PACKIN' PISTOLS
FOR THE WELL DRESSED
PISTOL PACKIN' PREACHER
by the Miles Fortis
A few months ago, I read on Sixgunner's BBS about the "Pistol Packin' Preachers".
They now have their own website on Angelfire!
I immediately began to wonder what the well dressed PPP might wear during services.
While some states may officially outlaw the wearing of firearms into a church building, it seems that in the last few months there has been an increasing number of church invasions by demented (or possessed, your own definition applies) idjits who shoot, slice up or otherwise commit mayhem on numerous members of the congregation.
I talked this over with my Pastor & some of the basic ideas that came to mind were:
A weapon should be powerful enough to stop an incident with as few shots as possible, to keep excess lead from flying around, so as to keep children & the elderly from unnecessary consternation.
A weapon should be one that the Preacher should not mind losing for a long period of time. In any event, the law enforcement agencies involved will probably keep possession of it for quite while even AFTER a "no bill" is received from a Grand Jury investigation.
A weapon carried concealed should be small enough to be kept concealed, so as to keep children & the elderly, etc. etc.
The holster must be able to keep the weapon secured adequately so it will not fall out & bounce around the platform, embarrassing the Preacher, Elders, Deacons & so on.
The retention system of the holster must be so designed so that the weapon may be easily drawn without a lot of strap flipping, unsnapping, thong pulling, or other things, so as to keep the PREACHER from unnecessary consternation.
To facilitate the prior points, I suggest the following style.
(The arm I leave up to the uninfringed bearer)
as always, if you want to see a larger image, click on it.
This is for one of my Colt Government Model .45s
this is for my S&W M65
together, you can see that size really doesn't matter
Blade-Tech (owned by Tim Wegner) makes several holster, magazine pouch & knife sheath designs out of Kydex. This is basically a heavy sheet of thermoplastic, heat molded to the model in question. You can see that both semi-auto & revolver designs are made, although some styles apparently are not stocked & have to be done up on an "as ordered" basis. This is what happened when I ordered the holster for the S&W. Even then, the wait was only a matter of an extra week longer over items I had ordered previously!
Now I can hear a lot of people out there starting to bemoan the fact that I'm suggesting PLASTIC over leather for use as a holster material. Granted that it is unconventional & definitely in the realm of real "hi-tech" ideas. However, I put this forward, simply for your consideration, as an alternative product for a concealment holster. The primary benefits are;
The material is impervious to moisture. This really doesn't matter with a stainless steel gun but, you won't worry about carbon steel models getting all sweaty in the summer. It also means that any lubricants used will not stain dress clothing.
The material will not loose it's shape. This means that extended wear will not deform the holster and, when the gun is drawn, it will not flatten out to hinder reholstering. A leather inside the waistband holster requires a spring steel insert at the "throat" so that holstering the gun doesn't require two hands.
I do happen to prefer well constructed leather products for most of my guns.
R.D. Makers & El Paso Saddlery to name a couple, have made rigs for dad & me but, I had heard of Wegner's site & wanted to give the product a try. So far I, & my customers, have been more than satisfied with his products. The primary idea I had was for an IWB design that would give maximum concealment and still allow a gun to be drawn as quickly as possible.
You will notice that there are NO straps, thongs or thumbreaks on either holster. The only retention system is a twin tension screw set-up to permit the wearer to decide how much force is required to draw the gun. Properly set, the gun can be easily drawn and replaced but, will remain in the holster as securely as any traditional system.
The foregoing isn't meant to be a complete view of the problem of carrying concealed. It just gives one way to solve it.