Tips on holster-making?

[Tom Katzke]

Yippee I get to be the first to post to this section.

I am making a hunting holster for a friend. The gun is a Ruger Super Redhawk with a 7 1/2 inch barrel (I think that is right). No not much of a barrel for hunting but that is a different subject. He originally wanted a low slung space blaster type rig. I was able to talk him into a shoulder rig by using some of your arguments.

Now the holster will not be that hard but the straps are a mystery to me. They need to be adjustable for practice during warm weather and also for over heavy hunting clothes (it rains during hunting season there). I have been sent some pictures but I can not figure out the details from them.

I am not going to go into production so you do not have to worry about giving away any of your secrets to the competition. Any help in designing a hunting rig for an old friend (not that he is old, just known him for a big part of my life) is much appreciated. He lives a few hours away so I would like to be able to get any measurements by email. Final fitting and hole punching will be done in person.

Thanks,

Tom Katzke

Central Oregon

(the dry part of Oregon)

[Jim]

Hi Tom,

After seeing how the Straps are set up in the Pattern Set you bought, I think you will agree that this is the simplest way to go for Shoulder Holsters that are used for all kinds of shooting. I have personally tested this set up in Gunfights while performing with the Texas Gunslingers and it works!

Oh yeah, I'll get that new pattern to you as soon as I see Billy and get his "cannon."

Have fun

[Tom Katzke]

Yippee I get to be the first to post to this section.

I am making a hunting holster for a friend. The gun is a Ruger Super Redhawk with a 7 1/2 inch barrel (I think that is right). No not much of a barrel for hunting but that is a different subject. He originally wanted a low slung space blaster type rig. I was able to talk him into a shoulder rig by using some of your arguments.

Now the holster will not be that hard but the straps are a mystery to me. They need to be adjustable for practice during warm weather and also for over heavy hunting clothes (it rains during hunting season there). I have been sent some pictures but I can not figure out the details from them.

I am not going to go into production so you do not have to worry about giving away any of your secrets to the competition. Any help in designing a hunting rig for an old friend (not that he is old, just known him for a big part of my life) is much appreciated. He lives a few hours away so I would like to be able to get any measurements by email. Final fitting and hole punching will be done in person.

Thanks,

Tom Katzke

Central Oregon

(the dry part of Oregon)

Well we finally finished and delivered the holster. I wish to thank Clay B. and Jim Simmons for there help. Jim went out of his way to help us out with his pattern pack we bought from Hidecrafter. We learned a few lessons. 1 Never make a holster with out having the gun to fit it. 2 It is a lot easier to start and finish a project in a few days then to have interruptions. 3 You can never have enough hardware around. The explanations for 1. It would have been a bunch easier if we had the gun. Unfortunately the gun was several hours away was needed by the owner. Jim's pattern pack was invaluable for the strap design. We had to use a different pattern because the gun the holster was intended for was much larger then the patterns in the pack. I knew this going in but thought we could make it work. It turned out the pattern we used to cut the holster required thicker leather then we used. We had to line the holster after we started to put it together. We found this out after we begged the gun for fitting and drove 5 hours one way to get it. For point 2. It just is. You forget what has been done. On an item you have never done before you have to remember what to do next. In our case it was caused by not having all the materials we thought we had and needed. Part of that was caused by an out of stock situation with a supplier. Part of it was from a cutting error. For point 3. The design of the straps required "d" rings. We got shorted by a supplier and had to beg some from a saddle maker friend. I ended up one short, because of point 2 above. We were lucky enough to have a wire keeper that we could use to replace one of the "D"s that was used as a keeper next to one buckle on the pattern. We also wanted to use Chicago Screws like in the pattern to attach the straps. Never had a need for them before this. Again the supplier was out of the size we needed. We just happened to have to drive by the Leather Factory 3 hours from here so picked some up. They were out of the 10 pack so had to get 100. Well hope you can learn from our experience. I think I will go back to leather art and leave the holster making to the rest of you. In case you would like to look here is a picture. Tom Katzke Central Oregon

[Jim]

Beautifully done Tom! I love the way you used the Concho to secure the buckle as opposed to sewing it in.

Well done!

[ClayB]

Well we finally finished and delivered the holster. I wish to thank Clay B. and Jim Simmons for there help.

Not sure why you are thanking me Tom. I have never even made a holster. Yours looks really nice. I keep reading all the posts about making holsters from all the others here and it's making me want to try one too. Just another thing to add to the list. Think I'll have to put Jim's video on my list too.

Clay

[Tom Katzke]

Clay, I though about that after posting it.

You are a nice guy and help a bunch in other areas but I guess I should give the correct person credit on the holster. I am sure this time that it was Stephen Adkins that helped out by recommending the pattern pack as well as other tips.

By the way you must have done something special because I can not reply to your post. I can reply to others and add a reply but all I get is a blank screen when I try to reply to yours.

Tom Katzke

Central Oregon