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Crossbreed
Holsters Super Tuck IWB Holster Review
By
B.T. Davis
January 2008
Mark Craighead,
of CrossBreed Holsters has generously provided
an example of his firm’s proprietary Super Tuck
Inside-the-Waistband (IWB) holster for review.
Like most quality holsters, Super Tuck IWB
holsters are manufactured for specific handgun
designs. For the purposes of this review I
selected the model specific to the line of Glock
mid-sized frame pistols.
Upon inspection of the holster I was immediately
impressed with the high quality of both the
materials and workmanship evident in it’s
construction. CrossBreed blends together
traditional gun leather with custom molded Kydex
material to produce the Super Tuck IWB. In a
bit of a design departure from traditional IWB
holsters, the Super Tuck uses an oversized, thin
leather panel with which to affix the Kydex
holster to. The leather panel, when broken in
sufficiently, form fits to the wearer’s side
aiding in both concealability and comfort. The
latter part is especially true as it seems to
spread out the weight and pressure of the
holstered weapon on your torso. Being cut
oversized, the leather panel serves to form the
back of the holster, providing sufficient
rigidity to the rig. It acts much like a
scabbard of sorts and aids in smoothing up the
draw stroke and allowing one handed reholstering
of the weapon.
The Kydex holster chute is bolstered to the
leather panel and is an open ended design which
does not cover the muzzle of the handgun;
however it does completely cover the trigger
guard. It is custom formed to securely grip the
trigger guard and ejection port area of the
gun’s frame and slide. Due to the covered
trigger guard Condition 1 carry is possible. If
necessary a user can heat the Kydex material
around the trigger guard area and either pinch
it in, or expand it out to obtain just the right
amount of tension. CrossBreed provides detailed
instruction on how to achieve a custom fit in
this regard. As tested, I did not need to
adjust the tension on my holster as it secured
my Glock 23 perfectly from the outset.
Outboard on each side of the holster chute are
height-adjustable belt loop fasteners. The
holster I received for testing had belt loop
clips made out of Kydex. The clips are open
ended on the bottom and slide down over the belt
from the top. Along the bottom edge of the
clips are flanges which are turned under
slightly so as to hook to the belt and hold the
holster firmly during the draw stroke. In
practice the holster proved easy to put on and
adjust to a comfortable wearing position. The
only downside was the outwardly visual
appearance of the wide, black Kydex belt loop
clips over my belt. Regardless of how loosely I
bloused a tucked-in shirt at my waist the belt
loop clips were still visible. In practice the
only way to achieve total concealment was to
either wear my shirt untucked, or to wear an
overshirt or jacket. Mark Craighead advised
that he’s designed a new, more discreet clip to
address this particular issue. Production of
these new clips was underway at the time of this
review. The new clips will be available in
either black or brown, and they will provide the
same easy on/easy off functionality as the ones
on my test holster - but they are much less
obvious to bystanders. |
