Weird Rig For A Weird Gun :)

[Jim March]

This is my attempt at something "vaguely old-west looking" yet allows for a modern "high and tight" crossdraw carry. The piece in question is a Ruger New Vaquero in 357, with some fairly radical sights requiring custom leather.

The belt mounting system is possibly unique...two straps go under the belt each side and then meet in the middle across the holster, using a "buckle" with infinite adjustment possibilities. In short, it "grabs" the belt and "clings" tighter than even a pancake design can.

These are still "early prototypes"...I need to find a better-looking cord instead of paracord, for starters, and right now all the leatherwork is done "dry". The one for my SA is fully lined, no threads touch the gun which was a breakthough. And I've found a method of adding decor that is...probably unique? It was my way of saying "I'm not a stereotypical right-winger" .

The taper in the strap gives it a strong resistance to coming slowly unbuckled.

To answer the inevitable "what's in the tube" question...note that I straightened the rear aperture after taking this pic...

It's a homebrew clone of the Goshen Enterprises "Hexsite" made for Glocks and such and yeah, it works. http://www.goshen-he....com/index2.htm

And this is the same basic design for a friend's "bottom-feeder":

[dirtclod]

Wonder if a long socket wouldn't do the same thing. Bet it's alot cheaper to.

[Jim March]

Wonder if a long socket wouldn't do the same thing. Bet it's alot cheaper to.

I've never seen one that long, not with an internal hex structure the full length. I'd love to get one like that...any idea where one would be?

[terrahyd]

Hi Jim ;;

well you have made one a little different than we are used to seeing..but then your gun is a little diff'' also ....thanks for sharing it with us..

...Doc...

[dirtclod]

Take the longest socket you have and hold it on top of your gun and see if it'll work. I don't think it will matter if it's hex shaped the whole way.

I just now took a 1/2 inch deep well socket and held it on top of my pistol and it was kinda like looking through a peep sight. Try it and see what ya think.

[Jim March]

Take the longest socket you have and hold it on top of your gun and see if it'll work. I don't think it will matter if it's hex shaped the whole way.

I just now took a 1/2 inch deep well socket and held it on top of my pistol and it was kinda like looking through a peep sight. Try it and see what ya think.

Do that and it's round inside, not hex inside. Trust me, it matters.

I could try and find a 6" long socket and drill through most of it, but it's damned hard metal. So what I've done instead is put a short section of 7mm socket inside of a mild steel tube. That works.

[TomLine]

I really like your rig. It's rugged looking like the gun.

[Jim March]

I really like your rig. It's rugged looking like the gun.

Cool, but over the last couple of days I've come up with something that's really over the top. See...an earlier prototype was set up so I could adjust it to being either a crossdraw like you see here, or strongside with an FBI forward tilt. Except the latter didn't work out - the holster was simply too high for strongside to work right. In crossdraw only does it work, it's extremely high-ride which is what you want. The whole cylinder is above the beltline so it conceals under a street-length jacket. Even the various pancakes out there don't ride as high as this critter.

I think I've just worked out how to do another variant where the strap mounting locations are almost infinitely adjustable...at least eight different positions each side, allowing fine adjustment of both ride height and "tilt factor". And still look pretty damn good.

I've also got ahold of some much finer and higher quality Dremel drill bits so the stitching will be much more pro-looking, less like big crude lacing. I even managed to find a wonderful decorative-pattern version of 550 paracord that looks so much better than the black it's not funny.

Should have it all together in a couple of weeks...buried in a big project right now.