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Hey guys,
I just thought I'd show off some pics of my new holster. I am totally in love with this rig. It was designed and made by Tim Thurner of TT Gunleather, however, it wears the Occidental Leather brand name on it. This holster is actually called the Stronghold Phoenix. Stronghold seems to be a smaller branch of Occidental Leather that specifically makes gun leather products.
I was having problems with the first holster I ordered from TT Gunleather (also pictured below for comparison). It was their reinforced-mouth IWB "Mike's Special" holster. The "Mike's Special" designation means that the holster is designed similarly to their normal IWB holster, except it positions the pistol about 3/4" lower. This is supposed to reduce the potential for the grip to print through your shirt. While it does this very well, I found that it made the pistol hard to access when trying to draw the pistol. With the entire pistol being positioned lower, it doesn't leave very much room between the grip and the belt loop. I have average-sized male hands and my middle-finger knuckle kept rubbing against the belt loop when I grip the gun just before I draw. The Mike's Special is also advertised to have slightly more cant (forward angle) to it, but it varies from gun to gun, and for my P2000sk there really was no increase in forward cant. In other words, the holster is still of superb quality (fit and finish), but this particular design didn't work well for me.
Tim prides himself on making his customers happy. He saw that I was having trouble with my holster and offered to make me a replacement. I visited his website and noticed the Stronghold Phoenix holster. I liked it right away because it seemed to keep the grip higher above the belt loop, so I knew it wouldn't suffer from the same problem as the other holster. Tim even allowed me to explain to him that I wanted the trigger guard opening of the holster to be positioned higher so I wouldn't run into the same problem. He really went out of his way to make it right for me, and I could not be any more appreciative. Tim is a stand-up guy and has really won me over with this one. I will be using him in the future for all my holster needs. If you are looking for the best rig money can buy, you need to give him a call.
Two more things that I love about this holster over the other one are the longer, more protective sweat shield and the thinner profile at the mouth of the holster. I didn't want shark skin this time around (don't even know if it's an option for the Phoenix holster), because I wanted the mouth of the holster to be as thin as possible. The shark skin will add some width to it. Besides the lack of shark skin, the Stronghold Phoenix seems to use a thinner insert (metal instead of plastic???) at the mouth of the holster. The result is a much thinner profile at the mouth of the holster than what I had before. This holster is perfect..I love it! Now it's time for some pictures.
Stronghold Phoenix:
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TT Gunleather reinforced IWB "Mike's Special":
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I just thought I'd show off some pics of my new holster. I am totally in love with this rig. It was designed and made by Tim Thurner of TT Gunleather, however, it wears the Occidental Leather brand name on it. This holster is actually called the Stronghold Phoenix. Stronghold seems to be a smaller branch of Occidental Leather that specifically makes gun leather products.
I was having problems with the first holster I ordered from TT Gunleather (also pictured below for comparison). It was their reinforced-mouth IWB "Mike's Special" holster. The "Mike's Special" designation means that the holster is designed similarly to their normal IWB holster, except it positions the pistol about 3/4" lower. This is supposed to reduce the potential for the grip to print through your shirt. While it does this very well, I found that it made the pistol hard to access when trying to draw the pistol. With the entire pistol being positioned lower, it doesn't leave very much room between the grip and the belt loop. I have average-sized male hands and my middle-finger knuckle kept rubbing against the belt loop when I grip the gun just before I draw. The Mike's Special is also advertised to have slightly more cant (forward angle) to it, but it varies from gun to gun, and for my P2000sk there really was no increase in forward cant. In other words, the holster is still of superb quality (fit and finish), but this particular design didn't work well for me.
Tim prides himself on making his customers happy. He saw that I was having trouble with my holster and offered to make me a replacement. I visited his website and noticed the Stronghold Phoenix holster. I liked it right away because it seemed to keep the grip higher above the belt loop, so I knew it wouldn't suffer from the same problem as the other holster. Tim even allowed me to explain to him that I wanted the trigger guard opening of the holster to be positioned higher so I wouldn't run into the same problem. He really went out of his way to make it right for me, and I could not be any more appreciative. Tim is a stand-up guy and has really won me over with this one. I will be using him in the future for all my holster needs. If you are looking for the best rig money can buy, you need to give him a call.
Two more things that I love about this holster over the other one are the longer, more protective sweat shield and the thinner profile at the mouth of the holster. I didn't want shark skin this time around (don't even know if it's an option for the Phoenix holster), because I wanted the mouth of the holster to be as thin as possible. The shark skin will add some width to it. Besides the lack of shark skin, the Stronghold Phoenix seems to use a thinner insert (metal instead of plastic???) at the mouth of the holster. The result is a much thinner profile at the mouth of the holster than what I had before. This holster is perfect..I love it! Now it's time for some pictures.
Stronghold Phoenix:
TT Gunleather reinforced IWB "Mike's Special":
