I can’t vouch for how well or how bad a leather holster respects a gun’s finish but I’ve heard from quite a few people that use them that say quite the opposite. I dunno myself because even though I do have a few leather holsters, they’ve never really been used to EDC a pistol because the majority of my guns that have been carried on a daily basis had all been carried in kydex holsters.
The Ruger LC9S that I started out carrying, got carried for the longest time in a kydex Alien Gear hybrid holster and then I started carrying it in a Cross Breed Super tuck hybrid kydex holster and between the two of those holsters, the slide got pretty scratched and the finish worn almost completely off. I even had a little bit of rusting on the side of the slide too but I guess that could be due to those holsters being on the inside of my jeans, too.
My Springfield XDE when I first got it, I carried it for about two months straight in an OWB pancake kydex Bare Arms holster and just in that little of time, it’s got a few scratches accumulated but once I quit carrying it that way and started pocket carrying it in a DeSantis Nemesis Ultra-sticky pocket holster, the scratching and blemishing stopped.
I did carry one of my storms for a couple weeks in a leather pancake OWB holster that I got from Beretta that didn’t scratch the finish at all on that gun but I highly doubt that was long enough to even cause any wear.
I dunno, I think the quality of the holster you buy makes a difference, tho. If I decide to move ahead and start carrying my full-size 45 storm on casual occasions, I plan on conceal carrying it in a leather pancake style OWB holster from either Lobo Gun Leather or Tucker Gun leather, don’t know yet.
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If you want to see a good representation of what leather does to a handguns finish, just look at the police trade in guns. And thats mostly with OWB holsters, and not the added issues you see with IWB.
What youre seeing there is, constant use, drawing reholstering, and with holsters that are exposed to the elements and all kinds of environments.
Those finshes are usually well worn overall, and worn to bare metal in a number of spots, especially with the older blued guns.
Even things like Glocks usually show a well-worn appearance.
Kydex usually only contacts the gun in a few spots and only really shows wear there. And a lot of times, you really dont see any wear.
This is the Glock Ive been carrying daily for the past 10+ years now. Its been carried in either a Blade-Tech IWB, Ambi Klipt, or a Suarez Gunfighter, all kydex holsters.
If you look close, you can see some minor wear spots on the trigger guard (lock point on the holsters), the extractor, and maybe one or tw smaller spots.
This was the Colt Commander I carried for about the same period of time. It started life out as a nice Colt blue, and was carried in a couple (I had to rotate them in the summer due to sweat) of Galco Royal Guard holsters for the first year. In that first year, the gun rusted heavily due to sweat and had to have the pits polished out and had to be refinished.
What it was refinished, it was hard chromed, and within the next year or so, I switched from the Royal Guards to a kydex Blade-Tech IWB. For the next ten years or so, I carried it daily in that holster. Those black streaks you see, are actually polished chrome and were mirror bright when the pic was taken. If you look closely at the grip and thumb safety, you can see where it was still trying to rust some, although nothing like it had when it was blue.
This is the difference in the holsters....
One months use in the summer with a new Royal Guard. The tape was an attempt to slow the sweat from getting through, but didnt work. That holster was only used about a month, when I switched to the Blade-Tech.
It sat in a holster box for about 10 years and was sold on eBay shortly after that pic was taken. ...
Ten plus years with the Blade-Tech, on the right. The holster on the left was a new holster bought as a spare and never used.
I still have that Blade-Tech holster, and its as functional today, as the day I bought it. $50 over 25 years. Sorta paid for itself.
