Found this sitting in the display cabinet at the Fort Mill, SC Cabelas "Gun Library"...a Simply Rugged Sourdough pancake holster with the "Chesty Puller" straps so that it can be used as a chest rig. Marked at only $39.00, so I practically stole it.

This is something that I can only use a few times a year when hiking in remote areas. I've found it difficult to carry a large revolver in a belt holster when wearing a backpack with waist strap support. Also, a chest rig offers a bit more clearance above water for trooping around swampy areas, particularly in Eastern North Carolina or Florida.

This one is cut for 4" N Frame. That's good and bad. Bad, because all of my N Frames are 5"-6.5". This 5" 629 pokes out a bit. Good, because it gives me an excuse to buy a 4" N Frame...maybe a 29 or 629.

Great score. Simply Rugged makes good stuff and that was a great price. I have several of their holsters.

You downright stole it! I'm considering buying the rig (already have the Simply Rugged holster) and would appreciate some input. Have you had a chance to wear it? How does it fit and feel? Good amount of adjustability?

Yes, I put it on. Have not really "used" it in the sense of carrying outside. Just found it this afternoon. Only took a minute to adjust it. Very comfortable, particularly over a sweatshirt.

Watch the video on the Simply Rugged website for guidance. Helps get everything sorted out.

Great find! I’m calling dibs if you decide to sell it and make some money! For the follow on, they have a lot of adjustability. I have one for my M69. I haven’t cut the straps on mine, just tucked them in behind the holster. It take some getting used to after years of belt holsters, but I do believe it’ll come into use when I move to Montana next month and get to hunt in the mountains.

Does it have a strap for the pistol, when wearing on the chest? Symmetrical pancakes that only surround the frame and not the trigger guard, and without welts, simply don't have the holding power one needs when wearing on the chest, at an angle; with a top-heavy pistol. Running, crawling, falling?

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Red Nichols The Holstorian

I do no see any such strap with this rig.

Hey Red, can you provide an example of what you are talking about please? I look forward to your input on gun leather.

I'm not sure of this particular model/firearm, but I have a Simply Rugged pancake and it definitely has retention. You can feel it "snap" into place, and you can hold it upside down and give it a wiggle and it stays put. Although the pictures of his holsters don't look typical, like they have retention, mine sure does.

The pancake design when worn on the hip with a proper width belt does not require an extra retention strap to ensure average gun security....((Inverted canoes or a wrestling match with a grizzly might prove different)).

That's due to the effect the opposing belt slots have on tightening the holster body against the gun and hip. If you put a pancake on with no gun inserted it will flatten out.

The "chesty-puller" system does not use a belt through the opposing slots so the way a "pancake" usually works is changed.
While the owner of Simply Rugged declares a gun will not become dislodged with his "sourdough" style of his pancake, I believe he is referring to the convention hip-carry method.

However, in agreement with poster "motorsporting", I concur, (somewhat), with a "new" sourdough holding tight to most revolvers.
Upside down and shaken over a soft pillow; with J, K and some N frames yes,...mostly.

Not so much with a 6 1/2 inch loaded mdl. 29; nor a Commander size 1911 with a full mag.

The two "pancake" holsters by the original maker, Roy Baker I have, use a retention strap.

Anyway, the point of the thread was what a bargain NCBeagle got on his rig. I agree for sure.

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wanna do right-- not right now