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“Stay ‘unreasonable.’ If you
don’t like the solutions [available to you], come up with your
own.”
Dan Webre
The Martialist does not
constitute legal advice. It is for ENTERTAINMENT
PURPOSES ONLY.
Copyright © 2003-2004 Phil Elmore, all rights
reserved.
UC Comfort Holster
A Product Review by Phil Elmore
Anyone
experienced firearms owner who regularly carries a concealed pistol has The
Drawer.
The Drawer is that receptacle for all those holsters that
seemed like a good idea at the time. Belt holsters, IWB holsters,
shoulder holsters, the latest universal belt slides, and countless
permutations of leather and synthetic materials with horizontal and vertical
carries, with and without retaining straps, can be found in The Drawer.
The reason those who carry handguns amass enough holsters
for The Drawer is that there really is no single “right way” to carry a
firearm. What works and what works well varies from person to person,
from climate to climate, from body type to body type, from gun to gun.
When evaluating a specific holster system, then, one cannot really know if
that system is right without direct experience.
It
is, therefore, impossible for me to tell you that the
Under Cover (UC) Comfort
holster is perfect for you. It might be, or it might not be.
That will be up to you. What I can tell you, however, is what it felt
like to use this system.
I have a concealed carry permit for my handguns and have
developed, through the years, a preference for simple IWB carry behind my hip.
I generally see shoulder holsters as limited in application, the shoulder
straps themselves something of a visual liability. The UC Comfort
holster, however, eliminates shoulder straps entirely while retaining the
basic underarm positioning of such rigs.
The result feels a little like wearing a masculine,
gun-bearing corset. The system is essentially a form-fitting t-shirt of
“Naturexx,” a breathing, heat-dissipating, moisture-transferring fabric.
Two gun pockets with snap-closure retaining straps have been sewn into the
shirt.
Intended
for full-sized handguns, the UC Comfort is used for deep-cover concealment
beneath an outer shirt. In use with various law enforcement and military
personnel, this “shirt holster” does seem a viable means of completely
concealing a large firearm. (For visibility, I’ve used a yellow training gun in
the photo at right.)
I cheated while testing the UC Comfort, in that I wore the
loudest shirt I own to obscure weapon’s outline. I had no problems with
“printing,” therefore, though depending on your body type and how tightly your
outer shirt fits, you might have an odd bulge when you wear your gun this way.
The Beretta 92F I carried for testing shifted a little, but
not too much, with regular movement. The shirt is form-fitting
specifically to keep a loaded handgun from flopping about next to the body,
but there are limits to its ability to keep a heavy pistol immobile. It
goes without saying that you won’t be performing many quick draws with a gun
buried under your shirt and held fast by a snap-on retaining strap.
It took some time to get used to the feeling of this
“compression shirt holster,” but once I did I began to wonder if I might try
it on a more consistent and extended basis.
If you carry a handgun and are looking for
an alternative to shoulder holsters, this may be worth a look.
