Offering the Old Faithful Holsters for sale

As many of you do, I have far too many holsters. I bought the two Old Faithful holsters to evaluate here and for the members of my forum. I have finished now, and am putting these two holsters up for sale to recover paper of my purchase costs. They are essentially new and will come with all the extra hardware I did not use in assembly. $25 each plus $4 shipping. Email if interested.

Misinformed. Again

Easter Sunday. I am sitting in the back of the church in my usual spot, wearing a nice jacket, shiny boots and my Ruger LC9 discreetly tucked away when the guest preacher launches into a mini-tirade against the "make my day" law. His problems were three: he absolutely does not understand the specifics or intent of the law, he fails to see how protecting property justifies applying the law (basically the castle doctrine) to businesses, and he thinks people who have guns do so because they are afraid.
He and his wife also revealed later that they think anyone can go to a gun show and buy a fully functional "AK-47" which they equate with "machine guns."

I had the opportunity to discuss their assumptions with them, at some length, so that they were at least exposed to the facts of the law, that it is intended to protect people, not merely property, from harm regardless if one is in your home or place of business. That people should be afraid when encountering criminals or crazy people with guns and the way to not be afraid and to offer an effective way of protecting oneself and others is to legally carry and know how to use a firearm responsibly. And, I also disabused them of the notion that one can walk into a gun show and buy a machine gun.

Now, I am not at all certain that they believed me or will approach this with a more objective perspective. Likely not, especially since he was invested in convincing people that if one believes in Jesus, then you don't have to be afraid, because if someone kills you, you are going to heaven anyway. I'm not kidding. This was the underlying message he gave to the congregation.

I am not buying into that. To state only one objection: would it be all right if I did nothing while innocent people were murdered and I had an opportunity to stop it because they might be going to heaven anyway?

All that aside, the essential issue is a common one. People are misinformed about the reasons why our rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are fundamental and, in many cases, can only be guaranteed by our right to bear arms to protect ourselves from others who would seek to take those rights, and our very lives, away from us. People are misinformed. Why?

I suspect it is because of fear and ignorance. Fear of guns, since they only know what they see in the media - and by that I mean film and TV as well as gun-hostile press - and ignorance of basic facts regarding self-defense shootings and crime. A prime example of this is when the preacher also said that the number of self defense shootings had "doubled" over the last few years. That is statistically incorrect, however, he mentioned nothing about the curious facts that while the number of citizens arming themselves and acquiring concealed carry permits had grown tremendously, the violent crime rate has significantly dropped during that same period. That this interesting connection was not mentioned by the preacher tells me that he didn't know this, or, if he did, it did not fit his preconceived notions about guns and people. Certainly didn't fit with his "it is ok to be afraid" sermon.
I couldn't help wondering, sitting there with my legal, concealed 9 mm, if he would have condemned me should I have had to protect him and the others there from some crazy with a gun come to church to settle the demons in his head?

Old Faithful Holster - LCP Update

I noticed that the LCP and LC9 holsters share the same leather backing, the only difference in the holsters being the size of the kydex part. I am testing this holster in the cross draw position for use while sitting - in the car, for example - and for general use. I think the cross draw carry position has suffered from rumor and bad press.

So, today, I trimmed 1" off the bottom portion of the leather backing and smoothed the edges with sandpaper. Since it does not now protrude so far down, sitting is much more comfortable with this modified backing. I was tempted to move the rear clip in toward the kydex as well, but will leave it where it is while I break in this new modification.

The clips on these holsters are so strong that I have taken to wearing them clipped to the pants, and under the belt. The holster is still very secure and the black belt hides the clips. I suggest this arrangement if you intend to wear a shirt tucked over this holster. It would virtually disappear like that.

 

 

A Review: Old Faithful Holsters IWB

For the Ruger LCP

For the Ruger LC9

Last week I bought two Old Faithful Holsters kits, one for the Ruger LCP and one for the Ruger LC9. I was intrigued by their concept for a tuckable, hybrid IWB holster designed along similar lines of the Crossbreed holster types. The most interesting aspect, or at least the one that first got my attention, is the price difference. Old Faithful offer holsters in four versions with four different prices:

1. Premium Kit - $38.95
2. Molded Kit - $32.95
3. Un-Molded Kit - $ 27.95
4. Fully Assembled - $72.95

Starting with the Un-Molded kit, more work is involved in getting the holster ready for assembly than in the other, more expensive versions. The Premium Kit comes ready to install. No cutting, sanding or drilling is required. See the Old Fashioned Holster site for photos of the different kits, parts and assembly videos. http://oldfaithfulholsters.com/

So, make it yourself and save from 50% or more off the assembled kit price. The Crossbreed holsters, which are basically the same type - leather backing, kydex holster and metal belt clips - run $69.95 for the SuperTuck Deluxe, without extras such as horsehide or special cut on the leather.

