LOOKING 4 SHOULDER RIG

[NcongruNt]

NcongruNt
Why cant you try it on at home w/ a gun in it?
Any time you get here me & flint will get you adjusted.
We need to shoot again anyway.

I believe I've mentioned this in several other threads before, but that was a while back....

I live in a housing cooperative made mostly of students. It is in my lease contract that firearms are not allowed in the house. I wouldn't go to jail for having guns in the house, but I can get kicked out and stuck with paying the rest of my lease. For now, my guns live in my van. I will be moving sometime in July, and won't have this problem any longer.

I think my frame size is adding to the difficulties, too. All the shoulder rigs I can find all say they fit "up to" 48" chest. Well what about the rest of us? They don't seem to make them any bigger. I measure out at 53". Sometime this week, I gotta go shopping for new cover garments, too. It seems that I own 1 shirt that is big enough to cover up my Hi-Power. I guess it's a good thing though - I need stuff that fits me properly anyway, instead of trying to make XL shirts fit. Every once in a while, someone will take a photograph of me that reminds me of how stocky I really am. Here's me and my big hands making my full-sized Hi-Power look little.



I'm gonna take my new shoulder rig to Capitol Saddlery here in a couple of hours and get them to dye it black, then head to the store and look at some shirts.

Think twice before you dye a shoulder rig black?

Well, I know why the Classic Lite doesn't come in black now...

It's suede, and apparently you can't dye it black because it will rub off on your clothes. That's what the guy at the leather shop said, anyway. Oh well.

The reason I wanted it black is that most of the shirts I wear are dark-colored, so a black shoulder rig won't contrast as much. Next time I order a shoulder rig, I'll make sure it comes in black. I guess that limits me to fabric and synthetic. Now if only I can find one that fits a Hi-Power.

Try most any 1911 holster.

Well, I'd like a Galco, but for some reason they don't list their 1911 rigs as supporting a Hi-Power. They do list them with their OWB/IWB holsters, so this seems to indicate to me that there's something about the 1911 shoulder rigs that won't fit a Hi-Power. The only vertical rig from Galco I see that will fit a 5" 1911 (the hi-power is 4.6") is the "Vertical Shoulder Holster System". I'm not sure that I can justify to myself spending $170 on a shoulder rig just yet. I just got off the phone with them, and they say the problems involve the thumb break being incompatible with the shape of the frame and slide on the Hi-Power, so that nixes that idea. One of the ones I'm really interested in is the Galco X-Project. It is open-top, but it looks like the availability is very limited, and the 1911 compatibility listed is only for the 3" guns.

Bianchi has one vertical shoulder rig in black, but I'm not sure I want really want to go with nylon. Maybe I'll just suck it up and get one of their natural leather X15 rigs.

[longtooth]

I know the $170.00 seems high at first but when you get it what you have si not a "shoulder holster" likd some start off thinking but a whole rig.

The belt, holster & mag carriers. You cant do that on the hip for any cheaper.

[nemesis]

Here's a bunch of random responses.

Your average Galco shoulder rig (Miami Classic, Miami Classic II, Vertical) should retail for about $135 but that is without tiedowns and tiedowns could bring that price up about $22. Shoulder rig prices are quoted without tiedowns.

Galco offers an MCHX shoulder harness which will handle up to a 64" chest.

Galco's S3H horizontal holster components with thumbsnap will NOT fit the Browning P35 High Power and they don't make anything else to fit. The Vertical holster component, the V212, does not list a High Power in the fit list but I don't see why it wouldn't fit. The only drawback there is that the Vertical has no provision for a tiedown.

[NcongruNt]

I know the $170.00 seems high at first but when you get it what you have si not a "shoulder holster" likd some start off thinking but a whole rig.

The belt, holster & mag carriers. You cant do that on the hip for any cheaper.

Yeah, I suppose you're right. Having spent considerable amounts this month on various holster stuff and a new gun already, I'm gonna have to wait a bit on it, as I still to need get myself a good belt and mag carriers come payday.

Thanks for the recommendation on the Combat Carry, by the way. It works very well for me, and has the perfect amount of cant. Best of all, it came in black and was in stock (as opposed to the 2 month wait time on the tan ). It does a superb job of hiding the Hi-Power. $60 well-spent.

[longtooth]

Glad you like it.

