Seeing the Unseeable
Most people think of “night vision” as those green glow images of commandos from old spy movies and the covers of Tom Clancy books. That’s not wrong, but it’s only half the story. Night vision and thermal vision both let us see when our eyes can’t, but they do it in completely different ways. One amplifies what little light there is. The other ignores “seeing” with light entirely and reveals the invisible world of heat and the lack thereof.
The Ransom Rest: When Your Gun Shoots Better Without You
Most any modern gun is far more accurate than the shooter who uses them. And before you yell foul, I’m including myself in that statement! It’s just a function of being human.
Back to the Future: Why DA/SA Still Deserves a Spot in the Holster
I like a variety of action, how about you? Single, double, double and single. They’re all good in my book. Striker-fired is fine too, although for reasons we’ll explore in a minute, I seem to have drifted away from that a bit for my most common daily choice. For now, I will say I seem to be a founding member of the minority group if we’re segregating by action types.
Little Fingers…
I work out of the house, so my carry gun lives in my office — the room right off the front door. I don’t often carry in my own home, but I’d still like a gun to be easily accessible in case the coyotes making more frequent appearances in my neighborhood start getting cranky. Or something worse of the human variety. People are crazy.
Kobra Turns 25: The Ed Brown Legacy Lives On
Ed Brown Products released the first Kobra Carry way back in the year 2000, so as I write this, the beautiful 1911 is celebrating its 25th Anniversary, making it the longest continuous production of a custom 1911.
Pumpkin Spice Frappu-Shoot-O: The Great Pumpkin Reload
Starbucks doesn’t get it. At all. Every year when the leaves start changing, they make a big deal about their half-full-double-caf-decaf pumpkin spice mocha Frappuccino lattes, but I’d venture a guess that they don’t know anything about reloading for the fall season.
| The Good |
| Does most of the things a pocket holster should do: protects the trigger, hides the outline of your gun, keeps pocket junk out of the action, and generally stays in the pocket when you draw. |
| The Bad |
| The material is too soft. With a magazine heavy semi-automatic, it tends to bend and rotate in your pocket. |
| The Ugly |
| It can be really difficult to draw when your gun, and the holster, have both turned upside down. |
| Our Rating |
 One Nun. |
The Uncle Mike’s Pocket Holster
Uncle Mike’s Pocket Holster
Suggested Retail Price: $12.95
We wanted to like this pocket holster. It’s soft and squishy, feels great, and is really comfortable in the pocket.
But we didn’t. Like it, that is.
The Uncle Mike’s Pocket Holster takes a universal approach to size and fit. It’s offered in four different sizes as follows:
18744-1Small autos (.22 – .25 cal.)
28744-2Most .380s
38744-32″ 5-shot revolvers; Sigma .380
48744-4Most sub-compact 9mm/.40 autos
So there is no custom fitting for a particular gun. You take your best guess at the right size and go from there.
The material is fairly thick and has a rubbery-suede feel. Is that even a valid description? We’re not sure, but that’s what it feels like. It’s an open top, sealed bottom design and there is a band of non-slip material at about the half-way mark to help the holster remain in your pocket when you draw.
On the plus side…
- The material is sturdy enough that we’re confident the trigger is protected
- The bottom (on our model for mid size semi-auto’s like the Walther PPK) is sealed and does a perfectly acceptable job of keeping pocket lint and leftover Tater-Tots out of the action of the gun. And no, we really don’t keep Tater-Tots in the same pocket as our gun! We store them in our other pocket of course! Duh.
- It’s comfortable. The gun is protected and it feels good in the pocket.
- We had no issues with sweat, or spilled Coke, penetrating the holster material. So hit all the drive-thrus you want – no problem.
On the not-so-plus side:
- This holster, like other Uncle Mike’s models, has very little structure. You wouldn’t think that’s a big requirement for a pocket holster, but when it folds from the weight of the gun, you can have trouble with the whole rig rotating in your pocket. We did most of our testing with a Walther PPK, which, as a steel gun, has some weight to it. Add a full magazine and you have a strong tendency for the grip end to want to follow that gravity rule and find its way to the bottom of your pocket. Not good. In fairness, this problem would not be as severe with a polymer gun like the Kel-Tec or Ruger LCP.
So all in all, we would elect to pass on this one and spend a few more bucks on something a little more substantial. In our next pocket holster review, we’ll be taking a close look at the DeSantis Nemesis Pocket Holster.
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| The instability issue really caused me to fear for my manhood. I found that with normal day-to-day activity, in a variety of pocket styles, the holster had a tendency to rotate so my gun was pointed right at, well, my gun. | I tried it in my purse and didn’t have great success. The non-slip band was not tacky enough to keep the holster in the purse pocket when I tried to draw. I do realize the holster was not designed for this use, but wanted to offer up the feedback to my lady friends out there. |
Read about more carry styles and over 120 different gun holsters in The Insanely Practical Guide to Gun Holsters – available at Amazon.com! Learn more about our Insanely Practical Guides!
