Hunter Holster

boykinlp

boykinlp

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Like the KalamazooKid posted in another thread, "I think I have a problem." I just love leather holsters! Where his affinity was for smooth holsters, mine is for carved ones. As an example, it was after 2am a few days ago. I was halfway watching an episode of Mannix. Being hardly able to hold my eyes open, I started to get ready to go to sleep. I turned off the TV and grabbed my iPad to plug it in so it would charge overnight. I glanced at it one more time and it happened to be on eBay. Of course, I have to refresh it!:) I go to my summary to see what a holster, I was interested in, sold for earlier in the night.

You know how you get the notice on eBay "This item has sold, but here are some similar items that may be of interest to you." I am dead tired but I HAVE to look!:eek: What do I see, it's a Hunter holster. I don't have a Hunter holster! Wait, it is floral carved! It is also for a snub nosed gun! It has a very reasonable BIN! I am now under it's control! I MUST buy it!

So, needless to say, I now am the proud owner of my first Hunter holster. It is a model 3100 #29. The seller says it fits a S&W revolver with a 2" barrel. I have one of those!

I think I need to block eBay from all my computers.:D:eek::rolleyes:
Larry
 

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Were Hunter holsters actually carved - or were their embossed designs stamped?
I always had the impression that Hunter mass-produced inexpensive holsters.
If that is true, then actual hand carving seems like it would be too expensive.
But then again, I may be totally off base on their quality level...
 
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For me, it's brown or tan basketweave holsters. I have a very nice Bianchi 5BHL for my 6 inch 686-4+. I actually got the holster before I got the gun. No pics yet, though.
 
BC38,
You may be completely correct. I used the word carved very liberally. The quality, while not Heiser, Myres, or Lawrence is pretty good though. That is another point about my problem. It doesn't have to be the best to tempt me.:)
 
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boykinlp said:
BC38,
You may be completely correct. I used the word carved very liberally. The quality, while not Heiser, Myres, or Lawrence is pretty good though. That is another point about my problem. It doesn't have to be the best to tempt me.:)
Click to expand...
I hear ya' man. I have a couple of Hunter holsters myself. They are good quality - good enough for me anyway.
None are carved, but I don't care much for floral carved
I prefer the plain ones myself - though I do like basketweave.
 
I'm not an expert, but quite sure that Hunter did do actual carving,
not embossing. I believe that neat little holster you picked up is carved.
Appears to be for a J Frame. Will work well with a concealed hammer
model such as 642 because the retention strap goes over the trigger
guard instead of the hammer. Here, below is one of my carved Hunters.
 

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crazyphil said:
I'm not an expert, but quite sure that Hunter did do actual carving,
not embossing. I believe that neat little holster you picked up is carved.
Appears to be for a J Frame. Will work well with a concealed hammer
model such as 642 because the retention strap goes over the trigger
guard instead of the hammer. Here, below is one of my carved Hunters.
Click to expand...

Phil is right -- again :-). Hunters were 'Mexican carved' as Heiser labelled it, not embossed with a plate. Hunter is one of the Denver makers: Heiser, Hunter, Colorado Saddlery, Fred Mueller, A.H. Hardy. Off the top of my head I can only think of Brauer as using embossing plates (and we used them at Bianchi to do the floral rifle slings, quite hard to tell from the real thing because the plate itself was created by heavily plating a hand-carved sling the way baby shoes are. Preserved the hand cuts and every flaw, too).
 
This is all cool info to know.
Sounds like Hunters are a little higher quality than what I had always believed. I thought they were kind of the low end of leather holsters, but sounds like I my impression was wrong. Good to know - makes me value the ones I have a little more. :D
 
I have been a fan of Hunter Holsters since seeing one in a gun magazine in the late 1950s but never had one. I decided to remedy that and went on a search. The search was complicated by the fact that I am a sinister Lefty. Finally found what I was looking for, a J Frame S&W left handed Hunter. I is "old school" for sure and I have yet to achieve my standard of a one second draw and hit. But, for stomping around my pasture it is just the ticket for my S&W M-34. Of course, it also works to carry my M-642 and M-60.
 

