If you have been in “the game” long enough, you undoubtedly have a bin, drawer, box, or otherwise a stash of holsters. Since holster fitment, comfort, and use-cases are just as inherently personal as your selection of the sidearm itself, one person’s dream holster will be another’s steaming pile of unusable trash. This is most common with concealed carry holsters, since your body type and composition will have a major impact on how something conceals, or how comfortable it is to carry all day and in a variety of situations.
Today, however, we’re not talking about concealed carry holsters. I’m going to discuss my two-holster panacea for all of your outdoor adventures, that revolves around a belt holster and a chest rig. Bring these two setups on your next trip into bear (or tweaker) country and know that you’ll be able to comfortably protect yourself no matter if you’re wearing waders, bibs, or a pack.
Caveat emptor: I live and play in free states as exclusively as possible. Obviously, there are a lot of areas of the country that are less friendly to a human’s innate right to self-defense, so you’re going to have to use a little more discretion in certain situations you may find yourself in… even if you’re ten miles deep in the middle of a National Forest with a crisp “Wilderness Permit” in hand.
Also… I’m going to mention some specific products here. As of the time of this writing, I don’t have any official relationship with these companies, and am solely recommending them on their merits.
The Belt Holster
While I rode the kydex wave for years as an emerging enthusiast and daily CCW’er, I’ve decided that leather is cooler, and for this particular use-case, just as functional. I think you’ll also find that leather treats your firearms better under hard use than kydex does, and patinas finishes more gently and gracefully than abrasion from grit, kydex, and steel does.
So — get a good, traditional belt holster in whichever style you prefer, with the following two caveats:
First, for serious outdoor use, positive retention of some kind is a must. There are several ways this can be accomplished. Most commonly, you’ll have a strap of leather secured with a snap to the side of the holster. This method is used on many (if not most) holsters of this type, such as the Diamond Ds and the Elmer Keith’s classic 120 design (such as this example from Simply Rugged Holsters). One advantage of the longer retention strap on models like the 120 is that it is more easily tuckable into your belt for speedier access; for example, if you’re stopping for gas in the middle of the night at a seedy truck stop…
Another kind of retention that I’ve seen lately is a small strip of leather that slips over the hammer of the pistol. As far as I can tell, the official name for this is the “hammer thong,” which sounds lovely. Good examples of this style of retention can be found on “shuck” style holsters, including the Douglas Leather Co. Speed Shuck and the Barranti No. 1 Shuck. This seems to largely be a single action thing.
Whatever holster you choose… just make sure it has positive retention for when you take your next tumble down a slope.
Secondly, it should ideally carry close enough to the body that you can throw a cover shirt or vest over it if you need to run into town for something. The quality of your belt also makes a big difference here, but not as much as the design of the holsters. Belt-loop style holsters like my go-to Diamond D won’t pull the gun into the body as much as a hybrid design like a 55BN-style holster will, and those still won’t fit as close as a true pancake holster.
Of course, the tradeoff comes in belt space; as I said above, if I can help it I usually just stick to places where nobody bats an eye if they see an obvious hunter with a sidearm on his or her hip, so the minimal space on the belt that the bulletproof, single-loop design of the Diamond D Alaska Hunter work great for me.
The Chest Rig
When you get to wherever it is you’re trying to go, you’ll likely don some chest waders or a pack.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve tried literally every which way to carry a holster on a belt with a pack, and I’ve never found a solution comfortable enough to hike in, and for obvious reasons, this is entirely precluded when wearing a set of waders. Additionally, with pack-belt-mounted holsters, you experience the signal disadvantage of not having access to your weapon if and when you ditch your pack,
I do like classic, 80-style shoulder holsters for some things, but have ultimately come to believe that a “chest rig” is the best method of carry in these situations. Driving to or driving from, I wear the belt holster. While in res, I almost always have my chest rig on.
Not only do these nestle well behind your bino pack, they also are compatible with a variety of fly fishing pack designs, from lumbars to slings to actual chest packs (like the Simms piece I use). Of course, you can spring for the dangler that most bino pack manufacturers make now, but many of them still are using lower-quality materials and approach everyone’s favorite Uncle’s holsters in functionality, durability, and safety. Additionally, the disadvantages I expressed above also come to mind; if you ditch your bino pack, you also ditch your sidearm.
If you are married to one sidearm for these kinds of purposes, the steeper entry cost for a nice leather setup may be more palatable. Again, I like leather for a lot of reasons, and something like this is going to be the setup that your grandkids fight over when you kick the bucket.
For the most versatility, you’re going to do your reasearch and end up right where I did: the Gunfighters, Inc. Kenai system. In addition to a well-built harness made from high-grade materials (and I opted for the Multicam Black option, since this is the only application on earth for Multicam Black that comes to mind), the system is designed for interchangeable shells so you can swap your carry guns out as the situation dictates — revolver, semi, whatever. I truthfully do not think there is a better product on the market in this niche, and if there is, I sure wish someone would send it to me.
For something in between the functionality kydex shells and leather, you could also take a look at Diamond D Outdoors (a spin-off from Diamond D Custom Leather) and their ballistic nylon Denali chest holster. It also happens to be the most affordable option here, and while I haven’t used this particular holster and ballistic nylon holsters are perhaps a bit out of vogue, I have no doubt it lives up to the high Made in USA standards its maker is known for.
Ed. Note: you can also find the Diamond D Outdoor nylon holsters conveniently on Amazon, through our affiliate link.
Final Thoughts on Choosing Holsters for Hunting and Fishing
If I’m backpacking in somewhere, I’ll leave the belt holster in the car and just roll with my GFI Kenai the rest of the hunt.
Literally everything in this realm is a tradeoff or compromise to some degree, but if you’re trying to save a couple kopecks, this two-holster solution is a good place to start, no matter what you choose to carry.
Of course, the main thing is to ensure you are following Jeff Cooper’s first rule of gunfighting, even if your most likely adversary is a coyote.
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