This new holster by Wilson Combat, is a traditional pancake-style holster. The model send to me, by Bill Wilson, was a sharkskin black holster. It was the first time I've ever seen (let alone, touch) sharkskin, so it was a surprise for me. It looks very much like wrinkled cow leather, only much harder. The holster send to me was for my M-1911 (what else?).

The holster is a strong-side one and is contoured so to follow the hip curve of the bearer. This helps the holster get closer to the body, thus hiding the carried gun from observers, in the curvature between the ribs and the hip bone. It is an open-muzzle holster, molded closely to the particular gun it is made for.

The holster does not have any retention device, which I consider a plus. It does however feature a protective part, which completely covers the manual safety of the gun, thus protecting the wearer's body from scrabbing on the protruding safety. It also covers the whole slide from touching the bearer's skin, which is an advantage, in places like Greece, where hot weather causes perspiration, which can turn your gun finish to "rusty", if you know what I mean. The rear part of the holster, which is responsible for the contouring of the whole item, is relatively rigid, so that the holster will keep its shape for a long, long time.

I tried the holster with a Bianchi belt, and the belt slots were tight enough to stop the holster from sliding around. After adjusting the holster at the position I wanted, I did some quick draws. Nothing to write home about, simply tests of how fast I could pull the gun. Althought the holster is a real tight fit on the gun (since there is no device to hold the gun in it), it allows very quick drawing, due to the way it positions the gun. This speed will be reduced however, if you wear the holster with a T-shirt, as the gun butt is positioned relatively high above the waist. For this kind of cloths, I would prefer a holster that positions the gun butt just above the holster level, so that I can draw the gun by slightly raising the T-shirt's end. This is of course a personnal preference, which occured to me by my usual, casual dress habit. It is also a common characteristic of most concealement holsters I 've ever seen.

An interesting feature of the holster, is the fact that the front end is cut low, almost to the level of your belt. In that way, you can start moving your gun to the target, as soon as the muzzle of the gun gets above that level.

Overall, the holster is a nice piece of work. The sharkskin will -in all probability- provide for a very nice fit, for years. My only problem is that I do not know how to take care of sharkskin. If there is anybody there that knows, please send me an e-mail.

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