I'm going through holster madness right now since I recently received my carry permit.

My weapon right now is a S&W .38+P J frame revolver (2 inch barrel). My pants don't have deep enough pockets for the pocket holster option so I tried an IWB. Well, my first attempt was a don hume PCCH holster. Because the gun is so short, the waist band basically comes across the muzzle, digging it into my side and pushing the butt of the gun out so that you can't conceal it. Then if you move the whole works squirts out and you quickly catch the gun just before it hits the floor.

So that's going back. In a couple of weeks I'm going to be picking up a Bersa Firestorm .45 ACP. Nice small compact 45 that still manages to fit my hand. I'm having a hell of a time finding a holster for it. Noone makes a kydex holster for it so I'm going to have to go leather and hope that something for a similar sized gun (glock 26 or 27) will fit good enough. Maybe that will work for an IWB. Seems that there's almost no selection in town so you end up ordering one hoping that it will work out. Very frusterating.

similar to the one on Glock Talk. It would be much more helpful here since we are all so close. I am left handed so I don't know how much help my old holsters would be to someone, but I'm certainly willing to let them go for a good price to a new home. I can certainly give recommendations also. Right now, my primary holsters are:

concealed - High Noon Slide Guard
open - CQC Serpa kydex retention holster

both give excellent results. The High Noon holster is especially comfortable, as it is a pancake style that draws up tight to the body. I forget I have it on. Quality construction. The CQC is not as comfortable, being non-compressible, but is good enough and gives excellent retention. Both of these are used with a Glock 19.

I have no financial interest in these companies, this is only my opinion.

Doug

I would think it should be an easy matter to deepen your pockets. Even a nooby to sewing should be able to graft an extra inch or two from the pocket on a worn out pair of pants to the new pants. Since the seam wouldn't be seen it wouldn't matter how ugly a job you do, though it should be sturdy.

Short guns do not do well IWB. I have had similar experiences with my Kel-Tec P-11. It wants to "squirt" out. You'll probably want to look for an OWB if you're not going to pursue pocket carry. Just about everybody makes something for a J-fram, it seems, so pick a holster, pay your money, and wait your time. I just bought my wife a Milt Sparks PMK from Lightning Arms Sports for her Sp-101.... We fight over who gets to wear that holster/gun combo!

Gander Mountain could probably fix you up with something in the bianchi line- the one in Lakeville has an *OK* holster section. We bought a "belt slide" (?) holster there for the '101, but it didn't cover the trigger guard- I think that the j-frame, with its smaller cylinder, should seat deeper and the trigger guard would be covered.

Dockers work well, as do 511 Tactical Pants (even though it takes a while to learn to say "tactical pants" without giggling). Depending on the lot, Levis and Lee jeans work, and I've never found a pair of Bugle Boy jeans that doesn't. Find one pair that works, and then every time you shop for pants, just be sure you're carrying, and try it out in the dressing room.

And, as another poster says, consider deepening pockets.

I second Joel on the Dockers, another brand that has deep pockets is Columbia. I get their ROC pants at Kohl's, and they work for me. They also carry Dockers, and they're always having some kind of sale.

Doug

I think the deepening pockets idea is great. I like my $12 jeans from fleet farm (what are they field and forrest or something???). Sorry, I don't buy those fancy $50 a pair levis

Yea, for the snubbie, I'm gong to just bite whatever bullet I have to and pocket carry but I think a OWB might be good too when I'm wearing something where that doesn't work but can put a shirt over the gun.

How about the bersa? The Firestorm mini 45 is just like the Thunder 45. It's about the same dimensions as a glock 26. Any ideas for IWB carry on that guy? Pretty much need to be a leather or other "soft" holster as I can't find anyone that makes an IWB Kydex holster for it. Sounds like anything for the Glock 26 works though as long as it isn't molded plastic. I'd like to IWB carry this. Something that I can tuck my shirt into.

I was looking at the tucker gunleather texas heritage iwb here:
http://store.yahoo.com/rlcompanyusa/teheiwb.html
looks like a nice holster and if they don't do it for my exact gun I'll just get it for the glock 26. But after my first holster screw up I'd love to hear people's opinions.

