YEEE HAW!!!!! Finally, it's my turn!!!!! My fingers hurt so bad that i can barely type this, but I just can't wait to show off my very first complete gun rig. In the past i made up a belt and then modified a couple of cheap holsters to go on the belt, but this one I did from scratch completely. I even made my own templates.
The basics are: Holsters and belt are 6 oz. cowhide covered with 3 1/2 oz. cattle-gator. It's a very nice heavily embossed cowhide. I got it from Tandy and it isn't all that expensive, less than $40 for a single shoulder when it's on sale. The cattle-gator takes stain pretty well, but it should be deglazed before you try to stain it. The edges don't want to stay glued down, so you really should sew or lace down the edges. It’s because of the heavy embossing. It won’t allow the raised portion of the embossed leather to touch whatever it is that you are gluing it to. The small holster, for a 3 ½” Uberti Thunderer in .45 Colt, is lined with a light pigskin suede split. The big holster, for a 7 ½” SAA clone in .45 colt, is not lined. The billets are from 4-5 oz. horsehide. I chose the horsehide for its’ superior wearability. I am considering adding bullet loops and hammer tie-downs, but I don’t want to cover up the nice alligator pattern in the rig and I really think that the tie downs look ugly.