[NcongruNt]

So on a related note, I just went shopping for shirts. I went to a Dickies store. This is the best shopping experience I've EVER had. Since Dickies has become big in the ghetto-thug style, EVERYTHING comes in my size (incredibly oversized for most folks, the ghetto style). The vast majority of shirts on the shelves were 2X or larger, so I tried on some 3x shirts, and immediately bought 5 of them in various colors. I'm wearing one now, along with one of the pairs of pants I got. I find myself not having to check my cover garment every few minutes to make sure it's not bunching up or rising up to show the bottom of my holster or wrapping too tight around my gun. It's great!

It's a good thing, too - my only appropriate cover garment was starting to get a little threadbare from the 3+ weeks of constant use since I got my license.

So the lesson of my story: A properly-sized cover garment makes ALL the difference.

[para driver]

So on a related note, I just went shopping for shirts. I went to a Dickies store. This is the best shopping experience I've EVER had. Since Dickies has become big in the ghetto-thug style, EVERYTHING comes in my size (incredibly oversized for most folks, the ghetto style). The vast majority of shirts on the shelves were 2X or larger, so I tried on some 3x shirts, and immediately bought 5 of them in various colors. I'm wearing one now, along with one of the pairs of pants I got. I find myself not having to check my cover garment every few minutes to make sure it's not bunching up or rising up to show the bottom of my holster or wrapping too tight around my gun. It's great!

It's a good thing, too - my only appropriate cover garment was starting to get a little threadbare from the 3+ weeks of constant use since I got my license.

So the lesson of my story: A properly-sized cover garment makes ALL the difference.

a few comments:
Also a big guy, have been carrying for years with a Galco 'half holster' worn underneath a loose fitting shirt, never been made. My 1911 rig is about a half inch short for a hi-power, but I'm sure somebody makes a cross draw holster that I can use. The key to this set up is STRIPES. Strips throw off the eyes ability to make out shapes and perceive depth. Don't buy solid color shirts.

[NcongruNt]

So on a related note, I just went shopping for shirts. I went to a Dickies store. This is the best shopping experience I've EVER had. Since Dickies has become big in the ghetto-thug style, EVERYTHING comes in my size (incredibly oversized for most folks, the ghetto style). The vast majority of shirts on the shelves were 2X or larger, so I tried on some 3x shirts, and immediately bought 5 of them in various colors. I'm wearing one now, along with one of the pairs of pants I got. I find myself not having to check my cover garment every few minutes to make sure it's not bunching up or rising up to show the bottom of my holster or wrapping too tight around my gun. It's great!

It's a good thing, too - my only appropriate cover garment was starting to get a little threadbare from the 3+ weeks of constant use since I got my license.

So the lesson of my story: A properly-sized cover garment makes ALL the difference.

a few comments:
Also a big guy, have been carrying for years with a Galco 'half holster' worn underneath a loose fitting shirt, never been made. My 1911 rig is about a half inch short for a hi-power, but I'm sure somebody makes a cross draw holster that I can use. The key to this set up is STRIPES. Strips throw off the eyes ability to make out shapes and perceive depth. Don't buy solid color shirts.

Yeah, I don't think that the stripes thing will work for me. I absolutely hate striped shirts. There are very few patterns that I will wear. I will do plaid, provided I like it enough. I have found that the lighter grey/silverish shirt I bought makes the gun more apparent to me, though I think it is still effective for concealment. I think the darker, the better, as you don't have issues with shadowing giving away the presence and shape of the gun. The solids have worked well for me so far, even with my old and slightly smaller and lighter grey work shirt. A CHLer friend whom I spent hours with could not tell that I had been carrying.

The other thing that works in my favor with the dark solid shirts is that if my garment were to fly open or open up while leaning/reaching for something, the gun is not as apparent. My Hi-Power is mainly flat black, in a black leather holster, on a black leather belt. I mainly wear a darker color of jean, or sometimes black pants/slacks of some sort. Backgrounded by a black/charcoal/navy work shirt, the details of the gun are not nearly as apparent in an accidental exposure situation as they would be with some sort of patterned shirt with a contrasting color. The only caveat is when I wear a bright t-shirt, such as this group of pictures I took with the above-mentioned smaller and lighter work shirt and a red t-shirt:





Even then, the darker shirts do reduce reflected light, reducing visibility inside the garment if it were to hang open.

[res1b3uq]

I spent HOURS building a shoulder holster for my Commander, then discovered I'm just too short to wear it. Oh, well, got a lot of "sperience.