rednichols
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I keep a quite tiny collection of gunleather; a vintage holster is as likely to end up in pieces after an autopsy than to remain whole.
One I chose to acquire recently and keep whole, is a gunleather set that was called an 'open front' in 1969. In them thar days, competition sets for the 1911 were made by the same folks who made the SAA fast draw sets, but excluding Arvo who had been banned from California until about that year after losing a court case with his erstwhile employee, Andy Anderson.
Open fronts had been banned by 1972 when Jeff Cooper successfully imposed his '2G rule' which was a requirement that the holstered pistol be inverted and a second pistol of equal weight suspended from it; and stay in the holster; then the holster not ever to be adjusted during that competition. The Snick was presented as proof that this was a stupid rule; made of Kydex it was the first ever, and had a little tab formed into the pistol's ejection port and was nevertheless still an open front. Jeff liked it!
The set I acquired is indistinguishable from Bob Arganbright's identical set pictured on pp. 142 of Holstory; here's mine:
Funny, since that era it was the likes of Bill Rogers who made fun of these old timers using leg tiedowns -- and yet it is his holsters today that are carried tied down to the thigh, in the field!
The three little straps across the front are not originals and I'll replace them with a copy of the one-piece flap that Andy provided. The notion was that these holsters could be used as top draws, too; and that the pistols could be carried in their holster around the range until time to shoot (yes, that was permitted back then, mag-well empty).
One I chose to acquire recently and keep whole, is a gunleather set that was called an 'open front' in 1969. In them thar days, competition sets for the 1911 were made by the same folks who made the SAA fast draw sets, but excluding Arvo who had been banned from California until about that year after losing a court case with his erstwhile employee, Andy Anderson.
Open fronts had been banned by 1972 when Jeff Cooper successfully imposed his '2G rule' which was a requirement that the holstered pistol be inverted and a second pistol of equal weight suspended from it; and stay in the holster; then the holster not ever to be adjusted during that competition. The Snick was presented as proof that this was a stupid rule; made of Kydex it was the first ever, and had a little tab formed into the pistol's ejection port and was nevertheless still an open front. Jeff liked it!
The set I acquired is indistinguishable from Bob Arganbright's identical set pictured on pp. 142 of Holstory; here's mine:
Funny, since that era it was the likes of Bill Rogers who made fun of these old timers using leg tiedowns -- and yet it is his holsters today that are carried tied down to the thigh, in the field!
The three little straps across the front are not originals and I'll replace them with a copy of the one-piece flap that Andy provided. The notion was that these holsters could be used as top draws, too; and that the pistols could be carried in their holster around the range until time to shoot (yes, that was permitted back then, mag-well empty).
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