1911 Holsters

          God’s gun…. I mean, do I really need to say more? If you hate it, you’ve never became proficient with it. You may dislike it because of it’s capacity, but if that’s the case, I suggest you get a little more practice with it and then realize that depending on what you are doing; this may or may not be the gun to take. Yes, you should absolutely strive for perfection in using ANY firearm, after all it is a tool… You wouldn’t use ratchet strap and a beam to lift your car to change your tires, a drill to hammer in a nail, or a hammer to turn a screw. Choose the right tool for the job and you should have more than one tool as different “jobs” can arise.

          Now that you have your tool, you need to figure out how you want to carry it, what works best. Disclaimer, I am a strong believe that as a civilian, there is no reason to carry externally (also known as OWB “Outside the Waistband” carry), it only paints a target on your back and frightens the left. Take the class, get your license if one is required, train extensively, and carry IWB (Inside the Waistband), the bad guys will always try to catch you by surprise, so have something waiting for them.

          I have searched and searched, tried multiple holsters and looked for a few different forums, nothing really worked for me. Rather, they worked fine, them held the pistol and secured the trigger. All but one were sorely lacking in some area or another though! I will share my experiences, things I may have done to get them to work a little better, and my final judgement. First, allow me to share life for a baseline… I am now 6’0’’ and fluctuate from 230 – 240 pounds, I have a pidge now but not a full on gut unless I am eating some fried catfish, I mean seriously, who can resist that temptation! I am active, I drive a lot, I sit, bend, kneel, reach, lift and lower. I wear a uniform that must be tucked in and my casual attire varies from a plain white shirt and jeans, to polos and flannel shirts and jeans, very seldom do I where shorts but when I do they are typically cargo shorts or board shorts (where I carry a smaller pistol, or if I am going to swim, just a knife).

-vedder light tuck holsters: This is an IWB holster that is on the in the “moderate” price point. Coming in at only 59.99, it is a kydex holster, with rounded edges that is extremely nice fitting, it comes with a single 1.5” belt clip that is metal, and they offer a variety of color selections. The down sides of this holster are the single 1.5” belt clip, I’m not a huge fan of metal clips, the protrude more than the plastic j-hooks and can lose their form very easily. The second “flaw”. Is the fact that it does NOT come with a wing, you can though make one yourself if your crafty, and utilize it. The retention adjustment is very positive, and while you don’t have the best audible “click” when you re-holster, be assured that it is securely tucked away. For that reason, I did not return this or throw it away. Instead, I grabbed up some spare parts I had lying around, and slightly modified it to turn it into my vehicle holster. I have it mounted in a spot that suits me just well, easy in, easy out and I am good to go! You can check them out here at Vedder Holsters.

-pole craft holster: Another IWB holster, this one though I will call cheap. At only 22 dollars on amazon, it is ok if you need something gin a pinch. Much like the Vedder Holster from above, it is a kydex holster but is only rounded on one corner and comes with a single 1.5” plastic clip that is stout, but you are unable to tuck your shirt in over it, and NO claw. Unlike the Vedder Holster, this one you can’t just grab spare sparts for and make your own wing, or toss on J-hooks which for me, makes it impractical. I’m not a fan of throwing away money though, and if you’ve ever returned anything to Amazon you know it’s typically a bigger pain than it needs to be. So, I tossed some double-sided riggers tape, and stuck it in one of my backpacks. The retention on this holster is slightly more audible than the above, so I am not concerned about it jolting loose. Now, I don’t always tuck in my shirts, so I suppose I could utilize it then, but with one of the holsters coming up, I wouldn’t even bother. It may work for you though, if you’d like to take a look and get some ideas, you can check it out at PoleCraft Holster.

