Those of you that have followed my blog for a long period of time will know that I like shoulder holsters. One of my favorite holsters is a Vega manufactured shoulder holster I received from Craft Holsters. (See my review here). The only issue I had with the holster--and this would be a problem with most any horizontal shoulder holster system--is that if you wear it with suspenders, the suspender straps can sometimes catch and pop open the retention strap (see my update).
With that background out of the way, I was recently perusing some websites looking for a new holster for another firearm when I came across a Galco shoulder holster system that was new to me: their Classic Lite 2.0 Shoulder System. For $158, not including tax and shipping, it was not the price of their Miami Classic shoulder holster, but neither was it inexpensive. In fact, the price made it competitive with copies of the Miami classic produced by some Italian manufacturers. The photos on Galco's web site seemed to offer many of the same features as the Miami classic, although you could tell that the straps were a bit thinner and somewhat different manufacture. And for the price I figured that they probably cut corners a bit on materials: using polymer where possible, thinner (as in, not as wide) of straps, not as good as finishing of the leather, and maybe even constructing it overseas.
It turned out that I gave Galco too much credit.
The first photograph shows the packaging. My initial thoughts were: "Okay. The suede leather look seems cheap, but I could live with it. And the plastic star that connects the straps together on the upper back looks kind of small, but is probably fine."
And then I opened it.
I have to say that it is probably one of the most cheaply made holsters that I have had the misfortune to handle. The first photo above shows the actual holster into which the pistol is supposed to be stored. Flatter than the pancake. It appears to be made of leather, but that is all I can say about it. The leather is so thin and soft that it has no shape to speak of.
This is better shown in the next photograph below where I have snapped the retaining strap shut so that you can get a better view of the mouth of the holster. There is a tensioning screw, which I thought sort of funny. But as you can see, the holster will close up or sag making re-holstering difficult.
Quickly looking through the material that came with the shipment, I came across the reference to returns which required that it be returned in a new, unused condition, which pretty much ruled out any testing. So, I never even put the firearm in it or tried to wear it. (Which is why I called this a "quick look" rather than a review). But I've seen pocket holsters that were more rigid, so I knew that it wasn't really going to work for me. It's now on its way back to Galco.
I will say that Galco's customer service was prompt on getting a return authorization processed for me. I had to pay for return shipping, though. The paperwork indicated that I could be charged with a "re-stocking" fee, so I will see if Galco decides to stick it to me in that regard and report back.
Some of you may be thinking to yourself: "Well, what did you expect? Even basic leather holsters from Galco run $80, $90 or more." My response, as I noted earlier, was that I wasn't expecting the Miami classic; but for basically $160 (plus another $20 for shipping and tax) I expected something that didn't look like it had been turned out by boy scouts working on a leather craft merit badge.
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