Concealed Carry Magazine Feb 2009

My wife Jean has been testing holsters suitable for use without a belt. Most have been IWB clip-ons, which she wears inside the waistband of her everyday Polartec pants. We wanted to test High Noon Holsters Pocket Grabber, an inside-the-pocket design. Jean couldn't use it because her pants pockets are too shallow, so it was up to me to try this one out.

The Pocket Grabber is a stiff, wet-formed, open-muzzle holster made of undyed, high quality, vegetable-tanned leather. The entire outfit is nicely made and well finished. Its edges are polished and it has been neatly molded to the shape of the gun it's meant to carry. A black rubber material that has the texture of a sharply checkered wooden stock covers much of its outside surface.

The sharply-checkered rubber material grabs onto the inside of your pocket, and the pouch stays securely in place as you go about your day. When you draw and make a presentation, the pistol is supposed to come out while the holster doesn't. It worked well, but at first it didn't seem to work quite as well as it should.

The instructions High Noon Holsters sends along with this outfit say only that you should "press [the] gun and holster inward against [your] pant leg" as you draw your gun. At first, I took that to mean pressing outward against the pants' fabric, rather than inward against my own leg. That worked very well to keep the pouch inside my pocket while my pistol came out of it. It didn't work well to accomplish a good presentation.

There were two possibilities. First, I could draw by pressing the entire holster flat against my pants, which precluded taking a firing grip, but then I had to rearrange my hand slightly as my index finger headed for the trigger. Second, I could start with a good firing grip by pressing only the muzzle end of the pouch outward against my pants. However, that forced me to "cowboy" the pistol, because its muzzle swung wide as it came out of my pocket, making me scramble to get it lined up on target. Neither way felt really quick, sure, and safe.

Next, I tried pressing inward against my leg. Sometimes the pistol caught on the seam at the top of the pocket, and sometimes most of my pants-pocket came out with the gun and holster. In either case, the result was a bobbled draw. This method might work better if you carry in a patch pocket, rather than a hanging one. ( High Noon Notes: This method works if you have read the break in instructions and follow the drawing instructions, pressure against or on the leg works best)

Finally, I had an inspiration and pressed the muzzle end of the holster straight forward. That worked quite well. I grabbed my pistol with a strong firing grip, the Pocket Grabber grabbed my pocket, I pulled the gun upward with a slight backward tilt, and the result was a quick, reasonably smooth, fairly direct presentation without either swing or bobble.

I have previously preferred pocket holsters covered with very adhesive rubber nylon netting. They really attach themselves to the inside of my pocket, and I don't need to think about how to make my draw. Why didn't High Noon Holsters take this route with their Pocket Grabber? I think it's because sticky nylon rubber needs occasional washing to maintain its grip. You can't wash a wet-formed leather holster, so it requires different pocket-grabbing technology. I think the rubber High Noon uses is better then the rubber nylon netting found on nylon holsters.