I got a nylon ratchet belt a year back. That’s now my standard jeans belt — with or without a handgun. The 1/8” adjustments simply aren’t possible with leather, but easy in a ratchet buckle. Mine have been 1.75” belts which fill a jeans belt loop.
After my first ratchet belt, I bought two more colors for me and one for my Dad - who’s a hearty-and-hale 80 yoa. The buckle on a ratchet belt seems less complicated for fine motor skills than the leather belt buckles. I know I am getting older by the day…
(When I was in the Army, I was told the basic nylon single friction buckle belt was standard to make removing a belt for medical reasons/CASEVAC easier. Likely that was barracks bullocks, but may have a grain of truth. In EMS, sometimes a leather belt would be sliced with shears, but steel lined belts might preclude that)
On leather gun belts, my Goldilocks has always been the 1.5” Don Hume. It isn’t the thickest nor the stoutest, but had a profile that didn’t make you look like a guntoter on the way to the OK Corral. It had the right hand - supple enough to get you through the day without hot spots, but sturdy enough to carry a 35oz gun.
