Shoulder Holsters: Beyond The Mystique

Light Duty

A third category of shoulder holster candidates is those with lumbar spine problems. In the early 1990s, I threw out my lower back and was told by the docs that I. couldn't wear even a belt, let alone a gun, until it straightened out. "No sweat," I said, "I'll wear a shoulder holster."

The doc replied, "Yeah? Well, wear one on each side." When I scoffed at this, he explained logically that if the weight went more toward one side than the other, it would affect the lower back and it wouldn't get fixed.

I cross-bred an old Jackass holster system with a Bill Rogers shoulder rig and wore a lightweight S&W .38 on either side. I felt like Sonny Crockett's older, stranger brother.

After a while I figured out that a lightweight Colt Commander fully loaded on one side, and two spare .45 magazines, handcuffs and a Spyderco Police knife on the other side, exactly balanced. These I carried in one of Gallagher's shoulder rigs until the back got better. I still keep a couple of "shoulder systems" handy these days in case of a relapse.

The Lady's Option

The last but perhaps most frequent candidate for the shoulder holster is the female pistol-packer. If you hang out with plainclothes units who have the shoulder holster option, you'll notice that a large number of the female officers will wear that style. It saves them from having to wear mannish pants with loops large enough for the sturdy belt needed to carry gun, spare ammo and cuffs. The self-suspending nature of the shoulder holster makes it work very well under a woman's suitcoat, blazer or sweater.

Hip holsters designed for men tend to ride too high on women. While most men have trouble reaching across their chest to get a good grip on a shoulder-holstered gun, the women find their relatively more limber arms can reach much farther toward their opposite side armpit.

I wasn't the first to discover this. In his 1960 book, Handgunner's Guide, holster designer and quick-draw expert Chic Gaylord said of his horizontal Dynamite shoulder rig, "This is undoubtedly the fastest shoulder holster made. I designed it originally for policewomen. However, diplomats, heads of state, and our best-dressed detectives went for it to a much greater degree than did their sisters-in-arms."

A Question Of Style

There are four main groups of shoulder holster styles and a few subsets. The vertical shoulder holster is the ancient and classic style of the cowboys, Eliot Ness and the old gangster films. Don't rip it down and out during the draw as shown in countless books, holster manuals and ads. That's slow, brings the gun down out of line of sight, and crosses everyone around with your gun muzzle. It also requires that the concealing garment be hanging open.

Do yourself a favor. Reach across your chest, grab the gun in a firing grasp even if you have to bend your wrist to do so, and pull it across your chest. This method will be your fastest way to access a full size sidearm through a long, heavy winter coat, especially if you're right-handed. (No wonder Mickey Spillane gave his fictional private eye Mike Hammer a shoulder holster to go with his trademark trench coat.)