…reporting from the not yet quite cozy depths of the Secret Lair. Today we have a couple of new shinies to report on…
Yes, the Tracker has been retrofitted with a new and at first gasp entirely superior* Hogue grip, which I actually paid for out of my own little piggie bank. Though others did the heavy lifting.
The holster is a gift from a very generous reader who wishes to stay respectable anonymous, special ordered from Simply Rugged. First impressions: It is beautifully finished – almost tragically so considering what’s about to happen to it. Also beautifully stitched and constructed, and I suspect it’s likely to outlive me. Unfortunately – also just a first impression – a pancake design might not be the best ever for a full-size revolver. It’s not what you’d call easily concealable, and so squashing the whole thing into my ribs accomplishes nothing but to make me uncomfortable and the pistol difficult to draw. Fortunately it’s also made to be versatile, and rakes backward for crossdraw which is the way I’m wearing it this morning. Crossdraw, it’s suddenly very comfortable and handy though it still takes up an awful lot of real estate on the belt.
(In fact it’s so versatile that it comes with a couple of small straps you can use for wearing the ginormous thing IWB – and may I say that’ll be the day.)
I already cut down my old Fobus plastic holster for a sort of poor man’s yaqui slide, and that has proven surprisingly adequate over the past couple of weeks. It’s comfortable, but leaves a lot of pistol hanging out to get banged on by every little thing. I’m hoping this new leather will give the gun some much needed protection from whatever.
My benefactor, harboring an apparent desire to hurt Uncle Joel, also included an assortment of ammo including some 300 gr/zillion FPS Magnum ammo ‘suitable for bear and elk.’ The Tracker is made to be a trail gun and is not a big heavy hogleg used only for fun at the range but oppressive to carry around all day, so firing this new ammo should prove an adventure.
But I’m sure everything will be fine. What could possibly go wrong? We’re going to find out this morning.
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*Really, what is it with Taurus grips? I’ve only ever owned two of their revolvers, and on both of them the grip was a big deal that needed work. Maybe I’m just picky.
I suspect that a Hogue grip would improve the handling of any revolver. I finally got tired of the thing that came on the Ruger SP101 and bought a Hogue… just wish I’d done it ten years ago. It’s still a lot more uncomfortable to fire than the XD 9mm, but the Hogue is an improvement.
The only Taurus I owned was a .38 in “ultralight” and that thing was so painful and terrible to shoot that I sold it. Probably the only gun I’ll ever part with gladly. I don’t even remember what the grip was on that thing.
A new, temporary job has me carrying the revolver CC these days, and I realized it had been some time since I’d done anything with it at the range, so the next trip out will be all revolver. My hands hurt already. sigh But some serious dry fire practice with it, and drawing from concealment is long past due as well. 🙂
I’m six feet tall and weight 160 pounds. There are no convenient “hiding places” on my frame. Anything crossdraw just gets in the way and is not really too “concealable”. IWB stuff is just a non-starter, as are shoulder holsters. The only way I can carry in relative comfort is in a minimal holster like the Yaqui worn just aft of my right hip. This is pretty much out of the way, but even then it’s very prone to be visible under anything short of a long, heavy coat . . . which pretty well voids any kind of fast draw. Also, using any of the nice “rubber” grip panels results in guaranteed “ride-up” of any cover garment. This leaves me with the choice of a flat gun as large as a 1911 or a smallish snubby revolver, either one of which must wear minimal, slick grips.
It’s a challenge.
Try mounting the holster behind your ribs to avoid the revolver’s butt sticking into them. If your navel is at 12 o’clock, mount the gun at the 3.30-4.30 position. That should make it a lot easier.
Unfortunately, Peter, I had a shoulder injury over the summer that isn’t healing well and my arm doesn’t want to reach that far anymore.
I always wanted to like the Yaqui slide design more than I actually do.
One of the things I have really come to like about IWB carry is how well it protects the gun. Up here, not only is it not exposed to the elements, but it remains body-temperature warm–and that is a consideration. When it does get truly cold, you’ve got on either 1) gloves bulky enough to nullify any sort of trigger-finger finesse, or 2) mittens, which more obviously have the same problem. For me, the answer is actually the mittens over thin gloves. If I need the piece, the mittens can either be torn or shaken off in one stroke, the thin gloves provide temporary relief from wind and cold, and the piece itself hits the hand at body temperature. Not ideal, perhaps, but the hits are there, and faster than I originally feared.
Of course, I’m not trying to conceal a .44RM revolver, either: it’s usually one of those flat bigbore autos with non-grabby outfacing textures.
At any rate, I’m still tickled about your new wheelgun. Dang, she purty. 🙂
I took the Hogue off my Smith 686 in favor of Pachmyer when I started shooting 180gr hot loads (ouch!). The Hogues on the 629 are a lot wider in back, so they work fine as is.
The 629 has a 5″ barrel and I carry it in Kramer OWB horsehide holsters. It carries nicely but I have to about pull it into my armpit to get it out of the holster. I don’t carry it much any more.
The few times I tried my cheapy shoulder holster, it was pretty darn comfortable and nice to not have something on my belt for once. But I never got into it much. Maybe I should try that again.
BTW the ideal powder for .44 is Lil’ Gun. Despite not filling the case it is powder position insensitive and very nice for cooking up loads from near H110 levels down to mild. Burns clean too. I like loading the 180gr XTPs to about 1350fps.