Griffoneur said:
I am looking for a IWB "tuckable" holster for a full sized 1911 .45ACP with a 5" barrel.
I am also in my 50's and a charter member of the Men Without Waists Club. I am not a holster expert and I do not have several boxes full of discarded holsters as evidence of my dedication to finding the perfect holster.
Having said that, I have settled on a Texas Heritage IWB from Tucker Gunleather which I use for my BHP. You can see all the details on this particular holster below.
http://rlcompanyusa.stores.yahoo.net/teheiwb.html
I considered a Milt Sparks VersaMax before purchasing this holster, but chose the Tucker instead for the following reasons. First and foremost, I tried my neighbors. Felt great and distributed the weight of the pistol similar to that of my BHP very well. Second, the Kydex clips are multiposition, allowing you a reasonable amount of adjustment for ride height and cant. Third, and perhaps most of all, Tucker offers an "anytime you decide you don't like it or it isn't built well enough, I'll give you your money back" guarantee. Not credit towards another purchase - money back. Made it easy to try this holster first.
I am very pleased with my holster. The fit to the BHP is just right, right from the word go. Lots of other people speak very highly about Tucker holsters, and you can add me to the list. The thing is, with a guarantee like that, you can try their holsters in confidence that if it just doesn't work for you, you can return it. If everyone did that, there wouldn't be hundreds of thousands of unused holsters gathering dust in drawers...
I chose v-clips for mine, as my earlier holster had also convinced me that a real gun belt was just as important as the holster. Particularly when going to smaller belt widths like 1 1/4". I tried my Ernie Hill Speedleather belt from my competition rigs for a while, but realized pretty quickly that it looked exactly like... a gunbelt. And while stiff is good, that was ridiculously stiff and wide.
For a gunbelt that was dressy enough to wear to the office but stiff enough to properly support the gun, I found that Jim at The Beltman makes great belts. In fact, he makes the bullhide belts that Tucker gunleather sells. I purchased a horsehide belt with velcro liner for the v-clips to lock in to. Can wear it with anything from cargo shorts, to jeans, to Dockers. Could maybe even get away with wearing it with a suit:
You can contact The Beltman here:
http://www.thebeltman.net/
This combination works well for me; it may or may not do the same for you. It tucks very well, although I don't think that would help any if you wear your shirts somewhat tight. There has to be room to "blouse" your shirt so it isn't tight over the parts of the gun above the belt. The Kydex clips do seem to help to flatten out the silhouette of the pistol.
You are probably aware that for most people carrying a full size pistol requires some changes in how you dress in the warmer months. If you wear some sort of vest 12 months of the year, then it won't be much of an issue - I wear the Tucker "untucked" in the colder months because I usually do wear a micropile vest from fall through spring. But in the summer, if you tend towards shorts and tank tops and still want to carry a full size handgun, this starts to get interesting to say the least. I don't pretend to have solved that one (except for wearing REALLY BAGGY tank tops), and as that is my normal attire in the summer, I have been spending some time thinking about buying one of the Kahr's in .40 S&W for the summer months.
None of this might work for you if the majority of your time is spent sitting in a vehicle or whatever. That has not been a consideration for me in choosing how to carry, so I don't know much about that and therefore any comments on choosing a holster primarily for sitting would be uninformed speculation on my part.
One thing is that there are many, many truly great holster makers these days to choose from. Most will be quite happy to speak with you at length about your requirements and advise you; they match a lot of people up with holsters they will like, so you will probably get good advice. And Tucker is not the only maker to offer "no questions asked" satisfaction guarantees.
But I'd still suggest you talk to Rob at Tucker Gunleather first...