OK these guest accounts suck or I just need to check the "automatically log me in" option

Check out these guys:

http://www.highnoonholsters.com

I bought a "Hidden Ally" for my .38 snubby and it works great. It hasn't "squirted" on me yet, and I'm a big guy too. It just seems to keep the gun a bit lower than any other IWB I've tried, basically only the grip is above my waistband. They also have a newer version that has the FBI forward cant on it as well.

They are very well made and their prices aren't outrageous.
Quite frankly I don't know if I'll ever buy a holster from anyone else now.

I forgot to make other comments on your situation.

I carry a J-frame, always in the pocket. I've put the larger (3 finger) crimson trace grips on it, so it is a little bigger than the original 2 finger grips it came with. I've got two holsters, both of which I'm satisfied with. A generic Uncle mikes (#3 ?) grips the gun fairly well so there isn't any danger of it falling out of loose pockets when I sit down, but is therefore difficult to reholster into without removing it from the pocket.

The second holster is from Mika...just google "mika holsters"

It is a little larger and looser, and so much easier to reholster into, but also much more likely to dump the gun from a loose pocket. It cost ~$19, including shipping from Wisconsin. Mika has a very good attitude towards customers. I emailed him my request, he sent me the holster without any payment and said "if you like it pay me this much, if you don't like it don't pay me, don't send it back, and give it to someone who can use it". Through a mix up in his paperwork he accidentally sent me two holsters. I ended up giving the spare one to a co-worker who just bought a j-frame. So I'm glad to have this chance to send a little good karma back his way.

I choose the holster I use based on the clothing it will reside in that day. Dockers work ok for me, but they might work a little better if the pockets were just a little deeper. Jeans pockets are a tight fit. I can carry in them, but it is bulky, and access in an emergency would probably be slower than the dockers. I have yet to purchase any clothing based on carry needs.

One last note. My original holster was a #1 (?) Uncle Mikes which was sold to me by mistake (it is intended for .25 autos and such). It held the j-frame ok, but didn't cover the trigger. I once brushed against the trigger in a windbraker pocket and finally realized it needed to be covered, dug into it, found the mistake and bought the right sized holster. Just an FYI

Finally, with pocket carry be sure not to have anything else in that pocket (keys, change , knife, etc...) with the gun, just to be sure the trigger isn't accidentally manipulated.

It's funny you mention mika's holsters, it's his pocket holster I've been looking at getting. Not sure yet if I want square cut or round cut (will depend on the pants, just haven't looked to see what would be the most prevalent).

I have to admit, I'm impressed with what I see on high noon's webpage. The one thing I like about the tucker holster is the offset beltclips to slim down the holster since you are not stacking the gun, thickness of the holster and the belt clips all on top of each other. Still, it looks good though and they have a mold for my bersa 45 Reasonable prices to boot.

Have the Mika pocket holster for a Ruger SP101 and it works verry well. Especially tough to beat considering the price and as has been previously mentioned, he's also got customer service DOWN.

Through the years i've bought and discarded way more holsters than i ever had guns. Ok, i'm a tad slow on the uptake...

These days i just call Alessi Holster in NY and have them custom make to whatever flavor of hardware i want to tote around. The price is reasonable, the quality superb and the customer service is excellent.

In my carry class i always recommend the above two, and throw in Galco as an acceptable alternative.

Your milage may vary,

That combination (with a Taurus 85 rather than a J-frame) is the only holster setup that's ever actually dumped my gun on the floor. At a party at a friend's house, naturally. Just the gun, not the holster. I was sitting in a fairly futon deep sofa, carrying in my right pocket in an Uncle Mike's #3, when there was this "thud" and no lump of metal digging into my side. I think 2/3 of the people in the room didn't even notice, and my hostess ended up feeling good about how quickly I noticed and recovered it, but still. Ick.

Huh, apparently I'd forgotten to have it remember my login info, sorry about that!