NineseveN
member
Folks, this is a truncated version of the full review I have on my site. THR limits posting lengths so rather than post it all here I figured I would just post the details specifically related to the holster itself and the purchase experience along with a little bit of introduction. If you want to check the pictures or read the full article, http://neardeathexperiments.com/smf/index.php?topic=872.0. This is by no means a troll for hits, I don't have any ad banners and I don't get paid when you visit the sight, I just hate breaking reviews up into multiple posts and would prefer to keep the images linked in my original thread for statistical purposes. I will say that the review has more information and a better sense of flow on my site, but I have different post size limits to work with there.
The Survival Sheath Systems Quad Magazine Shoulder Rig Review
Like anyone else that carries a concealed handgun daily for personal protection, I’m always on the look out for a good holster and magazine system. Over the years, I’ve tried many methods and positions for carry as well as numerous firearms in search of that concealed carry utopia that we all dream of. If you’ve been following my writing on my old blogs, my posts on forums or my collection of rants and raves on www.neardeathexperiments.com, it should come as no surprise to you that I favor shoulder rigs. Since I’ve already covered why I think that shoulder holsters are as good as, if not better than other, more traditional modes of carry in most situations, there’s no need to rehash that all here. However, if you remain unconvinced of the viability of the shoulder system, please check out my article at http://neardeathexperiments.com/smf/index.php?topic=356.0 before reading any further.
To make a long story short, after much thought and consideration, I chose to have a shoulder rig made by Robert Hummelbaugh at Survival Sheath Systems.
Purchase Experience:
I ordered the rig on June 19th, 2006 and come July 18th, I hadn’t received any word or the holster. I e-mailed Mr. Humelbaugh and asked if there was a problem. He replied on July 21st and said only that the rig would ship next week (the week of the 24th). I waited until August 7th and having still not received my rig, I asked again if there was an issue. On August 11th, I still had not heard back from Mr. Humelbaugh, so I sent an e-mail stating that I was very displeased with the lack of a product in my hands or some form of contact indicating what the issue was. I asked that it either be shipped overnight to me that day or for Mr. Humelbaugh to cancel my order immediately and refund my money. I received a reply about 4 hours later indicating that Mr. Humelbaugh had a serious personal situation pop up and that it had impacted his lead times and that all of his orders were backed up. I appreciated the honesty that he shared (and I won’t be forwarding the details on in this review, it’s none of anyone’s business unless Mr. Humelbaugh makes it their business, but I can tell you it was very personal and I understood how things could get out of whack). I offered him my sympathies and told him I’d deal with the delay thus far. We chatted back and forth a few times about the issue, and then I let it go when he told me he’d be working on my rig that day.
On August 24th, I still had no holster, so I e-mailed him once more and his reply what that things were all squared away and my rig should ship the following Monday (the 28th). On September 7th, I was once again staring at my holsterless 1911 and wondering where my rig was. I e-mailed Mr. Humelbaugh once again and indicated that I had not yet received my rig and that I was going out of town for an extended stay on the 9th, if the holster was not to me before then, no one would be here to sign for the package and it would have to go back to him and my money would need to be refunded. He replied and stated that it wouldn’t be there until Saturday afternoon most likely and he offered to refund my money. I really did want this rig and I had waited so long that I was reluctant to give up just yet. I made some arrangements to leave later than I had originally planned to on Saturday and e-mailed Mr. Humelbaugh that he should send it if he can get it to me on Saturday using USPS priority overnight. He agreed and shipped the rig and sent me the confirmation information for the USPS.
Saturday came and went, I had to leave at 6:00PM at the latest, and no rig was delivered. We did have someone watching our placed throughout the week, and she was able to get the rig on the 11th (the following Monday) and hold it for me (this was more the postal office’s fault than anything). When I finally got the rig into my hands, it was the 19th of September, about 3 months to the day from when I ordered it. Even though that was nowhere near the 2-3 weeks I was quoted and I did feel like I was getting the run around throughout the process, I decided that the holster was indeed a quality piece of work and to just deal with it. All that mattered was that I finally had it.
