Ok, You Got Your New Holster And It’s Too Tight. Now What?
Posted by Rob Longenecker on July 13th, 2006
If you visit the gun forums on the internet at all and read the holster sections you’ll see discussion of “too tight” holsters. Some holster makers deliberately make their holsters too tight because they know the leather will stretch and they don’t want the holster to become loose.
Tucker doesn’t do that and that’s why his holsters require very little break in and they don’t loosen up over time. I’m amazed at how he does it, but the man knows how to make a pattern, cut the leather and hand-form it just right.
And time and thousands of satisfied customers all attest to that fact.
I know that some makers shrink their leather down tightly to the form gun and then recommend you wrap your unloaded gun in waxed paper and insert it overnight to stretch it.
There’s nothing wrong with that approach, if you want to go through all that, but just be sure to follow their directions when you get your new holster.
Another common way to stretch a too-tight holster is to place your unloaded gun in a baggie or the plastic bag it came in, forcing it into the holster and stretching it overnight. Sometimes that will take several nights of doing to make it happen.
If you have some other tips or personal experiences with this topic I’d love to hear from you. Just hit the comments button and tell me what’s on your mind.
July 3rd, 2007 at 4:58 pm
Rob,
How tight should the holster be? My new “Cover Up” is very comfortable and easy to draw from, however, if I hold it upside down with the gun inside, the gun will freely fall out. I’ve read on some holster sights that you should be able to draw freely and still have retention if you hold the holster upside down.
What do you think?
Richard Murphy
July 3rd, 2007 at 5:34 pm
With the IWB Cover Up and Texas Heritage, if we made them tight enough so the gun wouldn’t fall out when the holster was inverted, there would be a problem drawing it.
Both holsters get additional retention from the tension of the belt. If we made them tighter, you’d give yourself a wedgie trying to draw.
Thanks for asking the question.
BTW, The advice regarding retention with upside down holsters only applies to belt holsters in our shop.
Rob Longenecker
August 18th, 2010 at 5:53 pm
This is a pretty cool blog here! I just added it to my favorites.
I have got a poker fan page over on Facebook. If you wanted to see: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Poker-Players-Only/136818223026737