Horsewright
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
- Joined
- Oct 4, 2011
- Messages
- 13,302
My Rangeflap Holster is an original design. A friend brought me a Ruger Bearcat that his father had given his wife as a Christmas present. It was a few days before Christmas and what kind of holster could we come up with for that gun as there is very little on the market for it. He wanted to give the holster to his wife for Christmas to go along with the gun from his father. I suggested a flap holster for field use as it really protects the gun from dust, and dirt much better than other holsters and as far as retention goes, what could be better. This is Mary wearing her new holster for the first time:
The construction allows a wide variety of uses. Crossdraw front or back or strongside are all possible:
After making a few of these holsters I realized that another advantage of the design was that it would fit a wide variety of similar sized handguns. Especially if the holster was made with a buckle:
Gotta be honest though I like Sam Browne studs:
But a stud takes the versatility away as it fits only that gun now. A buckle just seems to make more sense.
However, a perceived disadvantage that the holster had with the buckle was that it was slow to access the handgun. It wasn't, if ya only used the top half of the buckle but still it was a perception. But like I said; gotta be honest though, I like Sam Browne studs. Always have.
One day, I'm scrolling through Instagram. I follow Purdy the very high end shotgun maker from London. I'll never be able to afford one, I've seen houses sell for less than a Purdy but I can and do admire the craftsmanship. They had a gun case on their post that day and it got me to thinking as they used a Sam Browne stud for closure but they did it different. They put the stud on the flap instead of down on the body. I'd seen this before on some old European military holsters, some from WW1, my brother collects such things. But they had been done clunky, not with style. So this idea had been around for a long time. Purdy, of course, did it with style. So I started playing around and this is what I came up with:
So the advantage here is that you have the quick access of the stud while maintaining the versatility of the buckle. Just pop the strap off the stud and you have access to the handgun:
I think it works out just right. Something old is new again. Whadya think?
The construction allows a wide variety of uses. Crossdraw front or back or strongside are all possible:
After making a few of these holsters I realized that another advantage of the design was that it would fit a wide variety of similar sized handguns. Especially if the holster was made with a buckle:
Gotta be honest though I like Sam Browne studs:
But a stud takes the versatility away as it fits only that gun now. A buckle just seems to make more sense.
However, a perceived disadvantage that the holster had with the buckle was that it was slow to access the handgun. It wasn't, if ya only used the top half of the buckle but still it was a perception. But like I said; gotta be honest though, I like Sam Browne studs. Always have.
One day, I'm scrolling through Instagram. I follow Purdy the very high end shotgun maker from London. I'll never be able to afford one, I've seen houses sell for less than a Purdy but I can and do admire the craftsmanship. They had a gun case on their post that day and it got me to thinking as they used a Sam Browne stud for closure but they did it different. They put the stud on the flap instead of down on the body. I'd seen this before on some old European military holsters, some from WW1, my brother collects such things. But they had been done clunky, not with style. So this idea had been around for a long time. Purdy, of course, did it with style. So I started playing around and this is what I came up with:
So the advantage here is that you have the quick access of the stud while maintaining the versatility of the buckle. Just pop the strap off the stud and you have access to the handgun:
I think it works out just right. Something old is new again. Whadya think?
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