Unfortunately, the rig was not without problem. When I first put my SA Champion into the holster side, I noticed something odd, the holster was a lot longer than my gun was, by about an inch if my eyeball measurement was correct (it was). I was sent a holster for a full-sized government 1911, not the gun I had asked for in the first place. I’ll be honest and state right up front that I was more than a little irritated with the discovery, especially on top of the rest of the issues regarding this transaction. I e-mailed Mr. Humelbaugh once more and indicated that the holster was the wrong one and that it did not completely lock in my gun because it was too short. Mr. Humelbaugh replied that he could send me a holster meant for a Commander-sized gun, no problem. I thought about that for a bit, and then decided to see if the full-sized holster with a gun in it would conceal well enough to use. To my surprise, it concealed perfectly. I was able to adjust the tensioning system enough to lock in the Champion so that it was secure and I decided that in the end, being able to carry a 4”, 4.25” or a 5” 1911 in the same rig was a fortuitous bonus and to not bother with having the holster replaced. I replied to Mr. Humelbaugh regarding my decision, but I did ask him if it would be okay on the holster to sand down the bottom right corner and round it off a little so that it would conceal even better, he replied and told me that sanding was okay and to touch the edges up with a rag and some acetone afterwards to smooth it out.
The Harness:
Okay, so on to the actual review of the rig itself, we’ll start wit the harness. The heart of any good shoulder rig is the harness. How the system hugs and hangs your body not only determines how stable it is, but also how well it will conceal and how comfortable it will be. In the world of dual attachment shoulder holsters there are two main types or styles of harnesses, the “X-harness” or cross harness and what I call the ‘figure-H”. The X-type harness is pretty much what it sounds like, two long straps crisscrossing at an intersection point (or 4 smaller straps spanning out from a central point) most often worn just above the bottom of the shoulder blades. The two bottom ends hug your back and come out underneath your armpits attaching to the rear swivel points of the holster or mag carrier. The top straps come up over your shoulders and drape down the outside lines of your chest attaching to the front swivel points. This creates an “X” on your back, hence the name. The Galco shoulder holsters (as well as most other conventional shoulder rigs) feature an X-harness.
The figure-H type harness accomplishes the same thing, only it uses a pattern in the shape of an “H” rather than an “X”. The middle bar that runs horizontally between the two vertical pillars of the “H” rests across your upper back a little below the neck (not actually up on the neck) and ends somewhere in the shoulder blade area on each side (depending on the harness and the user). The pillars of the “H” then run under the armpit and over the shoulder and down the chest to attach to the holster or mag carrier just like the X-harness.
On the Survival Sheath rig, the entire harness is made out of soft but sturdy nylon. The horizontal strap that connects the two pillars is a two-piece unit; one end of each piece is sewn into one of the shoulder straps and they connect in middle via Velcro panels that are sewn into the ends of each nylon strap. This allows the user to wear the harness either with a short connecting strap (effectively making the vertical pillars span out diagonally up over the neck and down towards the armpit) or a long one (making more of a regular “H” pattern with the straps running straight up or down the back, under the armpit and over the shoulders and down the chest). I prefer the latter configuration as the rig seems to shift less and hang a little better, making it more comfortable. Once I figured out exactly how I wanted to wear the harness, my trusty assistant and most wonderful significant other (bless her heart) cut the Velcro panels out and stitched the middle strap together for a more permanent set-up. The Velcro works fine, but I prefer a more stable set-up myself, the Velcro simply allowed me to try out where exactly I wanted the straps first.
On the inside of the straps that run up and over the shoulders, a rubber-like material is sewn into the bottom side to keep the rig secure from shifting and moving about (leather straps can be made to accomplish the same thing by using the roughed out side to go against the body with the smooth side up). I really like the rubber material and it works very well.