Old Faithful Holsters also claim adjustability for the kydex so that the amount of tension holding the gun in place is adjustable by the user, and thicker kydex than that used by Crossbreed.

I will skip a detailed rundown of the assembly process, except to note any differences or issues I encountered that depart from the assembly sequence that is shown in excellent videos provided on the Old Faithful site. These will give anyone a very accurate depiction of how to assemble and adjust these holsters and are highly recommended if you are contemplating buying and assembling one.

I ordered two of the Premium Kit holsters, one each for my LCP and LC9 pistols. Mine arrived well packaged in individual heavy zip-lock bags for the overall package, the leather, the kydex and all of the hardware. Referencing the assembly videos on the Old Faithful site, I assembled the LC9 holster first.

The most onerous part is driving the "T" nuts into the pre-drilled holes in the leather. Four are used for the kydex and two for the clips. I found the best way to do this is to obtain a piece of soft wood, like pine, and drill a hole big enough to accommodate the tube part of the "T" nut that contains the threads. This will poke through to the front of the leather after it is driven into the leather backing. Using a the soft wood backing and a soft mallet - plastic or rubber works best - you must drive the "T" nut flush with the back of the leather so that it doesn't protrude and rub against your skin or shirt.

When the kydex holster part is screwed into the the "T" nuts with the screws and washers provided it is held off the leather backing with short sections of PVC hose. You are provided with long, short and medium cut sections, as well as a long piece of hose that you can cut parts from if you need them. I discovered that it is best to use the shortest sections, along with the shortest screws possible so that the holster can be screwed down tight enough for a good fit to the gun and the screw ends will not protrude beyond the back ends of the "T" nuts and possibly dig into your skin or shirt. Here is where the greatest difficulty in assembling the holster came for me.

It is not easy to use the shortest screws with the short sections of PVC. The medium screws are long enough that they engage the threads in the "T" nuts easily, but you can't tighten the kydex down enough to the leather backing to get adequate tension on the gun. The short screws can be made to fit by applying pressure to the holster and leather enough to get a little compression in the PVC so the threads can be caught. In one instance, I had to trim a bit off one short PVC section in order to make it work. This was a minor hassle but with perseverance was done successfully.

In the end, the gun was a good fit, tight enough to hold well, but still easy to draw. Having the clips mounted on the short PVC sections also makes it easier to tuck a shirt, and does not allow the holster to squeak when you are wearing it and moving around as holsters having the clips attached directly to the leather sometimes do.

I found that for both holsters, the LCP and the LC9 fit well and are adequately covered. In fact, I would trim the top of the kydex where it covers the top part of the slide. I think it is a bit too long. When the holster is empty, and worn properly, that part of the kydex tends to collapse a bit toward the leather backing, closing down the top of the holster part way, making it a little more difficult to one-hand re-holster. A minor issue, but one that bothered me a bit.

The holsters are as comfortable to wear as others of this design and provide a very stable and well hidden platform for concealed carry. They, like the others, will break in to the user's body shape and become even more comfortable with time.

Another benefit for me is that since I did not pay big bucks for them, I feel more free to modify them to fit my body shape and my guns. Trimming the upper part of the leather, the "sweat shield" portion, to a more exact shape of that part of the gun is a good idea. The extra leather there tends to poke into your side or ribs and isn't really necessary. Also, the leather backing part of the holsters are identical for both the LCP and the LC9. The LCP is a much smaller gun than the LC9. Consequently, there is much unnecessary real estate left over in the LCP version. The leather backing on the LC9 version extends a little over an inch below the bottom of the kydex while on the LCP version, there are two inches of extra leather. Consequently, for a more comfortable ride, I would recommend trimming one inch or a little more off the bottom edge of the LCP holster's leather backing.

Also, I think the rear clip on the LCP holster is set too far to the rear, and could be repositioned at least another inch closer to the holster. This would be easily done with a drill, and trimming another inch or a bit more from the rear edge of the leather. This would result in a considerably smaller holster, making it more comfortable and, if one chooses a straight drop, no cant, design, which I did, will make it very easy to carry the LCP in this holster in cross draw, appendix or strong-side carry positions.

My conclusion is that these holsters, especially in kit form, are great values, the kits being considerably less expensive than other varieties. The kydex is thicker and less prone to flex, but could be modified a bit so that re-holstering is easier. The ability to adjust the tension of the fit, especially as the holster breaks in, is a plus as well. I think one improvement would be the ability to order different styles of clips from. I saw no provision for this on the Old Fashioned Holster site. My personal preference is for a "J" type clip. I don't like the protruding lips on the standard clips as they are more visible when wearing the rig with a tucked shirt, and can be prone to hanging up on an overgarment with a sewn hem, like some sweaters and sweatshirts.

Old Faithful Holsters - a good alternative at a good value and one that can be customized to a large degree to fit the individual. Worth serious consideration.

LC9 Holster