pistol or a large pistol. It’s a piece of leather that sits on your belt and your pistol sits inside that.

Pro’s

• Relatively inexpensive– but I don’t advise going for cheap leather– go for the good stuff.

• Extremely comfortable– so much so you might forget you have your pistol (see the problem below).

Cons

• A lot of the pistol is exposed. This means if you use your gun at the range and put it in this it’s going to be hot where its exposed.
• Can easily slip out– I own one of these and that’s a real problem. I always make sure I have it when I leave a restaurant, especially if sitting a booth.
• Potential to fall out in a scuffle– the last thing you want is the bad guy grabbing your gun.

Kydex Holsters offer a locking mechanism which holds your gun in place. They’re a great idea, but they are huge and they are inflexible so they aren’t all that comfortable.

These work best if you’re going to open carry– for those of you that don’t understand it there are some states that allow Open Carry and some states that require concealed carry. You might be surprised that Massachusetts is an open carry state so I can walk around like Wyatt Earp if I want to– but I don’t do that because people around these parts are afraid of guns and gun owners– even though it goes unreported that a huge number of crimes and mass shootings are stopped by an armed civilian.

It also doesn’t make sense to let the bad guys know you’re carrying– you’ll make yourself a target if you do, better they be surprised that you have it.

More tomorrow.