MORE HOLSTER MINUTIAE

[crazyphil]

Sorry, but the few of you who responded to HOLSTER MINUTIAE
only encouraged me.

There is a geneological relationship from Heiser to Colorado Saddlery,
and on to Hunter.

Red Nichols has written eloquently, in posts on this forum and
in HOLSTORY, about the 4 Heiser employees who incorporated
in 1946 and became Colorado Saddlery. (They could see the
hand writing on the wall.) By 1951 Heiser as we knew it, no
longer existed. Then 2 of those partners went on to start Hunter
in 1952.

Heiser made a lot of holsters with loops, like the model 417
shown below left, but as far as I know they never made the
"snap loop."

I thought Colorado Saddlery never made the "snap loop" either,
until I saw turnerriver's post #4 in Carrying My K Frame thread.
It shows a gorgeous basket weave holster with the "snap loop".
Typically they are regular loops like mine shown 2nd from left.

Perhaps Hunter has made more "snap loop" holsters than anyone
else. Their series 1100 has surely sold thousands. My example
is shown 3rd from left.

Lawrence also made many holsters with loops but I haven't found
any with "snap loops". Maybe they had sold to G&G before the
patent expired. My example is 4th from left.

Brauer Brothers patented the "snap loop" in 1928. turnerriver
showed us a picture of the box in his post #8 in the HOLSTER
MINUTIAE thread. Here, 5th from left, is my Brauer Brothers
holster with the "snap loop".

 

[turnerriver]

Well, Phil, you asked for minutiae, I’m going to give you minutiae.
Brauer Brothers came up with the snap-off belt holster, other manufacturers figured out ways to offer their own version until they could duplicate Brauer’s holsters legally.
I took a deep dive in the catalog library, here’s what I came up with.
This first cut is from Heiser catalog number 30, Holstory dates that catalog at 1937. It’s hard to see but note that the old style Heiser brass and enamel snaps are used. Obviously not a patent infringement on Brauer’s snap-off belt loop and it’s hard to believe anyone ever went to the trouble of actually taking the holster off without unbuckling.

The next cut is from catalog number 32, Circa 1939, note that the snaps have been changed to buckles.

Heiser catalog number 40, circa 1948, introduced the loop snap-off, they called it the Quick Change feature.

Colorado Saddlery catalog number 8. This came from Bill Lawrence’s library, he said he thought it was from the 1940’s-as you stated, CS came into being post WW II so this is probably late ‘40’s or very early ‘50’s.

Finally here’s Lawrence’s offering, from catalog number 52 (1952).
It’s a model 25 holster with the snap, cataloged as the model 24.

This cut is from a 1939 dated Red Head catalog. Note the detachable belt feature. This was the method that S.D. Myres used as well, the first mention in a Myres catalog is probably early 1950’s, offered on Border Patrol holsters.

Heiser was acquired by Keyston in 1951, the Herman H. Heiser Saddlery Co.
became the Herman H. Heiser Co. They continued in the holster business up into the 1960’s although they attempted to adapt to the changing market by offering a budget line, the Sportsman line. Randall knife collectors have told me that Heiser was making sheaths well into the 1960’s, a Keyston catalog number 100 in 1968 still referred to the Heiser name.
So, there’s what the catalogs had to say about the snap-off belt feature.
Thanks for bringing it up and continuing with it, Phil.
Regards,
turnerriver

 

[crazyphil]

Thank you John for that very informative study, and for all of those photos
from the catalogs. I was particularly interested in the Heiser 415 Quick Change and the Lawrence model 24.

That Red Head 205 DB (Detatchable belt) is interesting. Made me wonder
if Mr. Myres conceived the idea before or after the Buscadero? Same principle.

I am beginning to get the idea that the snap off belt loop is kinda like
the famous quote of Col. Jeff Cooper about the double action semi-auto:
"an ingenious solution to a non-existent problem."

 

[Walter Rego]

I owned a boatload of Hunter 1100 holsters when I was young and broke. One of the first things I used to do upon buying a new to me handgun was to buy a Hunter 1100 to go with it. Mainly because they were inexpensive, functional and available all over town.
I appreciated the easy on/off feature of the snap, but never cared for the aesthetics either.