SP101 w/Pachmayrs in DSG Casual Carry. Corbon 357 Magnum 125gr DPX in Safariland Comp I.
I can admit that I am guilty of just grabbing a snubby, a speedloader and my keys to run errands. I’m not promoting the practice. I recently went almost exclusively to carrying Ruger as my revolver of choice. A Wiley Clapp inspired SP101 bumped my longtime custom 642 out of the rotation. That meant I needed a new holster to tote my little blaster. A thread on Pistol-Forum lead me to Dark Star Gear. DSG bends some pretty nice Kydex with some interesting options. The DSG AIWB “Casual Carry” with its simple design and optional toothed spring steel IWB clip seemed perfect. Just one problem. DSG didn’t list my little SP101 as an option. So I emailed Tom of DSG and asked if he could make one for me. A few emails back and forth to make sure he had found the correct molding prop and I was getting a holster made. Tom was great to deal with and only asked that I pay up front due to having to purchase the molding prop for the project. Knowing I had the HiTS Close Quarters Pistol class coming up Tom bent over backwards to get my holster shipped in time.
Now some details of the holster. The Casual Carry is a simple fold over design with a heavy duty spring steel clip mounted near the bottom of the holster. This clip is the key to why this design works so well. The clip has a built in tooth that bites down and won’t let go your waistband without intentional effort. It stays put in sweat pants or gym shorts as long as there is a drawstring to cinch tight. The way the clip is attached you could even tuck in a lightweight shirt between the holster body and clip. The overall fit and finish of the holster I received were excellent. The retention is strong.
I have carried the little DSG/SP101 combo quite a bit. It is very comfortable and doesn’t shift on me. I ran it hard at Red Stag Tactical and was very pleased with how well the holster performed. Tom of DSG provided excellent customer service. He went above and beyond to build a holster for a new offering to make me a customer and followed up afterwards for feedback. Dark Star Gear is definitely worth a look.
Links: http://darkstargear.com/, http://www.redstagtactical.com/, http://ruger.com/index.html, http://hardwiredtacticalshooting.com/
Good article. It is hard to find good holsters for the Ruger SP-101 and I will look these guys up. Contact Concealment makes a good one as well.
I have a couple of the DSG holsters now, and I am using the same model shown here for my Glock 42 as a gym shorts gun.
I’ll echo the thoughts ref Tom at DSG being great to work with, he is also a practitioner who trains hard, so he has an idea of what works for carry gear.