Shooter McGavin

Thanks Jake!

I have an order for an XDm 3.8 compact in .45acp. The dummy gun I have is the XDm 3.8 9mm. Wondering if anyone knows if these are cross compatible or not? Springfield Armory's specs page leave a lot of information out for some reason. Thanks!

Bought this from John Fong earlier this year and havent found a use for it yet. Looking for 145 shipped. It is conservatively 3 square feet, maybe a little more but I didnt feel like doing any trigonometry lol. Thanks!

People always want to try to smash the mouth of the holster closed while exclaiming "This is the most rigid leather holster I've ever seen!" amazing.

I would use a thin horsehide as a backer so you get good strength but minimal thickness.

I tried dip dieing but it was messy. When I did my St. Patricks Day Special green holsters last year I dip dyed them all. What kind of container are you using?

I only use the Fiebings Oil Dyes, full strength. Applied with a dauber or foam brush.

I bought a side of their chestnut and wasnt thrilled. I decided to dye all of my browns after wet molding and drying. Slows down production but it's the only way I can consistently avoid the dark spots, which typically formed around the stitch lines.

I've been using the same 220 belt for 2 years. It's barely has any grit left on it but thats how I like it. For curves and corners I use a rotary tool with a couple different diameter drums, the largest being 1/2"

I like it a lot! Very nice.

Either youre a lefty or youre carrying your mags backwards Nice carrier though!

As an aside, I can never understand why builders always want to pose their IWB's with the belt loops parallel to the slide of the gun, knowing full well that is not the way that they will be worn.

Duncans. I have one you can borrow if it comes to that.

Depends on the particular model. Which one is it?

This is great work. The braided rawhide one is very impressive!

Ouch!

Which version? I'd be game for one.

Looks great! Curious what you used as a dummy gun and dummy mags.

Thanks guys. The Coonan is based off of the 1911 pattern but is chambered in .357 Magnum. It's pretty cool. Not sure where the owner got the grips. Finding a rattlesnake skin wide enough for this build was fairly difficult. I hooked up with a seller on ebay and he went through all his stock and sent me photos of the widest ones he had available. Other than the sealant I made no changes in color. The innermost stitch lines are there to hold the front panel and the snake to the main layer. The layout and planning of these builds is always a bit challenging but get a little easier each time. I am delivering it to the owner oin Friday and he is super excited to be getting it! Dan

I suck at revolver holsters. Looks like youve got some decent designs started there and with some tweaking they will be awesome.

Lookin good!

So this is my first time messing with Rattlesnake. Actually was easier to work with than I expected, you just need to be very gentle with it when it's wet. I was afraid the scales might fall off when wet but thank goodness they held on. 7-8oz W&C and 3-4oz HO were used in the 5 piece construction. Fiebings Pro Oil Black and Springfield Leather Pro-Clear finish. And a Coonan with matching grips.

I literally LOL'd at this post Especially the part about sliding it through the loops!

Yep, thats pretty much it. Its tough to get the pieces all lined up properly and stitching them on a Boss is a real PITA due to the shallow throat depth of the machine, but it can be done.

I shipped over 300 orders last year. Each order containing between 1 to 4 items depending on the order. Not counting the items I made for myself, friends and family. This is working a few hours after work every day and many hours on weekends. I quit the "day job" on 12/31/12 and decided to take a swing at it full time and see if it pays off. Im honestly finding it tough to replace a 40 hour paycheck with what I am making by building holsters but honestly, to me anyway, there was a super thick line between too many orders to do it as a part time gig and enough to really support doing it full time. Hopefully my gamble pays off but only time will find the answer to that for me.