Part II: Concealed Carry Holster Review: Excellent Concealment Holster for those serious about CCW

Continuing on from our first IWB holster review, we now move to review the SHTFgear.com ACE-1 holster.  This IWB holster retails for $64.95 and can be purchased directly from SHTFgear.com.  Out of the box you will receive your holster and two key leather key chains with the SHTFgear logo.  While I wasn’t expecting anything other than the holster, who doesn’t like a little free stuff now and then!?! Just as with the other holster, I will give a full review of the the SHTFgear ACE-1 holster here.  Throughout the review I share some thoughts on how the two h0lsters compare.  I think the most awesome part about these two holsters is that they are both made right here in Utah by two outstanding individuals who are dedicated to concealed carry.  I would consider the SHTFgear holster one of the best holsters money can buy.

Now for review:

First off, It’s important to lay out what I think makes a good holster.  The elements I look for in a holster, and in most of my other products as well, are Craftsmanship, Materials, Finish, Rigidity, Retention, Durability and Comfort.  I won’t recommend a product to you that I won’t personally use to carry my personal defensive firearm.  I have used this holster for several days now and tried to take through as many real world scenarios as I can think of to include, driving for three hours, running, standing for long periods of time and doing everyday household chores.  The thing I love about this holster is that it is a hybrid of two types of holsters that I absolutely love; namely, the leather backing gives the holster comfort and the Kydex gives the holster superb retention and a solid location to re-holster.

Craftsmanship

This holster has both handmade and machine made parts.  The leather is laser cut to give the edges a perfect cut.  As you can see on the back side of the holster, the ACE holster leather is a little more rough.  I actually find that this holster moves around less than the concealment solutions holster and I think that is in part due to mild roughness of the SHTFgear holster.  It could also be because the piece of leather on the SHTFgear ACE-1 holster is slight larger, giving the holster more surface area to contact my body – more bout this larger size latter.

Materials

This holster is made of top quality cowhide and finished in a black.  The fasteners have yet to move on me which is one thing that happened almost instantly on me with the other holster.  Not to worry because these holster will need a little loctite to make sure that the screws don’t move once you’ve got the height and depth set.  This holster also features kevlar stitching that is almost assuredly going to last through just about any situation.  It’s a neat concept to use metal rivets and Kevlar stitching.  Should one fail, the other acts as a backup.  It has an excellent sheen and screams high quality materials.

Rigidity

When I first put the holster I was actually slightly annoyed with the rigidity of the holster.  After a few days, the holster has loosened up nicely and is much more comfortable.  It’s like buying a new pair of leather shoes, sometimes it just takes a day to work it in.  The Kydex is sufficiently rigid and maintains a good holstering of the pistol.

Retention

You can load your pistol into this holster and then turn the holster upside down and your pistol won’t fall out.  I’m sure if you really shook the holster the firearm would come out.  Not much of a concern for me though as I rarely get hung up by my feet and shook around vehemently – if you find yourself in this situation, I think you’ve got more important things to worry about.  One thing that I think you can notice from the side by side comparison of the two holsters is that the SHTFgear ACE-1 resembles the frame of a Glock much more closely.  I don’t know if the amount of distinction in the lines really affects the operation of the holsters.  It’s just something you can notice side by side and I can’t personally say whether that affects the quality of retention of either holster.  I did not notice any such difference.  I should mention that I did find that reholstering was easier with the SHTFgear holster.  It appears as though the kydex is slightly opened up where the trigger guard enters the holster and this seems to make a difference.

Durability

As I’ve only had this pistol for a few days, I can’t speak for its long term durability.  But looking over its construction I can say that it feels as though it will last for a long time.  There’s just something about having a handmade holster from someone who actively conceals and uses their firearm.  There are somethings in live that I just insist on having the highest quality and durability, and a concealed carry holster is one such item.

Comfort

In many ways, this is the most important factor of concealment.  From the 3,000 people that have come through my training my Utah Concealed Carry training, comfort is a big deal.  This holster allows you to incorporate a concealed firearm into your daily life with only minimal distraction.  I’ve been able to have this holster setup for several hours without knowing that it was even there.  Now, I did mention before about the size of the holster backing.  Notwithstanding the slight movement I felt while concealing the concealment solutions holster, I did find that I enjoyed the smaller profile of the leather backing more in terms of comfort.  That isn’t to say that the SHTFgear ACE-1 isn’t comfortable, it’s just that I had two high quality holsters and I was looking for every possible difference that I could notice between the two.  Looking back, I really feel like I’m splitting hairs here.  At the end of the day, I think you can’t go wrong with either holster!  As with the other holster, I’ve been able to secure a coupon code for all of those who have attended my course.

 

 

 

Good luck with your selection and please let me know which holster you go with and why!  In the end, I think I’ll be getting another one of these guys.