Adjusting the length and positioning of the straps is accomplished by using buckles similar to those found of the straps of backpacks so fine adjustments can be easily made to ensure a perfect fit. The buckles are slim enough that they do not print underneath clothing, so there are no real worries there. The ability to get the exact fit and positioning one wants is a definite plus for this harness. Overall I’d rate the harness as a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10.
The Holster:
The holster is pretty much standard fare as far as first rate Kydex holsters go. It has two tension screws along the bottom side of the holster to ensure that one can tune the tension pretty much exactly how they want to. Like most all screw-type tension systems, the screw shafts are placed inside a thick piece of rubber tubing between the two pieces of Kydex that wrap around the gun to provide tension on the screw heads in order to keep them from backing out. This same tensioning system is used on the magazine carrier as well. As mentioned earlier, I did have some initial trouble locking the 4” Champion 1911 into the holster securely, which is no surprise as the unit is sized for a larger gun, but once I played around with it long enough I got it in there secure enough to carry and not worry about it. The gun is secure in the rig, but give it a firm tug and it’s quickly released from the holster and ready for presentation. I give the holster portion of this rig a 9 out of 10 only because the bottom rear corner is too pronounced in my opinion and if it was rounded off as part of the design, it would conceal much better. A little sanding and acetone as per Robert Humelbaugh’s instruction will cure that however.
The Magazine Carrier:
Of the Kydex parts on this rig, the magazine carrier is the real bread and butter. Basically, it amounts to screwing two horizontally oriented dual magazine carriers together and then trimming the edges down of the outer carrier to slim the profile and make it carry and conceal better. The mags fit nice and secure but they come out quickly and easily when you yank on them. There is enough space in between the magazines that one can easily ensure that they’re only grabbing one magazine and not two, but the unit is still only slightly thicker than a normal double stack magazine carrier, thanks to the thin Kydex and the slim profile of the 1911 single stack magazines. Over all, I give the carrier a 10 out of 10, there’s really nothing that I would change about it.
Overall impressions and Final Thoughts:
Despite the lackluster service that I received during the transaction, I am honestly very impressed with this rig. I have little to no complaints about the design or the execution. It’s comfortable enough for all day, every day carry. It’s certainly more comfortable than my Galco leather rig, even though that system with the HK is much lighter because this one is better balanced. I don’t have to worry about sweat rotting the Kydex away or making it smell funny, I just wash it off with warm, soapy water once a week and I’m good to go. The harness can probably be washed in a washing machine but I’d prefer washing it by hand in the sink and allowing to air dry overnight (though there’s really no need to do this often). The Kydex is indeed faster than leather and due to the tensioning system, there are no thumb breaks to bruise me or get in the way and hamper my draw speed.
The Kydex is thin enough and the gun I chose for this application is slim enough that this rig is as concealable as any shoulder rig, the added bonus of this rig is that I get to carry 4 spare magazines and have the whole setup almost perfectly balanced. That’s all kinds of goodness right there, which is why this rig has earned the duty of my daily carry method.
Only time will tell how well the rig will hold up, but based on the materials and construction I suspect the system will survive anything I can put it through during my daily routine. The only question that remains unanswered by this review is whether or not I’d actually do business with Survival Sheath Systems and Robert Humelbaugh again, or whether I’d recommend others to do so. I think that after giving the man enough time to square away his situation he’d be back on track with his normal lead times. I have no proof or reasoning for this aside from the fact that he’s enjoyed a good reputation for being fast and courteous for quite some time, it’s not often that a craftsman allows that to slip away so easily. I honestly believe that I would give him another shot and have another rig made by him; but if that transaction went as sour as this one had, I’d probably not deal with the company again. I can’t escape the fact that this is as nice a holster system as I’ve ever worn, and to be honest, if he would have told me the wait was going to be 10-12 weeks, I probably wouldn’t have had an issue with it; I certainly wouldn’t have an issue with it now if I knew it up front because I’d know how good the rig would be when I got it.
