Hey I have a question. I'm going to be carrying my 686 .357 4 inch for my everday carry and I'm looking at holsters. I have carried both hip and shoulder holsters and feel fairly comfortable with both but im having a hard time deciding which would be best. A follow up question is does anyone know a good leather holster website. Thank you in advance.

Shoulder holsters work their very best for very small pistols: 2-3" J frame revolvers, 25 and 32/380 autos. Bond showed us how it's done. For anything bigger, they are unwieldy. That goes for a 4" L frame :-).

Now, having said that, there will nevertheless be posts swearing by this brand or that with Colt Python or 5" 1911 in it. But they will still be second best to what they were intended for -- very small pistols -- or to a wast-mounted holster. And an L frame w/b better OWB than IWB!

Picking an OWB will be challenging. Few place this revolver ideally, and "ideally" is with the cylinder at belt level and not higher, after which it becomes top heavy and relies on a very stiff and uncomfortable belt to do the job.

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Red Nichols The Holstorian

I carry a 3" 686 in holsters from Galco and Simply Rugged.

Galco

https://www.simplyrugged.com/ecommer...151&parent=669

Best bet is to buy a quality OWB holster. There are many, many good makers but the ones that come to mind, off the top of my head, are Kramer, Milt Sparks, Mernickle, Tucker and Byrd, El Paso Saddlery and Barranti.

Listen to the man...........................

Now; open or concealed carry??? For casual carry at the cabin in Penn's Woods I like the Bianchi 111 Cyclone Crossdraw for a 4" L frame. For concealed carry I prefer a 3" 66 or 65 in a Milt Sparke Summer Special!


Kirtpatrick Leather makes a good crossdraw in their TCD /Texas Cross Draw....I've used them with hicap 6906 and Beretta 92 Centurion.... when doing long (+1hour) distance driving.

Thank you all for your responses.

I use a DeSantis IWB leather holster. Excellent product

DeSantis Holsters - Official Site

Sir,
There's a world of holster makers...........

I carry mostly N frame revolver and 1911s.

Also, I have found, over decades of wearing a sidearm,
a separate gunbelt for carrying the heavier handguns works best for me.
Having also worn shoulder holsters, I find a good belt holster &
gunbelt the most comfortable.

I carry this rig purty often, like all day yesterday at church and continuing through this week.

Four inch N frame,




*This is not an advertisement, as I am retired.
.

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"IN GOD WE TRUST"

It kind of depends on you body type and how you dress. I carry either a Hi-Power, 5" 1911, or 4" N frame. All with a variation of a Spark's Summer Special. ymmv