making a holster and gun belt

[Rowan717]

Hello Billsotx,

Please help! I am making an ammo pouch and the leather which I am making the loops out of cracks terribly when I bend it into a loop to stitch! It is veg tanned 4oz leather which has been dyed.. I don't wet it or anything before stitching.

Would appreciate any help!

Thanks

That diagonal stitch has been around for a long time. As far as that belt & loops in the photo, it has a lot of miles of practical use on it, not just worn for show. That's my personal belt and I worked out of those loops a lot. I'm hard on gear and that piece has held up better than I predicted. It's got a lot of life left.

If the stitches are tight you should not have a problem with wear if you use a tight stitch. I've seen loops done with only 1 and 2 diagonal stitches and those usually fray pretty quick. Those in the photo are not grooved. If you get the stitches tight the little stretch you'll get won't matter. Also when they begin to get loose leave the cartridges out and they shrink back. I don't leave cartridges in the loops, that is store them. Crude grows on them if you do that. I've seen it to the point they won't chamber. I wonder why the guy tried to load it into the gun.

As far as the .22 rimfire you're right. That's a tight fit - you're working in a tight spot. From a practical standpoint the .22 rimfire being an outside lubed cartridge and the loops rubbing and scraping the lube off the bullets I wouldn't mess with that for my own use, but the customer is always right ... lol! I hate loops that's what pockets and possible bags are for.

That method that GTT mentioned of building the loops works well from a practical stand point. Before speedloaders (gee now we're back to geezer days ... lol) we'd have two pieces of 12 inch skirt behind the loops to get some space so you could get your fingers around the cartridges. We're talking game playing here, working against the clock, nothing practical for the field. The best were thick skirt bevel so that they set at angle with the bullets resting against the belt and the rims of the cases kicked out so you could get your fingers around them. We also built slides like this for PPC competition and it wasn't unusual to see them on a street cops Sam Browne. I strayed from the .22, but someone might find something useful and share a better idea.

As far as looks I like the loops laced, the slot method, but you'd have to space them out for .22s and that in my eyes would look a little cheesy, but there were a lot of loops done that way when the B westerns were in vogue. One of those beauty in the eye sort of things. Nothing wrong with it. For .22s I'd probably go with a kip lace as it'll have less stretch and a thin piece of kip will be stronger than a piece of split skirt.