As to whether or not I’d recommend him to others, well, as I said, the gear is great, but I’d say get a firm commitment on the lead time before you expect it to be in your hands in short order. For all I know the issue is already cleared up and Mr. Humelbaugh is back on track and delivering within his quoted lead times; that’d be enough for me to order again. Caveat Emptor as always as your mileage may certainly vary.
NineseveN
Administrator – www.neardeathexeriments.com
The Survival Sheath Systems Quad Magazine Shoulder Rig Review
Like anyone else that carries a concealed handgun daily for personal protection, I’m always on the look out for a good holster and magazine system. Over the years, I’ve tried many methods and positions for carry as well as numerous firearms in search of that concealed carry utopia that we all dream of. If you’ve been following my writing on my old blogs, my posts on forums or my collection of rants and raves on www.neardeathexperiments.com, it should come as no surprise to you that I favor shoulder rigs. Since I’ve already covered why I think that shoulder holsters are as good as, if not better than other, more traditional modes of carry in most situations, there’s no need to rehash that all here. However, if you remain unconvinced of the viability of the shoulder system, please check out my article at http://neardeathexperiments.com/smf/index.php?topic=356.0 before reading any further.
To make a long story short, after much thought and consideration, I chose to have a shoulder rig made by Robert Hummelbaugh at Survival Sheath Systems.
Purchase Experience:
I ordered the rig on June 19th, 2006 and come July 18th, I hadn’t received any word or the holster. I e-mailed Mr. Humelbaugh and asked if there was a problem. He replied on July 21st and said only that the rig would ship next week (the week of the 24th). I waited until August 7th and having still not received my rig, I asked again if there was an issue. On August 11th, I still had not heard back from Mr. Humelbaugh, so I sent an e-mail stating that I was very displeased with the lack of a product in my hands or some form of contact indicating what the issue was. I asked that it either be shipped overnight to me that day or for Mr. Humelbaugh to cancel my order immediately and refund my money. I received a reply about 4 hours later indicating that Mr. Humelbaugh had a serious personal situation pop up and that it had impacted his lead times and that all of his orders were backed up. I appreciated the honesty that he shared (and I won’t be forwarding the details on in this review, it’s none of anyone’s business unless Mr. Humelbaugh makes it their business, but I can tell you it was very personal and I understood how things could get out of whack). I offered him my sympathies and told him I’d deal with the delay thus far. We chatted back and forth a few times about the issue, and then I let it go when he told me he’d be working on my rig that day.
On August 24th, I still had no holster, so I e-mailed him once more and his reply what that things were all squared away and my rig should ship the following Monday (the 28th). On September 7th, I was once again staring at my holsterless 1911 and wondering where my rig was. I e-mailed Mr. Humelbaugh once again and indicated that I had not yet received my rig and that I was going out of town for an extended stay on the 9th, if the holster was not to me before then, no one would be here to sign for the package and it would have to go back to him and my money would need to be refunded. He replied and stated that it wouldn’t be there until Saturday afternoon most likely and he offered to refund my money. I really did want this rig and I had waited so long that I was reluctant to give up just yet. I made some arrangements to leave later than I had originally planned to on Saturday and e-mailed Mr. Humelbaugh that he should send it if he can get it to me on Saturday using USPS priority overnight. He agreed and shipped the rig and sent me the confirmation information for the USPS.
Saturday came and went, I had to leave at 6:00PM at the latest, and no rig was delivered. We did have someone watching our placed throughout the week, and she was able to get the rig on the 11th (the following Monday) and hold it for me (this was more the postal office’s fault than anything). When I finally got the rig into my hands, it was the 19th of September, about 3 months to the day from when I ordered it. Even though that was nowhere near the 2-3 weeks I was quoted and I did feel like I was getting the run around throughout the process, I decided that the holster was indeed a quality piece of work and to just deal with it. All that mattered was that I finally had it.
