Firearms Accessories

Holster/Types of Holsters

A holster is a holder for carrying a handgun or other firearm. A holster is typically made of leather but can be made of a variety of other materials. It is used to hold or restrict the undesired movement of a handgun. A well-designed holster will provide protection to the handgun when inserted or removed from the holster or while being carried. This prevents three things: accidental trigger movement, accidental disengagement of the safety mechanism, and forward or rearward movement of the hammer. These features will vary greatly as applicable to the action of the handgun. The safety features of a holster generally require that a holster must be designed for each specific model of handgun.

Pocket Holster

A pocket holster is a holster designed to carry a concealed firearm in the pocket of an article of clothing. Holsters are generally designed to offer protection to the handgun, secure its retention and provide ready access to it. Is pocket carry right for you?

Shoulder Holster

A shoulder holster consists of straps connected in a manner similar to a backpack, with the actual holster mounted to a strap on the right or left side. Normally, the straps cross over on shoulders and back and the gun can generally be placed over the chest or under the armpit, depending on the design. Shoulder holsters distribute the weight across the shoulders instead of directly on the belt. This is to provide better comfort than a traditional holster.

They are designed to position the handgun in one of three ways: a vertical position with the barrel pointed generally toward the ground, a vertical position with the barrel pointed generally upward or a horizontal position with the barrel pointed generally behind the carrier. Spare magazines typically hang on the opposite side of the body from the holster. The firearm is then easily concealable with a jacket.

Did You Know?

Old West Shoulder Rigs

Shoulder rigs are said to have originated on the American Frontier during the late 1870s. Old West gamblers “Doc” Holliday and Luke Short were both known for their deadly speed and accuracy with a gun and sported shoulder holsters. Friends and lawmen Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson both attested that Holliday wore two revolvers — one on his hip and another under his left arm in a shoulder holster. Shoulder holders offered easy accessibility, comfort and concealability for cowboys, gamblers, lawmen and outlaws.

“Doc” Holliday’s grave, Pioneer Cemetery, Glenwood Springs, Colorado (Image courtesy of Frank Jastrzembski)

Hybrid Holster

A hybrid holster refers to the merging of two or more different types of materials in a holster’s construction. For example, a holster with a leather back pad and a polymer shell would be a hybrid holster.

Kydex

Kydex, invented in 1965, is a line of thermoplastic acrylic-polyvinyl chloride materials which gives the plastic rigidity. It also can be molded into various shapes. Kydex combines the properties of the acrylic (rigidity and formability) and the polyvinyl chloride (durability and chemical resistance) components. It has a wide variety of applications, most notably for firearm holsters and sheaths.

Kydex was first used as a holster material in 1972 by Chicago FBI agent Bill Rogers. Holsters made of this material are lightweight and durable. Demand for his product increased rapidly, and Rogers took a three-year leave from the FBI to make holsters. In 1973, he started the Rogers Holster Co., later purchased by Safariland in 1985.

Pistol Brace

A pistol-stabilizing brace or arm brace is an accessory for modern AR- and AK-pattern pistols and other similar firearms. It is primarily designed to help a shooter fire one-handed.

Moon Clip

A moon clip or half-moon clip is a ring-shaped or star-shaped piece of metal designed to hold multiple cartridges together as a unit for simultaneous insertion and extraction from a revolver’s cylinder. Unlike a speedloader, a moon clip remains in place during and after firing and is used to extract the empty cartridge cases. It may hold an entire cylinder’s worth of cartridges together (full moon clip), half a cylinder (half-moon clip) or just two neighboring cartridges. Some revolvers are designed to run on moon clips, but not all revolvers can accept them.

Speedloader

A speedloader is a device used to reduce the time and effort needed to reload a firearm. They come in a variety of forms for loading either multiple chambers of a revolver simultaneously or the (fixed or detachable) magazines of semi-automatic firearms.

Speed Strip

A speed strip holds cartridges in a reusable plastic strip and is intended as an alternative to loose rounds in a pocket or pouch. The strip operates by placing the cartridges one or two at a time into their respective chambers and “breaking” the rounds off the strip into the chambers.

Stripper Clip

A stripper clip is a metal or plastic clip made to hold several rounds of ammunition for easier and faster loading into a firearm’s magazine. It is called a “stripper clip” because after the bolt is opened and the stripper clip is placed in position, the user presses on the cartridges from above, sliding them down and off the clip, thereby “stripping” them off the clip and into the magazine. Stripper/charger clips have been used since 1889. In modern use, strippers are used to fill detachable box magazines for semi-automatic and automatic rifles.

Snap Caps

Snap caps are inert, ammunition-shaped objects that are used in training to simulate misfeeds and other malfunctions. They are also used to protect your firearm by allowing you to dry-fire, therefore relieving the stress on your firing pin and springs. Snap caps are great tools for practicing dry-firing and teaching safe gun-handling.

Suppressor-Height Sights

Most suppressors have a diameter of more than 1.25 inches and will often obscure factory sights. Therefore, suppressor-height sights are elevated to allow for a proper sight picture when firing a suppressed firearm.

Trigger Shoe

A trigger shoe is a block of metal or polymer configured to fit snugly on the front face of the trigger of a specific firearm. It is wider than the original trigger and extends a little farther forward. In use, the shooter places the trigger finger on the shoe and gets contact over a wider area. This tends to make the trigger pull feel a little lighter by spreading out the area of the shooter’s finger that is in contact with the trigger.