Guest Blog from Two Brave Dogs.
I have a lot of holsters. When you carry, you tend to accumulate them. One of my holsters is the all-leather Tagua. It’s cool looking and comfortable to wear, but it has one serious drawback. It’s tight. It isn’t just a little tight, either. It’s rack-the-slide tight. And, as you might imagine, it’s just as tight coming back out when you you draw it. It was pretty close to being a useless holster-shaped piece of leather. So, I tossed it in the holster drawer and forgot about it. (What? You don’t have a holster drawer?)
Recently, I decided to start carrying to work. When I leave the campus, its usually dark. Our school serves a very large population of outlanders, and many of them come from cultures where its probably okay to kill your teacher… especially if he is an infidel. And he gave you a B on your essay.
Sidetracked!
Don’t get me started on the issue of our “leaders” giving away our country to outlanders so that we will have enough taxpayers to pay for free cell phones for the lazy-class. They cant seem to give away citizenship (or cell phones) fast enough.
So, anyway… I decided that the Tagua would be a good choice for clipping into my school bag. It would hook perfectly on the inside of one of the compartments, and that would put the pistol right at the side zipper. All I would need to do is reach in, and deploy the weapon. Excellent!
One problem!
Tagua Holster Still too Tight!
The damn Tagua is still just as tight as the day I got it. Not only is it rack-the-slide tight going in, but its come-out-holster-and-all on the draw, too. Man… I really need to loosen up this holster! Or get a new one! I tried leaving the gun in the holster for an entire weekend to stretch it out a little… nothing.
Step by Step
Then I remembered a tip I read somewhere… I have no idea why I didn’t remember it before! Here’s what I did, step by step!
1. I placed the (obviously unloaded) gun in a thin dress sock and stretched it somewhat tight.
2. I shoved the weapon fully into the holster.
3. I took the wifey’s blow dryer and heated the holster all over until it was really hot. Like, I-wish-I-had-on-a-pair-of-gloves hot! Both sides, top and bottom.
4. I put it down and let it cool. (Which took longer than I thought.)
That’s it.
I was pretty skeptical that this would work. The Samurai made their armor out of boiled leather and I didn’t want to turn the holster into a piece of impossibly tough armor that would have to removed with the jaws of life.
The Results
After it cooled, I pulled the pistol out, removed the sock and (moment of truth) holstered the weapon.
And guess what?
It slid right in. Perfectly. And it still had a lot of retention, too. How cool is that? It worked! I kinda wish I had made a YouTube video of it now!
So… if you have a leather holster that is just a little too tight, follow these 4 simple steps, and you’ll be impressed. It actually worked. Just don’t let your wife see you blow drying your holster with her hair dryer. She probably won’t appreciate it.
Source: http://www.twobravedogs.com/
I’ve heard of wrapping the gun in a plastic bag and inserting it into a lightly damp holster, but never heating one. I don’t understand the actions at work in the leather that would do this.
Hey Steve,
I think that the water and the heat are doing the same thing here, which is making the leather softer and more pliable, allowing it to stretch to the shape of the weapon. I have no doubt that water would do that job more efficiently than heat, but for me, the advantage of using heat was that my carry gun’s barrel is bare steel and has a tendency to form little rust spots when exposed to moisture, so I could not bring myself to put it in a damp leather holster, plastic bag notwithstanding.