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crazyphil said:
I'm not an expert, but quite sure that Hunter did do actual carving,
not embossing. I believe that neat little holster you picked up is carved.
Appears to be for a J Frame. Will work well with a concealed hammer
model such as 642 because the retention strap goes over the trigger
guard instead of the hammer.
Click to expand...

Looks pretty good to me.:) I think the M&P would work too.
 

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BC38 said:
This is all cool info to know.
Sounds like Hunters are a little higher quality than what I had always believed. I thought they were kind of the low end of leather holsters, but sounds like I my impression was wrong. Good to know - makes me value the ones I have a little more. :D
Click to expand...

That's such a great point. I was the same until I realised that the 'Hunter holster' is not a style unique to that company; it's a style that was popularised by the likes of Heiser. Both use(d) a full-grain leather of an appropriate thickness and temper. Here's a Heiser of that style that is eminently collectible (the image and the holster are bmcgilvray's) and the mark suggests it is over 100 years old -- so, this is amongst the earliest designs, long before there was a Hunter Co. (founded '52):

bmcgilvray (1).jpg
 
Here are some examples of embossing, carving, and tooling, left to right:

Neffleather embossed.

Myres carved.

HC (Henry Cassady) tooled.

Red mentioned embossing by Brauer Bros. 2nd photo from left
is an old embossed Brauer Bros. with my model 19. It has another
owner now, but I still have the photo.
 

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crazyphil said:
Here are some examples of embossing, carving, and tooling, left to right:

Neffleather embossed.

Myres carved.

HC (Henry Cassady) tooled.

Red mentioned embossing by Brauer Bros. 2nd photo from left
is an old embossed Brauer Bros. with my model 19. It has another
owner now, but I still have the photo.
Click to expand...

Nice examples Phil.

As one can see in the photo, a quality embossed holster is almost indistinguishable from a carved one - at least from just a little distance. Of course up close you can tell the difference since the edges of the patterns are sharper when they are carved.

I believe that some mass-produced leather goods are actually "semi-carved" as well aren't they? By that I mean that the overall design is applied with an embossing plate, then some detail carving is done to the design to enhance it.
 
BC38 said:
Nice examples Phil.

As one can see in the photo, a quality embossed holster is almost indistinguishable from a carved one - at least from just a little distance. Of course up close you can tell the difference since the edges of the patterns are sharper when they are carved.

I believe that some mass-produced leather goods are actually "semi-carved" as well aren't they? By that I mean that the overall design is applied with an embossing plate, then some detail carving is done to the design to enhance it.
Click to expand...

That is probably true. Anything the could think of to make the
process faster and less costly.
That particular embossed holster is probably one of the best
examples of embossing I have ever seen.
It seems that 99% of carving follows the same general pattern.
 
galena said:
I have been a fan of Hunter Holsters since seeing one in a gun magazine in the late 1950s but never had one. I decided to remedy that and went on a search. The search was complicated by the fact that I am a sinister Lefty. Finally found what I was looking for, a J Frame S&W left handed Hunter. I is "old school" for sure and I have yet to achieve my standard of a one second draw and hit. But, for stomping around my pasture it is just the ticket for my S&W M-34. Of course, it also works to carry my M-642 and M-60.
Click to expand...

I have noticed that Tex Shoemaker made a lot of left handed
holsters. There is usually a pretty good assortment on the big
auction site. And his holsters were good quality in my opinion.
 
I have a Hunter (plain) that came with a model 14, but I don't use it. I need a nice lined holster for my 4" 686. Maybe some day.

Have a blessed day,

Leon
 
When I bought this Old Model Ruger Single Six with 9.5" barrel I knew that finding an appropriate holster may be difficult. But I guess I got lucky and this one appeared on ebay a very short time later at a very reasonable price. It serves its purpose quite well I think.
 

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