Choose your Holster carefully.

[tj3006]

Went Grocery shopping today with my SA-35 in a Holster I had on hand. 
  It's a Bianchi with a thumb break. Made for a 1911, and it leaves a lot of the gun uncovered below the holster.  All went well till I came home. When I pulled the weapon out of the holster the safety was off.
So, the thumb break and the fact that the trigger was covered were all that protected my cocked pistol from firing. 
  Playing around with the holster for a while showed me that the thumb break strap was putting downwards pressure on the safety and causing it to disengage.
    Lesson learned. 
 Problem number 2. The exposed part of the slide that went down my leg was rubbing on a rivet on my jeans. Marred the finish a bit, I rubbed some oil on it and it looked better, 
But I eventually took the gun into my shop and applied some Brownell's touch up bluing and the marks blended right in. 
  I ordered a synthetic holster for the gun designed specifically for it and that will be what I use until I order a 1st rate leather one.
   I made a potentially disastrous mistake.  The P-35 is a gun you need to be extra careful with. A generic or holster that is not designed for the P-35 specifically is a bad Idea!
   And the type of holster that does not cover the whole gun can cause you some less important problems but problems that you don't need.
            ...tj

  

[nicholst55]

Some holster makers claim that a 1911 holster will accept a Hi Power interchangeably, but as you discovered, that is not necessarily the case.

[gnappi]

Thanks for the heads up.

I've never carried any of my High Powers but my 1911's fit and function in a couple of holsters made for Browning's.

[ridenshoot]

I have noticed a lot of "multi-fit" holsters on the market in the last couple of years.  My feeling about these is that they fit no gun well, even though you can shove a lot of different models into them.  They do not address any individual firearm's characteristics specifically and thus have the potential to leave a person in precarious positions, as you have found.  When I talk to folks about carrying concealed I caution them to spend up for a high quality holster that is specifically tailored to their gun, with belt slots that fit the belt they wear (hopefully a high quality belt as well).  

[x101airborne]

Anything designed to do several jobs probably doesn't do any of them well. I have caught my 1911's in 1911 designed holsters to do the very same thing. It is rather unnerving.

[ridenshoot]

Feb 19, 2024 8:47:10 GMT -5 x101airborne said:

Anything designed to do several jobs probably doesn't do any of them well. I have caught my 1911's in 1911 designed holsters to do the very same thing. It is rather unnerving.

Yup, when I use my screwdriver as a chisel I invariably screw something up.

[markwell]

Bumping the safety off on a cocked and locked 1911 with a functional grip safety is really no big deal and honestly with the BHP shouldn't be a problem either if the trigger is protected. Buy quality leather gear fitted to your firearm and carry with confidence.

[bula]

Somewhere between gun is empty and locked away, and in your hand and ready, well decisions to make. What you are comfortable with, and my thoughts on, gonna vary. A LCR in my Carhart T-shirt pocket is ok. The 44 Bulldog in back pocket of jeans or canvas shorts is ok. If into Glock-in-spiel, if trigger guard blocked, am ok. Etc.. Don't, in the name of safety take yourself outta the fight, if you have the skill levels, competency to function with some freedom. 

[northerngos]

I had a nice ted blocker for my 1911, Nice holster, but once it started to break in the thumb break would knock the ambi safety off and it was a heavy safety. I wound up cutting the whole strap off. Not to knock the company I never let them know about the problem not sure what they would have done about it.

[rjm52]

Haven't used a holster with a thumb-break since getting out of uniformed LE where it was basically mandatory... Only times I ever lost a gun were out of thumb-break holsters... Get into a foot chase, elbow bumps off the thunb-break and gun comes out... Having ones .41 Magnum handed back to you by the little brother of the badguy you just chased down is not something one ever wants to happen... That was from a Safariland holster made for the gun. From that point on I went to a G. William Davis Patrol that had not only a thumb-break but also screw adjustable tensioning so the gun would not come out if the snap came undone...

For my semis these days I use a DeSantis Speed Scabbard or Mini Scabbard...open top and a tensioning screw...fast, smooth and secure. And not $200 with a one year wait...

Bob

[gtojim]

This is a good topic. My lesson came with my Rossi 44 special with bobbed hammer. I carried it with IWB holster. Took wife out to dinner, when we were done as I got up I hear a thud. My 44 fell out as I got up and was a little awkward in the restaurant.
Never again IWB for me.

[bigbore5]

If you're going to spend hundreds of dollars on a gun, then why not buy a well fitted holster to carry it in? It makes no sense to me for someone to buy a thousand dollar gun then scimp out on a $20 holster.

I've got a couple $400 guns that ride in $200 custom holsters.

[wilecoyote]

sometimes can be enough bobbing the hammer or change grips, different from the oem ones, and a owb thumb-break, and worse a reverse shoulder holster, may no longer offer the intended retention_