Two To Draw To

When kydex first appeared, the die-hard leather crowd (where I was firmly entrenched) sneered, jeered and dismissed. I was writing this column then and honestly thought it was a bit of a passing fad. “Right … hard plastic holsters? I don’t think so.” But I was only wrong by a zillion miles. I’ll point out, however, those early renditions were crude, clunky, ill-fitting at times and poked and prodded tender parts in ways leather never imagined. I think we naysayers had a right to be doubters. I recall another company — in the early ’70s — did an injection molded sort of “rubber” holster, complete with molded-in “basket-weaving” and I think we all sort of verped a bit when we saw it. It died, thankfully, fast — before any of us had to seek therapy for seeing it.

But people being people, and shooters being shooters, the new technology was honed, new types of synthetics appeared, new ways to manipulate them were discovered and things turned around. I watched the synthetic holster and accessory trend go from a struggling new idea into a steamroller, taking on the conventional leather market head-on — and often winning soundly. Today’s kydex and syn rigs are often beautifully constructed, elegantly designed, comfortable, attractive and frankly, offer engineering ideas simply not possible with leather. I’m glad I was wrong, and glad, by some twisted quirk of fate, over 25 years later, I find myself still writing this column regularly, so I can share my “wrongness” with you. Here’s a couple of shining stars to showcase what I’m talking about.

High Noon Holsters

High Noon Holsters
Another “garage” start-up, High Noon began in 1997 and amazingly enough, their first two holster designs — the Hideaway and the Sky High — are still offered. Looks like they nailed it from the start. Working in leather initially, they moved to include Kydex as time passed, while also moving their shop from their humble garage-size, to over 4,000 sq. ft. today.

I’ve noticed shops starting in leather tend to incorporate leather in many of their kydex designs. High Noon’s “Direct Hit” showcases a kydex outer shell with a thin, high quality leather lining, beautifully done. It does away with the kydex “snick” sound and is a good blending of technology for we old leather hounds. The leather “Stingray” is a solid design and will hold up against anything made by bigger — and custom — makers today. I especially like their FAQ page, with 128 questions answered — and their very comprehensive website.

According to High Noon: “We instill the importance of quality and customer support in the High Noon Holsters team. The customer will always be right and we go at length to ensure 100 percent satisfaction.” Hard to beat that.

For more info: https://americanhandgunner.com/index/, Vedder Ph: (352) 729-6749; High Noon Ph: (727) 939-2701.

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