Sangamon
County Rifle Association
Right Reason on Second Amendment Rights
Springfield, Illinois
Right Reason on Second Amendment Rights
Springfield, Illinois
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Sangamon
County Rifle Association
Right Reason on Second Amendment Rights Springfield, Illinois |
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 Kydex holsters by John Boch, Vice President, Guns Save Lives, Champaign County Rifle Association, speaking at the Sangamon County Rifle Association Meeting 1/4/10 February 2010 Gun News John Boch, above, GSL's VP, and Frank Wright, below,GSL's past president, were present and spoke to the audience. Jim Butler officially introduced John Boch, VP of Guns Save Life to give a short presentation once the politicians had finished. "Let's talk about guns!" Boch exclaimed. Boch began noting that a lot of people don't think much about holsters, especially if they don't carry every day. These people often will have those five-dollar gun show special holsters. "You know, those nylon holsters with the metal clip on them.  Sometimes
it's even got a place for an extra magazine. They are junk.
Take the clip out and give the rest to your dog for a chew toy,"
he said.A lot of old timers like Frank Wright will have very expensive leather gear that was state of the art twenty, thirty or more years ago. Leather gear stinks after you use if for a while. Literally. If you wear inside pants holsters made of leather, the oils and sweat will usually start to stink after a few years. "You've got to buy two leather holsters if you're going to go with an inside-the-waistband holster, one to air and one to wear." So every other day you rotate them out and one dries out while you carry the other. Most of the police today will use either leather for the old timers or they're getting into the plastic, new fangled Kydex holsters and that's much of what Boch discussed. "Kydex holsters are great," Boch explained. They come in all sorts of shapes, sizes and colors to match almost any gun out there for any purpose. They are durable, affordable, don't retain moisture and are easy on the finish of the gun. The low-end units are still great and sell for about $20-25 or so. Anther couple of positive features of these are that they slip right into your pants and do a decent job staying put. They all retain their shape so you can reholster without looking or sweeping your fingers with the muzzle as one would do when trying to open up a holster that collapses upon itself after the gun is drawn. Boch then brought out some nicer custom units by David Elderton of Kytac.net. He showed several of the Braveheart models (about ($80) that fit inside the waistband, quickly and easily. Boch says that a full-size Beretta 92 dsappears on him, "and I only weigh about 95 pounds soaking wet. If I'm wearing my shirt out, you would never in a million years guess I've got a gun on there. Mr. Boch showed clear on a couple of handguns and passed around examples of several of the holsters he discussed for members to get a hands-on, up-close look for themselves. Frank Wright, past president Guns Save Life commented, "Being a leather guy I hate to say this but they treat the finish on guns better than the leather does. The contact is not so intimate. The leather holsters derive a lot of their retainability from the fact that they're molded and rubbing it all over." That rubbing, he says, is what wears the finish off your gun. Boch noted that the leather will also retain salts from your perspiration and those can damage the finish as well. Wright added that cheap leather can sometimes cause you grief with the finish as well. "You get what you pay for," Wright said. Some states, like Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee permit open carrying (some require a carry permit) and in those states, John mentioned that he will often open carry, especially in the summertime. "Printing isn't really an issue when open carry is allowed," Boch quipped. He did say that it was good practice to carry in some form of retention holster if you're going to open carry in a crowd where someone could snatch your gun in an instant. Blackhawk makes the SERPA holster, which are inexpensive security-type holsters, but they have some drawbacks with negligent discharges relating to how the release mechanism works. Safariland also has a security holster that's generally thought of more highly among many professionals . "Some of the higher end schools won't allow students to use the SERPA's because of NDs," Boch noted. "Be careful you don't get your trigger finger into the trigger guard when drawing, especially with these SERPA holsters!" Frank and John continued answering questions from a very interested and enthusiastic audience and then encouraged everyone to attend the Guns Save Life meetings at Rantoul, Illinois to have fun, meet lots of like minded people and to learn even more. More from John Boch Sangamon County Rifle Association Home Page |