From Out Of The Past
More Great Leather For Sixguns

A wise man once said you cannot go back, but he was wrong. I can go back – at least in my mind and welcome anything that in some small way allows me to catch a fleeting glimpse of the glorious days of the Old West.

Learning to appreciate stepping back in time is just what I have gained from Walt Ostin, Mike Kirkpatrick and Dusty Johnson, three master leathermakers. These three men specialize in regressing to a time that was less threatening, less stressful, yes, even gentler. These three men have one thing in common– period leather. Sixgun leather. Leather that conjures up the thundering hoofbeats of the great horse Silver!

Rawhide Walt Ostin

Eddie Janis of Peacemaker Specialists introduced me to “Rawhide” Walt Ostin of Custom Gun Leather. Ostin is a sixgunner from Canada who specializes in turning out top-quality leather. Ostin’s Western leather is of three types: Old West, B-Western or TV Cowboy, any of which is fine for most cowboy shooting matches. Most shooters, Ostin said, prefer the authenticity of the Old West style.

Variations of the Mexican Loop-style holster include the Cheyenne, Russell, Montanan, Kansas, Utah, Colorado and Texas. Each area had its custom leather workers who made slight changes in the original design by using one or two loops, wide or slim loops and leaving more or less trigger guard exposed.

I recently traded into an SAA .44 Special that was really special. The finish is nickel with a blued cylinder and barrel, 5 1⁄2″ in length; the grips are heart-stoppin’ gorgeous, made of milky, one-piece ivory. The barrel is inscribed “Colt Frontier Six-Shooter (Bisley Model).”

However, I knew from the serial number that this is a Second Generation SAA manufactured in 1960, while the barrel is a .44-40 from a Colt Bisley Model that has not been made since 1912. Somewhere along the line, this old Colt was probably fitted with a .44 Special cylinder and the Bisley .44-40 barrel. It works fine, because .44-40 barrels from Colt have always been cut the same as their .44 Special barrels. The final result is a great-shootin’, great-lookin’ sixgun.

Such a sixgun needed a great scabbard and belt. A look through Rawhide Walt’s catalog revealed a most attractive Cheyenne loop holster that he calls the Colorado. This single-weight holster and belt are finished with a stamping design that Walt came up with that resembles basketweave. The pattern looks more like connected oval spots.

The belt and holster have both been stamped with this unique design and then accented with border stampings. The holster is finished off with two small conchos at the back edge of the holster loops. It’s attractive and practical leather for cowboy shooting, woods bumming, hunting or whatever.

When I examined the Ostin rig, it brought forth emotions from my childhood, when I watched The Lone Ranger on TV. Clayton Moore used several similar, but slightly different, rigs in his role as the Lone Ranger. (Moore, by the way, was a pretty accomplished sixgun handler.)

The first rig was used by radio Ranger Brace Beemer in his public appearances and then by Moore in the late 1940s; the second carried Moore’s matched .45s from 1950 to 1956; and the final rig was used from 1956 on. All three rigs look identical until examined closely.

Ostin has replicated the third rig, complete with floral carving, black finish and all the silver adornments. The beautiful silver on this rig was custom crafted by Conrad Anderson. These rigs were all fashioned long before the advent of the modern fast-draw sport-rig with its metal lining.

The holsters themselves are of the Mexican Loop style, but the part of the holster designed to house the bottom of the trigger guard has been sewn to the holster itself, so the complete trigger guard rides outside the holster for a faster draw.

Kirkpatrick Leather

Going back even further in history, we find the rigs offered by Kirkpatrick Leather Company. Kirkpatrick has been offering law enforcement leather for over 30 years and is now also heavily into Old West reproductions. Their catalog contains more than a dozen examples of such rigs, plus many double rigs, that is, rigs with two holsters.

When I was contacted by Mike Kirkpatrick and furnished with a catalog, the rig that really caught my eye was the Model 1865 Prospector. As I acquire various rigs from custom crafters, I try to get something just a mite different each time. The Model 1865 consists of California Pattern, or Slim Jim, holsters that were popularized first in California during the 1850s. Most Slim Jims are made to hang at a crossdraw angle; however, this rendition features two matching holsters that hang straight.

Two of my favorite cowboy shooting sixguns are a pair of Ruger Vaqueros, stainless, fitted with stag stocks and chambered in .45 Colt with 7 1⁄2″ barrels. When I shoot both Traditional and Blackpowder classes in the same match, these sixguns are my first choice, as they both shoot to the same point-of-aim with 950 fps smokeless loads and full-house blackpowder loads. The stainless finish also makes blackpowder cleanup all that much easier after the match.

These are heavy sixguns and when mated with a heavy double rig, it makes for a long day. Kirkpatrick’s Model 1865 is made of double leather, but it’s lightweight, with a cartridge belt that is 2″ in width. The holsters, which have no extra leather to add weight or bulk, also ride high, out of the way, not interfering with a smooth draw. This rig has now been worn through six matches, and it continues to be a favorite.

After finding how comfortable the 1865 was when used with my Ruger Vaqueros, I ordered a second set. The first is black and floral-carved, so the new rig was ordered in a tan basketweave finish, with a belt sans cartridge loops. The holsters were fitted to the 1860 Army Colt .44 for true blackpowder competition. Without cartridges, this quality rig is even easier to wear all day.

Pleasant Valley

It was recently my good pleasure to examine the work of Dusty Johnson, of the Pleasant Valley Saddle Shop. Johnson is a saddle maker and holster crafter of the highest order, plying his trade from the mountains of Colorado. Every leathermaker worth his stitching needle finds his own niche and Johnson’s is “legends of the Wild West,” or Hollywood holsters.

His offerings are not replicas of any particular Western star, but rather a blending of the type of rig worn by such as the king of the cowboys, Roy Rogers, and the fast-draw, metal-lined, drop-loop holsters that came out of the shop of Arvo Ojala in the 1950s.

Johnson readily admits he is somewhat flamboyant, as he makes only Buscadero-style rigs with drop-loop holsters and silver spots and will not make a plain rig. His credentials contain the fact that his teachers along the way have been Bob Brown, who made much of the BWestern movie leather during the 1930s and 1940s, Arvo Ojala, who invented the Hollywood drop-loop holster, and the near-legendary John Bianchi.

Those old Western holsters designed by Bob Brown were lightweight and rode rather high. Johnson’s rigs combine the ideas of Brown with those of Ojala, as his holsters are metal-lined and ride much lower for an easier draw. Whether finished with basket stamping, geometric patterns or floral carving, Johnson’s rigs are extremely eye-appealing. In fact, the rig I had on my desk for several days became the main attraction in my office, after which my wife had to take it to work so all the truck drivers could see it. The rig created a great deal of traffic in her office, also.

Johnson uses one basic design, but the permutations of the embellishments make each rig a truly custom affair. Silver holster buckles, conchos, belt buckles, silver spots and names or initials carried out in silver can all be varied for many possibilities.

Colors run from tan to black to a combination thereof, and every rig is finished with saddle oil for long life, even under hard usage.

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