shoulder rig

[God's Country]

Next piece is going to be a G22. I'm thinking a shoulder holster. The couple horizontals I've tried in the passed were floppy. I like verticals. What say you?

[JustinM]

I say the only way to go is vertical. A shoulder holster presents your weapon to an attacker in scuffle and due to its position gives you little you can do to retain control. Drawing to a retention position means you have to come across your body twice, at such distances your draw is easily intercepted. Very few ranges will allow you to draw from a shoulder holster since the muzzle sweeps 180 when doing so. Since you must train how you carry, this is a problem. I was shooting in AZ once and a guy had a horizontal one for his Glock. He reholstered the glock, but the strap set the gun off and it hit the shed next to the port-a-potty behind him, which was unoccupied. If you get a horizontal your gun will be pointed at everyone that is behind you. Which breaks some rules.

Bianchi, Galco, Aker, pretty much any of them make nice ones. Galco makes alot of nice vertical ones.

[God's Country]

never even considered that

[JustinM]

Neither did I until I thought how lucky I was that I used the john before I went shooting that day.

[dgg9]

I have a Galco Miami Classic I never used...could sell.

[Rule10b5]

While I agree with all of the above comments, I'd like to point out a couple of problems I have with vertical carry.

Let me preface my comments with this: I've never seen a gun spontaneously fire in a holster. I've never even heard of it. Every single holster related unintentional discharge happened during re-holstering.

If you have a muzzle down vertical holster, your already slow draw is going to be slower. You also absolutely need a tie down on the gun side. Plus they, on reholster, cant a bit towards your hip, torso. This makes me nervous.

If you have a muzzle up vertical holster, you're holstered gun is pointed at your armpit, and all the nice, thick veins and arteries that pass through. You're virtually guaranteed to trash the brachial artery, or the basilic or cephalic veins. And there isn't much you can do in terms of pressure pointing a shot to this point -- you're at a joint, and "upstream" is in the trunk. If I had to pick my least favorite place on the arm to take a shot, that'd be it. You also need a more secure retention device. When you reholster, if you screw up, you're dead, and there is nothing you can do but be really careful reholstering.

Horizontal, on the other hand, has only the disadvantage of sweeping others when the gun is already holstered. It isn't going to go off when it's in the holster, so who cares? When reholstering, you can easily turn your back to a safe backstop. There's no such thing as a safe backstop for the other two shoulder holster methods. And it is, in my experience, much faster than vertical down, and a bit more than vertical up, because you don't have to bend your wrist down on the draw.

The above are just a few of the reasons why my shoulder holster is horizontal.

And this is totally gratuitous, but I, personally, would never carry a Glock in any kind of shoulder holster. Revolvers or guns with a manual safety, only. Or, I guess, a Springfield XD because you can holster without touching the grip safety.

Mine is an Alessi Bodyguard (and I carry my S&W 640 or 340PD in it).

[God's Country]

I honestly do not see the difference between holstering a glock in a shoulder rig vs. any other. Provided it is leather(or the like) and properly designed for a glock. I’ve looked at lots of holsters lately and any respectable manufacturer takes into account the specific needs of a particular weapon. Sometimes they are subtle , but present none the less. If I had a digital camera I could back that up.

All points of view appreciated though.

[Rule10b5]

I honestly do not see the difference between holstering a glock in a shoulder rig vs. any other. Provided it is leather(or the like) and properly designed for a glock. I’ve looked at lots of holsters lately and any respectable manufacturer takes into account the specific needs of a particular weapon. Sometimes they are subtle , but present none the less. If I had a digital camera I could back that up.

All points of view appreciated though.

No worries, it's just personal preference

An out of the box Glock, absent any other action, will discharge with about 6 lbs of pressure on the trigger face, over a short distance.

An out of the box revolver will discharge with 12-15 lbs of pressure on the trigger face.

Any gun with a manual safety, provided that the safety is functional and engaged will not discharge with any reasonable force on the trigger.

A Springfield XD will discharge with about 5 lbs pressure on the trigger face, provided that the grip safety is pressed down.

I've a pretty good amount of experience with shoulder holsters, and I'm familiar with most, if not all, retention designs by the major manufacturers. I'm convinced that none of them is going to engage the trigger once the weapon is holstered.

My point is simply that of all types of guns, Glocks are the most likely to be discharged in an active holstering situation because they have no manual safety, and they have a relatively light trigger pull and short travel distance. I'm not Glock bashing (I'm wearing my G19 today ), I'm stating a simple fact. Part of what makes Glocks so great to shoot and such great carry guns is what makes them susceptible to the issue I'm talking about. This issue is an across the board issue for all types of holsters for Glocks. The only reason why it's more pronounced in the context of a shoulder holster is because the direction the muzzle will be facing during holstering.

It's not a question of holster design or features, it's a question of the person doing the holstering, or the shirt they're wearing, or anything that can snag the trigger when you're holstering.

If we're talking about a Glock with an NY1 trigger on it, I'm going to be a lot less worried about using a shoulder holster with it. Simply because the added weight will give you a split second to back off holstering before it goes bang.

[1FingrCHan]

Hi there Rule10b5,

I was looking at this shoulder rig, what is your opinion on this one?. Thankx
http://cgi.ebay.com/Desantis-11D-NY-...QQcmdZViewItem

1FingrCHan

[God's Country]

I'm not Glock bashing

That was understood. My point was that holstering any Glock requires a certain degree of knowlege to handle and holster safely. That being said what's the difference what holster. It all comes down to training at that point.