Unfortunately, the rig was not without problem. When I first put my SA Champion into the holster side, I noticed something odd, the holster was a lot longer than my gun was, by about an inch if my eyeball measurement was correct (it was). I was sent a holster for a full-sized government 1911, not the gun I had asked for in the first place. I’ll be honest and state right up front that I was more than a little irritated with the discovery, especially on top of the rest of the issues regarding this transaction. I e-mailed Mr. Humelbaugh once more and indicated that the holster was the wrong one and that it did not completely lock in my gun because it was too short. Mr. Humelbaugh replied that he could send me a holster meant for a Commander-sized gun, no problem. I thought about that for a bit, and then decided to see if the full-sized holster with a gun in it would conceal well enough to use. To my surprise, it concealed perfectly. I was able to adjust the tensioning system enough to lock in the Champion so that it was secure and I decided that in the end, being able to carry a 4”, 4.25” or a 5” 1911 in the same rig was a fortuitous bonus and to not bother with having the holster replaced. I replied to Mr. Humelbaugh regarding my decision, but I did ask him if it would be okay on the holster to sand down the bottom right corner and round it off a little so that it would conceal even better, he replied and told me that sanding was okay and to touch the edges up with a rag and some acetone afterwards to smooth it out.
The Harness:
Okay, so on to the actual review of the rig itself, we’ll start wit the harness. The heart of any good shoulder rig is the harness. How the system hugs and hangs your body not only determines how stable it is, but also how well it will conceal and how comfortable it will be. In the world of dual attachment shoulder holsters there are two main types or styles of harnesses, the “X-harness” or cross harness and what I call the ‘figure-H”. The X-type harness is pretty much what it sounds like, two long straps crisscrossing at an intersection point (or 4 smaller straps spanning out from a central point) most often worn just above the bottom of the shoulder blades. The two bottom ends hug your back and come out underneath your armpits attaching to the rear swivel points of the holster or mag carrier. The top straps come up over your shoulders and drape down the outside lines of your chest attaching to the front swivel points. This creates an “X” on your back, hence the name. The Galco shoulder holsters (as well as most other conventional shoulder rigs) feature an X-harness.
The figure-H type harness accomplishes the same thing, only it uses a pattern in the shape of an “H” rather than an “X”. The middle bar that runs horizontally between the two vertical pillars of the “H” rests across your upper back a little below the neck (not actually up on the neck) and ends somewhere in the shoulder blade area on each side (depending on the harness and the user). The pillars of the “H” then run under the armpit and over the shoulder and down the chest to attach to the holster or mag carrier just like the X-harness.
On the Survival Sheath rig, the entire harness is made out of soft but sturdy nylon. The horizontal strap that connects the two pillars is a two-piece unit; one end of each piece is sewn into one of the shoulder straps and they connect in middle via Velcro panels that are sewn into the ends of each nylon strap. This allows the user to wear the harness either with a short connecting strap (effectively making the vertical pillars span out diagonally up over the neck and down towards the armpit) or a long one (making more of a regular “H” pattern with the straps running straight up or down the back, under the armpit and over the shoulders and down the chest). I prefer the latter configuration as the rig seems to shift less and hang a little better, making it more comfortable. Once I figured out exactly how I wanted to wear the harness, my trusty assistant and most wonderful significant other (bless her heart) cut the Velcro panels out and stitched the middle strap together for a more permanent set-up. The Velcro works fine, but I prefer a more stable set-up myself, the Velcro simply allowed me to try out where exactly I wanted the straps first.
On the inside of the straps that run up and over the shoulders, a rubber-like material is sewn into the bottom side to keep the rig secure from shifting and moving about (leather straps can be made to accomplish the same thing by using the roughed out side to go against the body with the smooth side up). I really like the rubber material and it works very well.
Adjusting the length and positioning of the straps is accomplished by using buckles similar to those found of the straps of backpacks so fine adjustments can be easily made to ensure a perfect fit. The buckles are slim enough that they do not print underneath clothing, so there are no real worries there. The ability to get the exact fit and positioning one wants is a definite plus for this harness. Overall I’d rate the harness as a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10.