-crossbreed (reckoning) holster: Another “middle of the road” holster when it comes to price, the CrossBreed Holster comes in at only 59.95-6 at the time of this posting. This is certainly one of the fanciest holsters in my opinion. It comes with a thick leather back and a kydex shell up from to secure the pistol, 2 J-hooks and an optional wing you can add on. It is quite comfortable, at first. Now just as a disclaimer, we may like to think so but not all men are created equal. I have already mentioned my build at the beginning of this post, and with this holster, if I’m not doing a lot of bending, kneeling, sitting, pretty much anything with an up and down movement repeatedly, it is an excellent holster. But in my job, I do all of the above and then some so my issue tends to be rubbing/chaffing. If you need more detail, feel free to shoot me a message and I can clarify. The wing they provide is quite small, so while it does pull the grip inward slightly, it still leaves a little to be desired. After waiting for a month for it to arrive, I wore it for a month before it began to crack on the front shell by the trigger guard, which it where the retention is. I reached out to their customer service and was informed that their lifetime warranty would cover this, but I would have to send it in, wait for them to get to it, then have them send it back. So typically, mail takes about 5 business days to get from point A to point B for me, so that would come out to a month minimum I would have to wait to get my holster back after paying shipping and going through all of that. Which I may do later, but not now. A downside to the thick leather backing I had come to notice, was that for my build, it pushed in towards the safety selector, so when re-holstering, it would constantly hang up on it and that was extremely annoying. The leather backing also prevented me from getting as full purchase on the pistol as well, which meant after grabbing it, I would have to take valuable milliseconds to readjust my grip to manipulate the safety efficiently. Not cool! So I modified it by trimming the leather up, I tossed a bigger wing on it, and swapped out their J-hooks for some extra that I had from T1C; their clips worked just fine, but I want to drop my holster just a little further inside the waistband and their clips just would not accommodate that. If I could speak with the CEO, I would suggest tailoring the holster up a bit by providing a narrower profile which would eliminate the chaffing, trimming up the leather as I did, and allowing for more adjustment on their hooks. Oh, also before I forget to mention it, with this holster you can add on a spare piece of leather and a magazine holster. With this combination, you use the leather “square” to connect the two with their provided hardware, and you now have their version of the sidecar holster. Which is very nice, even in my Glock 19 holster I run a T1C with a sidecar for a spare mag because… you never know how big the party is going to get. To check this one out just click CrossBredd Holsters.

-tier-one concealed agis (not elite) holster: Now for my “do all, end all”, the T1C “Agis” holster is great! I run their “Agis elite” for my Glock 19 IWB holster which is phenomenal, but sadly they do not offer that option for the 1911. There isn’t much of a difference between the two, but I do love how the “elite” offers tapered edges with allows for more room at the bottom of the holster(muzzle side). This “Agis” holster, though, allows for a wide range of adjustment that easily compensate for the blocked off corners that will come with it. Coming in at the top end of the price scale though, be prepared to spend close to 130.00 for this, depending on what selections you choose to make with add-ons then tax and shipping, as well as a wait time of around 35 days. After all is said and done though, it is one of the BEST, if not the best, holsters around for a wide variety of pistols. Their customer service is also among the best I have ever had to deal with. For my Glock 19, which I had owned for about a year or so, it started to crack between the trigger guard and the clip. Unlike the CrossBreed holster above, this one’s retention is around my TLR1-HL light, so this wasn’t a huge concern. After reaching out to their customer service though, I was informed that my new holster would be in the mail soon. Within the next week, I had received not only my replacement holster for the pistol, but the whole shebang! Pistol holster, mag holster, 2 clips and their new wing that they started sending out after I had purchased mine. Now, I am not a huge fan of the new wing, but it does allow you to take off some “plates” that it is made out of to allow for less pull-in if that is what you are wanting; AND I got to kept my old one! If the holsters them-selves weren’t that great, this would be reason enough to stay with them. Some of you may be wondering, “well if they are so great. Then why did it take you do long get one for your 1911 with them?” well my friends I will tell you. I believe in the saying ‘two is one and one is none’. I don’t want to completely depend on one company, just to have them go under and close (especially with what has been going on lately). I wanted to make sure that if that did happen, I had at least one fall back. To check out their line up of holsters, just click on the link T1C. They offer a lot more than just holsters as well.

          Something I mentioned above, never know what a situation may bring or how big the party will get. With that said, finding a holster that comes with or sidecar for a spare mag is always to better option. If you found or already have a holster, it’s worth looking into getting a spare mag carrier. I have tried a few of these and have only found one that I can tolerate, even then, they sit in my car, my bag and my armrest at home to hold my magazines. These can be found at any number of places, including Amazon, Ebay, Cheaper Than Dirt and so on.

          Some honorable mentions, that I do not have hands on experience with though, Haley Strategic offers a good selection of holster as well and plate carriers, chest rigs, training courses etc. He also offers some good training videos on his YouTube Channel. Then finally, T-Rex Arms with Lucas Botkin will have another huge selection of kit for almost any situation. His YouTube channel is slightly more extensive with training, guest appearances, reviews etc. Go check out both of these guys and see if what they offer fit your needs when it comes to equipment, as well as check out their YouTube channels and get some good, free, instruction and training drills to ensure you are better prepared for whatever may arise.

          **I mentioned before that some links are indeed affiliate links. That is not the case here, except for the items on Amazon. I am not sponsored by any of these companies yet. I purchased these holsters with my own money and used them for a certain amount of time (typically until I found a new holster I wanted to try). My opinions here are not swayed in one direction or another by anyone and even after sponsors are picked up, they still will not be. If I like it I will mention it, If I don’t like it I will let you know, and if I hate it I will DEFINETLY make it known.