A pair of Kit Guns in vintage Hunter holsters

[turnerriver]

A recent thread seeking to date a Hunter holster led me to pull these out. The whip stitched holster is a model 1199 holster, size code 8 is for a 4" Kit Gun. The other holster is a model 3100, size code 17 is for a whole series of fixed sight 4" small frame revolvers such as the models 30, 31 and 33 but a Kit Gun fits nicely too. It is stamped HAND CARVED on the rear under the model number 3100-17.
Hunter is still in business making American made leather goods in Westminster, Colorado. Colorado Saddlery offered custom made holsters starting after WW II, at some point they stopped that and started marketing Hunter holsters. I'm not sure whether they were connected beyond marketing but I have a late 1950's or very early pre zip code 1960's Colorado Saddlery catalog that offers the entire Hunter line. Hunter's website refers to 1952 as their beginning.
Anyway, here's the photo. Happy Memorial Day to all.
Regards,
turnerriver

 

[LoboGunLeather]

Very nice stuff! I remember buying those CCI Mini-Mags at the local hardware store for about a buck a box, back when the regular .22LR ammo was about $0.69. We thought we had the hottest stuff around for dealing with jackrabbits and coyotes.

 

[Shorty 45 MK2]

Very nice looking set ups there.

 

[Steelwimp]

34-1 in Hunter 1100

Holster a bit beat up from going through some tight brush. A little Ballistol cleaned it up! This 34-1 in a Hunter 1100 I found in a $5.00 bin many years ago was my field rig for years. Now using a Ruger SR22 in a cheap but ok ballistic cloth holster.

 

[30-30remchester]

Very nice. I live in the mountains of Colorado and just about everyone has their field handgun holstered in a Hunter. While they get looked down upon by us holster snobs, they are actually excellent holsters for rough field use. A closed toe to prevent snow, mud, dirt and debris from entering the barrel, high back to completely cover and protect the rear sight, trigger protected yet accessible, and a heavy retaining strap properly positioned for easy access yet difficult to accidentally dislodge all make for an excellent field holster. Though they are often loose fitting I can find no flies on early Hunters. A true outdoorsman I knew who spent his life in the field had his pre war Colt Woodsman riding in a Hunter. His had been carried so long that the barrel had worn a hole in the toe of the holster. He drilled a large hole on the backside of the holster so that he could hang in on a nail in his bedpost. It was his only handgun.
I have found holsters for the kit guns hard to find. Mine rides in a lined Tex Shoemaker thumb break. I also have and almost identical holster built by "Ole Timer"?

 

[Wyatt p. Tato]

My first holster was a hunter in 1965. I love them. Miss being able to find them at the local hardware. Don't like buying on line. I still have several.

No holster snob here, if Hunter was all I had, I would be satisfied.

 

[jimgoldth]

In 1960 I was stationed in Arizona and wanted a 22 LR hand gun. I went to a hardware store in Fry, AZ and looked at the Ruger Standard and the High Standard Sentinel Revolver. Maybe because it was $2.00 cheaper I went with the 4 3/4" barrel Ruger Standard at ($37.50) plus the proper sized Hunter 1100 holster for about $50 total cost OTD. I learned to shoot with that Ruger Standard when I got it home to NH. The only fault I found with the Hunter Holster was that I thought that it should have a FBI tilt and my local shoe repair man fixed that with a single line of stitching going from the top at the front of the holster to about 1" down from the top of rear. That made the Ruger sit at the proper FBI tilt to my eye.

 

[rednichols]

The notion that Hunter is a successor company to Colorado Saddlery is fascinating! And plausible:

It's little known, because designer/maker Al Kippen is little known, that he's the common thread that connects Heiser, Colorado Saddlery, Bucheimer, Smith & Wesson Leather, and Gould & Goodrich. According to the Gun Digest Book of Holsters and other Gunleather, written by my old friend Roger Combs, Al started at Heiser around 1928; and when Heiser was sold in 1945 he and three mates formed Colorado Saddlery.

It was Heiser that invented and popularised what we now think of as a Hunter-style holster, as in turnerriver's pics; and CS made them as well. In fact all of the companies that Al worked for, featured this style of holster over the decades.

We know that Heiser effectively folded by 1960, and Bucheimer by 1980; by which time Smith & Wesson leather (the successor company to Wolfram Holsters) was about to turn into Gould & Goodrich when S&W spun it off.

 

[brokugin]

My off duty gun when I went to work for a CO sheriff's department in the early 70s was a Dick Special, Cobra variant. I thought I was just saving a few bucks by using a Hunter 'temporarily'. It became the permanent home for the Dick Special. I used a Hunter for a Ruger SA about twenty years ago. They are good holsters.

 

[S&W SS Revolvers]

A recent thread seeking to date a Hunter holster led me to pull these out. The whip stitched holster is a model 1199 holster, size code 8 is for a 4" Kit Gun. The other holster is a model 3100, size code 17 is for a whole series of fixed sight 4" small frame revolvers such as the models 30, 31 and 33 but a Kit Gun fits nicely too. It is stamped HAND CARVED on the rear under the model number 3100-17.
Hunter is still in business making American made leather goods in Westminster, Colorado. Colorado Saddlery offered custom made holsters starting after WW II, at some point they stopped that and started marketing Hunter holsters. I'm not sure whether they were connected beyond marketing but I have a late 1950's or very early pre zip code 1960's Colorado Saddlery catalog that offers the entire Hunter line. Hunter's website refers to 1952 as their beginning.
Anyway, here's the photo. Happy Memorial Day to all.
Regards,
turnerriver

Dad's .22 Ruger Single Six has resided in a Hunter holster (black) since 1956 or so. It's all in the safe. Cool thing is they are exactly 1/2 a block North of and about 4 miles east of our home...