How to Make a Simple Leather Pocket Holster

Pocket holsters are best suited to small automatic handguns.

The pocket holster for your .38 or .25 has some advantages over a Sam Browne or belt holster. Chiefly, you can take off your jacket without scaring other diners or commuters. Also true, as "The Gun Digest Book of Combat Handgunnery" says, pocket holsters "break up the outline, protect pocket lining and thigh alike from chafing, [and] assure that the handgun is always oriented in the same, appropriate position." You can buy one ready-made from a company like JS or Galco, or you can make a slim and elegant holster on your own. It is a form-fitting envelope with some drag to it, so that you can draw the gun easily and leave the holster behind. The finished product will have a silhouette more like a pocket (so, is square), than like a handgun.

Things You'll Need

• Mid-weight leather
• Clamps
• Awl or 1/16-inch drill bit
• Upholstery needle
• Dental floss or upholstery thread
• Heavy shears or craft knife
• Project glue
• Non-skid rubber shelf liner

Instructions

1. Select a mid-weight piece of leather, about the thickness of cowboy boot leather. You may recycle some old leather item (like cowboy boots) or buy a piece from a craft shop. If you order the leather, buy it in a 6- to 8-oz. weight.

2. Wrap the leather in a simple envelope over the barrel, such that it covers the barrel and trigger, but leaves the butt exposed. Wrap the leather with its smooth side (the grain side) outward.

3. Clamp the leather along the underside of the barrel and near the trigger, about a half-inch from the gun.

4. Punch stitching holes in the leather along the underside of the barrel and around the trigger, using an awl or a 1/16-inch drill bit. Space the stitching holes by about 1/4-inch.

5. Remove the handgun, and stitch the leather in the holes you have made.

6. Trim the leather with heavy shears or a craft knife, so that it forms a square envelope that fits in your pocket.

7. Glue the loose flaps of leather together with craft glue.

8. Glue a 1-inch-by-2inch strip of non-skid rubber shelf liner on the back of the holster (the side that will face your thigh). This will keep the holster in your pocket when you draw the handgun.

Tips & Warnings

• Rather than glue on the piece of rubber mat, you may make your holster with the flesh side (the rough side) facing outward, giving it some grip inside your pocket.

References

• "The Gun Digest Book of Combat Handgunnery;" Massad Ayoob; 2007
• "Essential Guide to Handguns;" Stephen R. Rementer and Bruce N. Eimer; 2005
• Utah Concealed Carry: Forum