Tucker Gun Leather paddle holster review
I decided on a paddle holster primarily because I wanted an easily removable holster and felt it would be more comfortable than an IWB, especially since I don’t weigh what I once did! I requested the paddle portion of the holster originally as a Women’s style which moves holster further away from the body to allow for typical body differences between women and men. I opted to get the holster in natural color, for a 3†Kimber Ultra CDP I.
The holster arrived in less than 2 wks. The attention to detail on the holster is great! You can barely tell (from the inside only) where Tucker starts & finishes his stitches. The holster is fairly minimalist in style, wrapping around the pistol, to close with two adjustable tension screws. The bottom (muzzle area) of the holster is open. There is also a leather sweat shield to keep the safety from digging into your side. Molding to the shape of the pistol is limited on this holster, but that is not a detriment at all to function. Retention is good even with the tension screws completely loosened.
The Women’s paddle itself is kydex. It has 4 holes drilled to allow for a muzzle forward or muzzle rearward carry, in addition to the vertical carry position. The horizontal displacement from the body was about an inch. Unfortunately for me, I found that I am built more like a brick than a chick…! The displacement was too great for my shape, and allowed for too much movement of the holster during draw and during carry. I emailed Rob about the problem, and he said to just remove the kydex portion and ship it back, and he would ship a Men’s paddle to me instead. I did so, and received the new paddle in a week. I found the Men’s paddle to work perfectly for me. Now some of you might be thinking that there was a defect or a poor design in the original paddle, but that is just not true! It was just not as suited to my body shape as I had thought it would be.
I set the holster up with the FBI cant. Most comfortable placement for me seems to be at 3:30-4:00. Draw is smooth and easy with the Kimber. If I were to carry a longer slide 1911, I might want a lowered leading edge of the holster, but carrying only a 3†pistol it is not necessary. I don’t have to go through any contortions to draw this pistol! (It’s a torso length vs arm length thing, guys…) Reholstering is smooth too. You can feel the pistol ‘lock’ into the holster. The edge of the sweat shield did snag during reholstering on the slide safety at first, but that problem is going away with break-in and my own learning curve. I do not forsee it to be a long term issue.
The rig is very comfortable to wear. Although I don’t have a lot of time in this holster yet, it has been quite comfortable both walking around the house and seated in an office chair. I plan to wear it around the house a lot until my permit arrives. I will post an update to this review at a later date.
I decided on a paddle holster primarily because I wanted an easily removable holster and felt it would be more comfortable than an IWB, especially since I don’t weigh what I once did! I requested the paddle portion of the holster originally as a Women’s style which moves holster further away from the body to allow for typical body differences between women and men. I opted to get the holster in natural color, for a 3†Kimber Ultra CDP I.
The holster arrived in less than 2 wks. The attention to detail on the holster is great! You can barely tell (from the inside only) where Tucker starts & finishes his stitches. The holster is fairly minimalist in style, wrapping around the pistol, to close with two adjustable tension screws. The bottom (muzzle area) of the holster is open. There is also a leather sweat shield to keep the safety from digging into your side. Molding to the shape of the pistol is limited on this holster, but that is not a detriment at all to function. Retention is good even with the tension screws completely loosened.
The Women’s paddle itself is kydex. It has 4 holes drilled to allow for a muzzle forward or muzzle rearward carry, in addition to the vertical carry position. The horizontal displacement from the body was about an inch. Unfortunately for me, I found that I am built more like a brick than a chick…! The displacement was too great for my shape, and allowed for too much movement of the holster during draw and during carry. I emailed Rob about the problem, and he said to just remove the kydex portion and ship it back, and he would ship a Men’s paddle to me instead. I did so, and received the new paddle in a week. I found the Men’s paddle to work perfectly for me. Now some of you might be thinking that there was a defect or a poor design in the original paddle, but that is just not true! It was just not as suited to my body shape as I had thought it would be.
I set the holster up with the FBI cant. Most comfortable placement for me seems to be at 3:30-4:00. Draw is smooth and easy with the Kimber. If I were to carry a longer slide 1911, I might want a lowered leading edge of the holster, but carrying only a 3†pistol it is not necessary. I don’t have to go through any contortions to draw this pistol! (It’s a torso length vs arm length thing, guys…) Reholstering is smooth too. You can feel the pistol ‘lock’ into the holster. The edge of the sweat shield did snag during reholstering on the slide safety at first, but that problem is going away with break-in and my own learning curve. I do not forsee it to be a long term issue.
The rig is very comfortable to wear. Although I don’t have a lot of time in this holster yet, it has been quite comfortable both walking around the house and seated in an office chair. I plan to wear it around the house a lot until my permit arrives. I will post an update to this review at a later date.
You're RIGHT! I can see 
the boning on the INSIDE of the holster. Ok, so I should've looked on the inside too...Oops!
