Bountyhunter

I have not made any to sell, I make holsters for all my pistols and sheaths for all the knives I make. Few of them get tooled as they go straight out to the field to get used. I just made a holster for a 58 Remington, a Mexican double loop on a Wyoming pattern that got tooled. That bottom one with the big smith is sort of a modified Tom Theepersons design. I am making one of them for my M25-5 that will be lined and tooled. I just made an everyday carry for my 1911 that is a 1930's Texas Ranger style, Austin pattern. I used a hammer loop on it, which is unusual for a 1911 but it works fine. I'll post them by and by. I make plain, utility holsters, because they all end up looking like the crossdraw up above in short time anyway. Unless you are going to the barbecue, it is sorta counter productive to go to a lot of work to make pretty tooling on them. I do not like the lace in that Mexican double loop. As soon as I can find the correct type of saddle lace, I am going to pull that coarse stuff out and re-do it. Its 60 miles to the saddle shop and grocery store and 200 miles to the nearest city, so my projects have to be based on patience or internet orders. My holsters take the beating so that my gun iron doesnt. I have some that are far more beat up than the crossdraw up above, but that is their purpose. They keep my gun handy in the truck or on the ATV, and keep it from getting beat up when in the brush and rocks. 30 years of really using them has an effect on them.

As you can see this is a using rig, not a safe queen, it has use marks all over it. No, I was not pleased with the sewing on the back but that is how the guy at the saddle shop did it. The belt loop on the Wrangler jeans holds the holster back farther than I care for it to be, and sometimes I skip that belt loop. I have no pattern per se, I just see a holster I like or think of one and I fold some brown paper from a grocery sack around the gun and cut off what I dont like the looks of, then unfold it on my leather properly, and cut it out and go. This is one of the first holsters I made, circa about 1975. Once you have the pattern made, it doesnt hurt to pencil OUTSIDE on the pattern so you get the rough and grain on the preferred sides. Some old holsters had the smooth hair side in and the grain out,,,,so if you cut it wrong, tell them that you copied it off an old original.