Boyt Commercial Holster # 230.4

s&wchad · Feb 26, 2018

Found this in a holster tub at a local gun show and had to bring it home. As you can see from the photos, it's a black leather 1/2 flap model with a russet welt, rope and crescent stamping, a stylized lift-a-dot snap, suede lining and holes on the loop for securing to a belt. It also has a raised ledge on the inside that I assume is intended as a sight protector.

I've seen similar Boyt holsters made for a 1911, but this one is way too small. It appears to be a revolver holster, but a 4" J frame is too loose and a 4" K frame seems a little too tight. A Police Positive Special fits just about right, but the "sight protector" ledge is throwing me for a loop. The back is marked 230.4, which I hope is a gun fit code.

I found very little on the web about these commercial Boyt holsters and the good folks at Boyt told me they had a fire and lost all their old records.

Anyone happen to have an old catalog or a Boyt holster fit chart?

s&wchad · Feb 26, 2018

Update...

I phoned Boyt this morning and sent them some photos of the holster, but I didn't expect to receive much information.
Was I wrong!

Tony Caligiuri, President of Boyt Harness Company took the time to review my photos and send me the following message.

Thank you Tony and happy hunting!

-------------------------------------------------------------------

The holster you have is in excellent condition, congratulations.
You are correct in assuming that it is a commercial holster. The 230- 4 tells us it is for a small frame revolver with a 4" barrel such as S&W 4" .38 special, .22/32 kit gun etc., these would be forerunners to the current K frame guns, the holster would also fit Colt detective specials ( 2" model holster), Colt Cobras, etc.
Your particular model is a 230.BF the BF means "Black Flap". The Des Moines stamp includes five stars which tells me that the holster was made sometime after WWII but before 1954. The five stars were added on leather products after WWII when Boyt was named a five star supplier during the war effort.
The holster is stitched with linen thread and appears to have nickel plated brass hardware. There is no evidence of the thread being replaced which is remarkable for a 70 year old holster. This is a deluxe series holster and the decorative border tooling was included on this series of holster. The standard holsters were unlined and did not have embossing, as such your holster is more rare. Your holster would have sold for about $6.00 retail in 1954.
I hope this helps answer your questions and again, thank you for your interest in Boyt.
Sincerely
Tony Caligiuri

crazyphil · Feb 26, 2018

Don't know if this is pertinent or not, but I was going to post it before
you posted the information from Tony. I guess it can't hurt.

Back in WWII our Department of Defense was called the War Department.
Everything could be found in the War Department's Decimal File System.

200 was/is the category for all personnel. Veterans probably remember
that they have a file on everyone called a 201 file.

30 was for civilian employees. So 230 would be a civilian working in some
capacity for the war department.

The .4 refers to duties and service assignments.

So I could be very wrong. I frequently am. But I thought the 230.4
indicated the issue of the holster to a civilian employee for a particular
assignment.

PS My bet is that an S&W Victory model will fit.

crazyphil · Feb 26, 2018

But after looking at all of the BOYT holsters on ebay, I believe the 230
is the holster model number and the 4 just means 4" barrel.
All in my above post is probably just coincidence, and/or my imagination.

rednichols · Feb 26, 2018

s&wchad said:
I phoned Boyt this morning and sent them some photos of the holster, but I didn't expect to receive much information.
Was I wrong!

Tony Caligiuri, President of Boyt Harness Company took the time to review my photos and send me the following message.

Thank you Tony and happy hunting!

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Impressive, that a vendor would be so responsive. Well done Boyt (unfortunately for my project, Boyt was affected by holstory but not the other way 'round). I have emails out to both Hunter and El Paso Saddlery and no replies. Wish they were all as forthcoming as Boyt has been for you!

SG-688 · Feb 26, 2018

rednichols said:
Impressive, that a vendor would be so responsive. ......!

New respect here for Boyt.

I recently queried Fed... err, an ammunition maker ... about some 1970's special order "LE" head stamped +P+ ammunition. They not only had no records that far back (at least that they were willing to search) but gave out erroneous information that ammunition without a +P+ must be standard pressure.

Boyt Commercial Holster # 230.4

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