Chest Holsters, Handmade in the USA
Built by hand, for one gun: Yours.
A chest holster is the ideal way to carry your backup handgun in the backcountry — up on your chest instead of fighting it on your hip. Sit down in a truck or a saddle, throw a pack on, and a hip rig is buried or in the way. Up on your chest the gun rides clear of your gear, right where your hand falls. For a heavy revolver in bear country — hunting elk or hiking miles from the truck — nothing else comes close.
Every Kodiak chest holster I build, I build the same way I have for close to twenty years — by hand, one at a time, wet-molded to your exact revolver or pistol. Full-grain Wickett & Craig leather, lined with a second layer so it holds its shape and never marks your gun, stitched with heavy bonded nylon thread. Made for your gun, and no one else's.
Which guns actually suit a chest holster
Most people come to me wanting to put their biggest gun on their chest to get it off their waist. I don't disagree with the instinct. But there's a limit at both ends, and I'd rather tell you straight than sell you something that ends up in a drawer.
A 4" to 6" barrel is the sweet spot. That's where a chest holster does exactly what it's supposed to — the gun sits clean against you, the draw is natural, and you forget it's there until you want it.
Shorter than 4" works fine. The Ruger Super Redhawk Alaskan is a stubby at 2.5" and it carries very well on a chest rig — it's the one I'm asked for most for bear country. Where it stops working is the genuinely small stuff: a 1" snub or a micro pocket .380 isn't what a chest holster is for, and those guns have easier homes.
Past 6" it starts getting too big. The draw gets long and the gun is simply large against your chest.
And I'll be honest about the very big ones. A 7.5", 8.5" or 9.5" big-bore — I don't have a good answer for you. The hip is heavy. The chest is awkward. There's no practical way to carry those comfortably, and anybody who tells you otherwise is selling something.
Semi-autos, revolvers, and your bino harness
Semi-autos work better on the chest than most people expect, and there's a specific reason worth knowing if you hunt.
A chest holster built for a semi-auto is flat. That means a bino harness goes straight over the top of it and sits properly — no fighting, no bulk in the wrong place.
A revolver rig has the cylinder bulge, so a bino harness sits over it a little funny. It still works. It just isn't as clean as it is over a semi-auto. If you're running binoculars on your chest all season, that's worth factoring in before you choose.
Sizing the harness
There are four sizes — Small, Medium, Large and Extra Large — and the webbing is what sets them.
Measure where you actually plan to wear it. High on your chest, lower on your torso, somewhere in between — wherever the rig is going to sit, measure around your body at that spot with a seamstress tape.
No tape measure? Wrap a piece of string around yourself, mark it in two places, lay it flat on a table and measure between the marks. Whatever number you get, match it to the sizes listed. Measure 42 inches around and you want the Large.
Don't want to measure at all? Send me your height and weight and I'll get you very close. It's the question I answer most often, and it takes me thirty seconds.
Two things worth knowing that aren't on the size chart. The ranges listed are for the webbing only — the leather itself adjusts as well, slightly bigger or slightly smaller, so if you land right at the edge of a size you're still covered. And if you're between sizes, go larger. You want adjustment room left over for when you've got heavy clothes on.
If you get the size wrong, it's not a problem
Order a Medium, get it home, discover you're really a Large? Contact me and I'll send you the correct webbing. That's all it takes to change the size. No harm, no foul, and no need to send the holster back.
Bullet loops or a speed loader?
People go back and forth on this one, so here's what I actually tell them: go with the bullet loops.
They're more streamlined and lower profile. They look better on the harness and they sit better against you.
A speed loader is about two inches around before you put leather around it. Mounted on a harness it becomes a bump sticking off your chest. It works — I'll build it if you want it — but if you're carrying a spare, I'd put it in your pack instead.
Custom or off the shelf
Order one custom and I'll mold it to your specific revolver or pistol — from big-bore magnums down to compact 9mms — about a four-month build.
Or take one off the shelf. I keep in-stock Kodiak rigs for the most-carried guns — Colt, Ruger, Smith & Wesson, Taurus and Glock — built and ready to ship in a few days.
If you carry a 1911, that one's on the shelf as well: 1911 chest holster, built and ready to go.
Didn't see your firearm? Click here and I'll tell you if I can build it.
