Under The Arm It's All The Same

Guns Magazine, Jan, 2001 by Massad Ayoob

There's one kind of gunleather set where you do want every piece to come from the same maker: the shoulder rig. When Rick Gallagher called his company Jackass Leather instead of Galco, he created the true shoulder rig: a shoulder holster with accessories such as ammo pouches or cuff cases attached.

I've tried mixing and matching the ammo carriers from rig A with the harness and holster from rig B, or a Brand X holster on a Brand Y harness. Seldom have the results been satisfactory, and often they didn't work at all.

The designer of the rig knows what balances what, and how an accessory pouch and its attachment have to be cut to suspend properly from the shoulder harness. One designer's concepts will seldom mesh perfectly with those of another. Gallagher called his concept the "shoulder system," and he was absolutely right. The system's components work symbiotically with one another.