“cclark89”:
What you have read is correct. A good belt is very important and is often one of the most overlooked items when it comes to concealed carry equipment. Traditionally, people have spent forever deciding on a gun, but only in the last twenty years or so have people really begun to apply the same amount of thought and research in selecting a holster. And only in more recent times (with the literal explosion of people actually carrying firearms on a daily basis in a variety of situations and often for long hours), has the issue of a good belt become more obvious. It will become an even bigger concern in the near future when some of the cheaper and lesser-constructed belts that have been sold recently begin to wear out (prematurely) in a variety of ways and soon fail to provide both the support and the comfort they did when new.
You are also right that generally you don’t need “something extremely super duty” (as you’re not talking about a uniform duty rig here with all of its equipment or a competition set-up of some sort with a race gun and more mags than you can count). That said, even the people who make your holster make a seriously-reinforced dress belt for their concealed carry customers. However, not only might that model be a bit more than you need for this application but it, like many of the better leather-based gun belts out there, is priced over your hoped-for $50.00 limit.
The Comp-Tac design looks a little beefy to me and maybe a little too much like a gun belt and buckle to some others but it also appears to be very well constructed and it contains a Kydex stiffener for support and to help keep its shape and strength over time. I am a big proponent of lightweight and flexible sheet-polymer “inside” layers. In my work, I have used things other than Kydex but their idea is a good one.
Traditionally, the “better” gun belts have been made from a heavier-weight cowhide but over time, the structure of even a thick, single cowhide layer will allow it to stretch, distort and sag in its effort to support the gun and any related equipment. Horsehide is used by some makers because its natural construction can hold up better; especially in terms of age, body heat and perspiration but it can be pricey. So can some of the stronger exotics out there. They can be great looking and long lasting but almost as expensive as a used gun itself.
So what most makers offer is some sort of two-layer design. With at least one layer being that heavyweight cowhide I just mentioned mated to a “lining” that can be cowhide of up to the same thickness (or less), or maybe a suede of some sort and of a “decent” thickness, or maybe even a synthetic of some sort (a leather-like synthetic and not that sheet polymer I mentioned earlier).
The key here isn’t so much that the addition of a second layer can afford more support and stability than a single one: it can. It is the fact that when properly stitched to the outer layer, it can help the belt to last longer as a supportive “assembly” because together, the two layers can resist the kind of stretching, distorting and sagging I described above in a way greater than a single layer leather belt can do on its own.
DeSantis makes some nice two-layer leather designs that the last time I checked were just over your $50.00 threshold. The edge stitching that they and just about everybody else in the business uses should be enough to bind the two layers together for the desired effect if their overall construction techniques are what they should be (and DeSantis’ are). The fancy stitching so often seen on gunbelts of this type can (in theory anyway) make things marginally better but its appearance is something generally not seen around the waists of “well-dressed accountants everywhere”. For folks who actually know about such things or who are looking for signs of people carrying guns, such fancy (and typical pattern) stitching can be a real giveaway. It and some of the lighter brown colors traditionally used for such models look way too much like a “gunbelt” to me when I see one on somebody nearby.
For the record, Safariland makes two-layer dress belts in roughly your price range and because of their wide distribution, you should be able to find them somewhere at a discount. Their approach is to use a leather inner layer (for comfort) and a SafariLaminate outer layer (for strength and many of the same advantages of the poly “sandwich” layer that others normally add in-between the two). It is an interesting approach that gives good performance and long life without the bulk normally associated with a decent grade, two-layer cowhide belt.
BLACKHAWK! goes that one step further and uses two lightweight and attractive inner and outer synthetic layers with a full length "inside" layer (or spine) in combination with a non-police-looking buckle to offer great support, good comfort, and a lifespan that suggests it will keep its size and shape longer than its owner; all within a package that doesn’t look anything like a gun belt. This model picks up where the Uncle Mike’s (where this concept was first pioneered) left off and it is a great choice for somewhere around $30.00. The now-discontinued Uncle Mike's Mirage Dress Belt (discontinued only because the new owners have taken the company in a different direction) created quite a stir when it was introduced for some of its retailers discovered that while it was a hit with their customers, it wasn’t "wearing out" like a traditional dress gun belt and that the only hope for replacement sales were for those customers to eventually grow out of them!
The last thing to consider in your quest for an “accountant’s everyday dress belt”, is its height or, as it is more commonly referred to, its width. There are two issues here; one of which is predetermined by the pants you wear and the other controlled by the holster you will be using. Traditional 1¾” gun belts tend to scream gun belt for a number of reasons but that will probably not be an issue for you, as your “work clothes” will more than likely limit your choices to 1½” or 1¼” heights. So the thing you have to look to, is matching the belt you buy from anybody to the loops on your holster of choice.
The good thing there is that if I am not mistaken, the Comp-Tac Minotaur IWB that you plan to use can be had with loops of either height and I further believe that if you already own one, you can switch out the loops on that model for heights other than the ones it came with. So you are in the unique position of matching (in your case, “maxing”) the belt to your pants and then matching the holster (loops) to it.
The whole idea here (the most important idea here) is to “match” the belt to the holster’s loops in an effort to control or eliminate vertical shifting and permit an unencumbered draw as well as a stable return of the gun when it is no longer needed. A proper match can also help minimize the potential for the holster sliding along the belt as well; although in that case, there are other factors in regard to horizontal movement, which are outside the scope of these comments. Normally, the secondary concern is to try to match the belt to the loops on your pants for that same reason of control and movement.
Hope all of this has been of interest to you and is helpful to you in creating a checklist or set of standards by which to choose a belt that is best for your application from the manufacturers I mentioned, or anybody else that is recommended to you on this site, or that you find through your own research.