The Holster:
The holster is pretty much standard fare as far as first rate Kydex holsters go. It has two tension screws along the bottom side of the holster to ensure that one can tune the tension pretty much exactly how they want to. Like most all screw-type tension systems, the screw shafts are placed inside a thick piece of rubber tubing between the two pieces of Kydex that wrap around the gun to provide tension on the screw heads in order to keep them from backing out. This same tensioning system is used on the magazine carrier as well. As mentioned earlier, I did have some initial trouble locking the 4” Champion 1911 into the holster securely, which is no surprise as the unit is sized for a larger gun, but once I played around with it long enough I got it in there secure enough to carry and not worry about it. The gun is secure in the rig, but give it a firm tug and it’s quickly released from the holster and ready for presentation. I give the holster portion of this rig a 9 out of 10 only because the bottom rear corner is too pronounced in my opinion and if it was rounded off as part of the design, it would conceal much better. A little sanding and acetone as per Robert Humelbaugh’s instruction will cure that however.
The Magazine Carrier:
Of the Kydex parts on this rig, the magazine carrier is the real bread and butter. Basically, it amounts to screwing two horizontally oriented dual magazine carriers together and then trimming the edges down of the outer carrier to slim the profile and make it carry and conceal better. The mags fit nice and secure but they come out quickly and easily when you yank on them. There is enough space in between the magazines that one can easily ensure that they’re only grabbing one magazine and not two, but the unit is still only slightly thicker than a normal double stack magazine carrier, thanks to the thin Kydex and the slim profile of the 1911 single stack magazines. Over all, I give the carrier a 10 out of 10, there’s really nothing that I would change about it.
Overall impressions and Final Thoughts:
Despite the lackluster service that I received during the transaction, I am honestly very impressed with this rig. I have little to no complaints about the design or the execution. It’s comfortable enough for all day, every day carry. It’s certainly more comfortable than my Galco leather rig, even though that system with the HK is much lighter because this one is better balanced. I don’t have to worry about sweat rotting the Kydex away or making it smell funny, I just wash it off with warm, soapy water once a week and I’m good to go. The harness can probably be washed in a washing machine but I’d prefer washing it by hand in the sink and allowing to air dry overnight (though there’s really no need to do this often). The Kydex is indeed faster than leather and due to the tensioning system, there are no thumb breaks to bruise me or get in the way and hamper my draw speed.
The Kydex is thin enough and the gun I chose for this application is slim enough that this rig is as concealable as any shoulder rig, the added bonus of this rig is that I get to carry 4 spare magazines and have the whole setup almost perfectly balanced. That’s all kinds of goodness right there, which is why this rig has earned the duty of my daily carry method.
Only time will tell how well the rig will hold up, but based on the materials and construction I suspect the system will survive anything I can put it through during my daily routine. The only question that remains unanswered by this review is whether or not I’d actually do business with Survival Sheath Systems and Robert Humelbaugh again, or whether I’d recommend others to do so. I think that after giving the man enough time to square away his situation he’d be back on track with his normal lead times. I have no proof or reasoning for this aside from the fact that he’s enjoyed a good reputation for being fast and courteous for quite some time, it’s not often that a craftsman allows that to slip away so easily. I honestly believe that I would give him another shot and have another rig made by him; but if that transaction went as sour as this one had, I’d probably not deal with the company again. I can’t escape the fact that this is as nice a holster system as I’ve ever worn, and to be honest, if he would have told me the wait was going to be 10-12 weeks, I probably wouldn’t have had an issue with it; I certainly wouldn’t have an issue with it now if I knew it up front because I’d know how good the rig would be when I got it.
As to whether or not I’d recommend him to others, well, as I said, the gear is great, but I’d say get a firm commitment on the lead time before you expect it to be in your hands in short order. For all I know the issue is already cleared up and Mr. Humelbaugh is back on track and delivering within his quoted lead times; that’d be enough for me to order again. Caveat Emptor as always as your mileage may certainly vary.
NineseveN
Administrator – www.neardeathexeriments.com
. Please resend your question as I have the info and measurements for you.
