Gunslinger Forums.com

Members here who also belong to KTOG might have already seen this over there. I thought it might be useful for members here, too, so I figured I go ahead and post it here.

First, no pics right now. I just did this last night and am at work at the moment. I'll try and add pics sometime over the next few days. I just wanted to go ahead and post about this before I forget - thought it might help someone else who just hasn't thought about this.

I recently bought a leather belt-slide holster (made by Ross holsters) to try out with my Rossi .357. It was molded to fit a K-frame size revolver (which is, basically, what the six-shot Rossi .357 is) but I didn't like the way it fit and realized that I probably wouldn't like a snubbie in any belt slide. I'm not even sure I would like any wheelie in a belt slide. I finally decided that the leather pancake holster I made for and molded to it is the best option for carrying the Rossi.

Last night I had to run out to the gas station/convenience store and decided, just as an experiment, to try carrying my Ruger P95 in the belt slide. I have wanted to find a good way to carry this rather large, bulky, heavy weapon on occasion but haven't found anything that keeps it tight enough to my side to conceal it. I put the Ruger in the belt slide and it looked a little funny being that the slide was molded for a revolver. That said, I was able to push the Ruger in enough to cover the trigger and was impressed with how tightly it held the weapon to me without being uncomfortable. I was even more suprised that it concealed pretty well under a cover garment. It wore comfortably during the ride to the store and no one in the store ran screaming from the man with the gun on his hip. In fact, I don't think anyone even suspected.

When I got home, I soaked the holster in a bowl of hot water for about half an hour (just wetting it wasn't enough to get it to turn loose of the original molding.) Then I re-molded it to fit the Ruger, dried/hardened it a little in the oven on a low temp then finished drying it with a hair dryer. I now have a holster that will allow me, with the right attire and in the right situation, to do something I never thought I would be able to do - comfortably carry and conceal my Ruger P95DC.

So, to all you folks out there with boxes full of castoff holsters that don't quite work in the role for which they were purchased, get them out, look at them and decide if they can be reworked for something else. You must might turn that useless holster into something very useful.

Cool! Recycling at it's best.

Just sort of did the same thing here. Bought an $80 Galco paddle originally for designed for a Sig auto for $10 a 'lil while back.
The GP "fit" but not really correctly. I had a wild hair today and shoved the unloaded GP in it and hit it with a steamer for a few minutes.
Once is was hot and soft, I used a plastic handled screwdriver to "re-mold" it somewhat closer to the GP. I'm no leather guy by any means, and still will hire hatu to build me a proper one, but it does actually slide in the holster easier than it did, so yeah, I can see the "recycle" aspect perfectly.

Well I only have one leather holster, and that's for my Heritage. All my other holsters are nylon or Kydex. But I have found holsters in those materials that are marked for one gun still being very usable for other guns. Especially when you have a carry gun with a laser! A larger holster sometimes does the job for a smaller gun with a laser. And at worst you might need to pull some stiching and do some cutting and restiching.

I have never tried it but I have seen in posts on various forums that some folks have gotten sheets of Kydex and made their own holsters - molding them by heating the material in their oven. I wonder if Kydex holsters could be heated and re-molded.

Good question!
I've also seen threads of people making their own Kydex holsters from scratch. But I don't believe I've ever heard of someone re-heating one to make it fit a new gun???