Galco launches the Combat Sweeper Belt Holster.
Designed for the many shooters who prefer to carry a pistol well behind the strongside hip, prefer a steep butt-forward cant, or whose shoulders require a flatter draw angle, the Combat Sweeper is a hand-molded, pancake-style design.
The Combat Sweeper’s traditional high-riding pancake design places the belt slots on either side of the holster, pulling the pistol tight to the body and making defensive handguns disappear under even light clothing. It features an open top with firing grip accessibility for speed and simplicity on the draw.
Hand-molded to fit specific handguns, the Combat Sweeper features deep molding on the exterior for excellent retention properties and superior appearance, with double-stitched seams for long-lasting durability.
Constructed of premium steerhide in black or tan, it’s made to fit belts up to 1 3/4″.
See all of Galco’s Belt (OWB) Holsters.
Price = $169
For gun holsters, nothing says ‘classy’ like a leather holster, especially when the craftsmanship is evident.
In today’s world the unfortunate part about zero-retention ‘friction retention’ open top holsters (no matter if leather or kydex or some other material) like this is lack of actual security for the gun – ‘friction-retention’ just does not hold up to someone trying to snatch your gun, and contrary to the idea that such is rare its actually not so rare in two aspects and those are ‘someone will think about doing it but doesn’t for some reason’ and ‘someone will think about doing it and does it’.
And yes, it applies for the zero-retention ‘friction retention’ concealed carry holsters too although less likely if they can’t see it. But how about, for example, that occasional reach to the top shelf in the store that lifts your shirt and exposes the gun, or that ‘just a little too much’ ‘bump showing’ or ‘shirt lift’ with the gun at that ‘3 or 4 oclock’ position when you bend over to pick something from the lower shelf at the store. Yeah, there are people out there which notice these things even if they don’t seem to you to have noticed – and some of these types are the ‘someone will think about doing it …’ to snatch your gun.
I used to be one of the ones that said ‘Nah, its not gonna happen. Its so rare, almost not existent”. But that all changed one day when I ran a quick errand to the store for my wife, I used the OWB open top ‘friction fit’ holster I had worn to the range that day. Standing in checkout line and it happened, guy almost got the gun too, it was coming out of the holster but he didn’t have a good grip on it so I manged to keep control of it and he ran off. Now, I get a lot of free gun stuff as a result of the work my brother does in the firearms industry – everything from holsters to accessories to optics to the occasional gun – most I end up giving/’gifting’ away, especially the holsters. I used to take boxes of holsters and various other things to the local range in the office/store, a sign on it that read ‘Free! One item per person’ and the holsters always got snapped up real quick, name brand holsters from the leading brands, ‘friction fit’ types, Levels I,II,III from Safariland and others, and other leading name brand holsters, all sorts leather and kydex etc… . At the time of my attempted gun-snatch I had a box in the garage filled with about 100 ‘friction fit’ OWB holsters, brand new still in the packaging, I was planning to take to the range next time I went. That night after my attempted gun snatch, I destroyed everyone of those ‘friction fit’ holsters, and after years of giving these OWB holsters at the range I’ve not given another one away after that.
If you are going to wear OWB, think about a (using Safariland standards in mind, because people seem contused by the offerings from various manufacturers) a ‘level I’ active retention holster at a minimum but really a ‘level II’ at least.
Fully agree, .40!
For me, either a Sticky holster in a cargo pocket, or a Sneaky Pete. Mostly the Sneaky Pete.
Clarification for ‘friction fit’ someone just asked me about vs ‘friction retention’
They are the same thing in effect, so its synonymous the way I use it here. The only difference being one has an adjustment screw to adjust the ‘retention’ and the other doesn’t – but both are still ‘friction fit’ for retention, so when I say ‘friction fit’ I mean both types. Today, this type of thing has been given a fancy sounding name called ‘passive retention’.
‘Passive retention’ has no ‘level’ although some people call it ‘level 0’ and some call it ‘level 1’ but its really just passive retention.
Notice though I said “(using Safariland standards in mind, because people seem contused by the offerings from various manufacturers)”. These are active retention, under the Safariland standards which is basically the industry actual standards of retention, a level 1 (Level I) holster is an active retention holster which is basically their ALS system, a Level II holster would be their ALS + a retention ‘strap’ (AKA ‘retention hood’ in some brands) (other companies have comparable methods i.e. ‘speedlock’). So take a look at the Safariland site holsters, and it becomes obvious. Levels II and up are usually found on duty holsters with the average today being Level III in most areas of the country for police duty holsters, but there are consumer holsters available with Level II (i.e. Falco has a leather option in their model C141 Cheetah, has their locking system and a leather thumb break strap to make level II retention, there are Kydex offerings from other companies too.)