Paul Gomez
www.Gomez-Training.com
This is something that I wrote up a number of years ago as sort of a historical overview of a classic Inside the Waistband holster design.
Many forum members utilize the Milt Sparks Summer Special 2 IWB holster for concealed carry. As has been discussed previously, this holster is a refinement of the original Summer Special holster designed and first offered by Bruce Nelson.
Nelson was an undercover narcotics officer and one of the original instructor's at API/Gunsite [in fact, he was one of the instructors in the first pistol class ever taught at Gunsite].
Nelson, and most of the narcs that he built Summer Specials for, carried straight drop holsters in the appendix position.
Shortly after Milt Sparks began producing the Summer Special, he began some slight improvements to the original design. These included the addition of a second belt loop [Nelson's original used a single loop with a one-way snap] and stiching in two strips of leather into the sight channel to serve as 'sight rails' to prevent the front sight from dragging &/or digging a trough in the leading edge of the holster. Sparks also began offering the design with a muzzle rearward/FBI rake as well as the original straight drop.
In 1992, Milt Sparks began offering the Summer Special 2 which incorporated interchangeable belt loops & a sweat shield. Additionally, if you ordered it with a muzzle rearward rake, it was increased from the FBI standard 15-degrees to a 20-degree angle. The early SS-2s were also offered in a straight drop config. My first Summer Special 2 was a straight drop for a 5-inch M1911 purchased in September, 1992 as I recall.
The original Summer Special did not feature a lot of detailed molding, or boning, of the holster body. The holster body was a fairly generic 'gun' shape. This was done to maximize the contact between the rough side out leather and the trouser material to, theoretically, offer as much stabilization of the gun & holster as possible. This practice was continued into the early 90s.
In 1995, the custom holster business was dealt a one-two punch with the deaths of both Bruce Nelson [at age 47] and Milt Sparks [at age 78]. In the case of Nelson, their was no protege to take over and Nelson Combat Leather ceased to exist. Sparks had turned over the day-to-day operation of his shop to Tony Kanaley back in the late 80s, so Sparks gear continued, and continues to be available.
In late 1996, I switched from carrying a 5-inch M1911 to carrying a mid-frame Glock. At the same time, I switched from a Summer Special IWB to beltmounted kydex.
Following some events with my local training group relating to kydex hoslters and a visit in May of 2004 to John Benner's school, TDI, for the second offering of their ECQ course and the inaugral offering of SouthNarc's ECQC-1 class in July of 2004, I became absolutely convinced of the superiority of the leather inside the waistband holster for dealing with worst case, in-your-face, kissing distance problems.
Given SouthNarc's endorsement of the SS-2 and my prior experience with that hoslter, I immediately picked up one of the current production Summer Special 2 holsters for a Glock 17.
Here is a picture of that holster. The detailed molding of the current production hoslter is still evident. This is an outstanding holster and is available very reasonably through Brownell's [MSRP is $75...Dealer Price through Brownell's is around $60].
Many forum members utilize the Milt Sparks Summer Special 2 IWB holster for concealed carry. As has been discussed previously, this holster is a refinement of the original Summer Special holster designed and first offered by Bruce Nelson.
Nelson was an undercover narcotics officer and one of the original instructor's at API/Gunsite [in fact, he was one of the instructors in the first pistol class ever taught at Gunsite].
Nelson, and most of the narcs that he built Summer Specials for, carried straight drop holsters in the appendix position.
Shortly after Milt Sparks began producing the Summer Special, he began some slight improvements to the original design. These included the addition of a second belt loop [Nelson's original used a single loop with a one-way snap] and stiching in two strips of leather into the sight channel to serve as 'sight rails' to prevent the front sight from dragging &/or digging a trough in the leading edge of the holster. Sparks also began offering the design with a muzzle rearward/FBI rake as well as the original straight drop.
In 1992, Milt Sparks began offering the Summer Special 2 which incorporated interchangeable belt loops & a sweat shield. Additionally, if you ordered it with a muzzle rearward rake, it was increased from the FBI standard 15-degrees to a 20-degree angle. The early SS-2s were also offered in a straight drop config. My first Summer Special 2 was a straight drop for a 5-inch M1911 purchased in September, 1992 as I recall.
The original Summer Special did not feature a lot of detailed molding, or boning, of the holster body. The holster body was a fairly generic 'gun' shape. This was done to maximize the contact between the rough side out leather and the trouser material to, theoretically, offer as much stabilization of the gun & holster as possible. This practice was continued into the early 90s.
In 1995, the custom holster business was dealt a one-two punch with the deaths of both Bruce Nelson [at age 47] and Milt Sparks [at age 78]. In the case of Nelson, their was no protege to take over and Nelson Combat Leather ceased to exist. Sparks had turned over the day-to-day operation of his shop to Tony Kanaley back in the late 80s, so Sparks gear continued, and continues to be available.
In late 1996, I switched from carrying a 5-inch M1911 to carrying a mid-frame Glock. At the same time, I switched from a Summer Special IWB to beltmounted kydex.
Following some events with my local training group relating to kydex hoslters and a visit in May of 2004 to John Benner's school, TDI, for the second offering of their ECQ course and the inaugral offering of SouthNarc's ECQC-1 class in July of 2004, I became absolutely convinced of the superiority of the leather inside the waistband holster for dealing with worst case, in-your-face, kissing distance problems.
Given SouthNarc's endorsement of the SS-2 and my prior experience with that hoslter, I immediately picked up one of the current production Summer Special 2 holsters for a Glock 17.
Here is a picture of that holster. The detailed molding of the current production hoslter is still evident. This is an outstanding holster and is available very reasonably through Brownell's [MSRP is $75...Dealer Price through Brownell's is around $60].
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