Shoulder Holster Useage-time frame

[Poor Private]

I carry pocket pistol(s) sometimes when I do civil war reenacting. Since they are really too big and in my opinion unsafe to carry around loaded in a pocket I was wondering when shoulder holsters came into being. Most if not all reenactors when they carry a pistol use a flapped holster on thier hip in thier military personna. But where would a civilian carry thier protection (and don't tell me "in thier wallet")? It seems to me that a pistol in a coat pocket would be uncomfortable and unhandy to carry- swinging, and banging into things, dragging down the side of the coat. Toss a couple pounds of lead in your coat pocket and try to do normal things with it there.
Documentation of any kind would help. This is being discussed on a civil war forum and no-one can come find out when it was being used.

 

[dodgecity]

Cochise leather has an abreviated history on gun leather. The shoulder holster seems to have been popular as a way of getting around the no firearms in town ordinances enacted in many western towns. They were in use from the 1870's. www.cochiseleather.com/western-gun-leather-history.aspx

 

[CoyoteJoe]

Although pommel holsters for carry on horseback probably date back to the first use of cavalry pistols, holsters for carry on the person seem very rare prior to the civil war. The military belt holster set the standard initially but was soon improved to the open top belt holster. As to when the shoulder holster was first developed, I don't know when but I'd venture a guess as to how.
You're were sitting in your cabin after dark, your gunbelt hanging from a chair back or wall peg, when you find you have to visit the "necessary". Would you buckle on your gunbelt just to walk fifty paces to the little house and unbuckle it again? Naw, you just slip it over your head, poke one arm through and have no problem of what to do with your gun while sitting there. Then you say "hey, you know, that's really a pretty comfortable and practical way to carry a gun". A few design improvements and the shoulder holster is born.
I bet that's how Jossie Wells did it! :haha:

 

[Poor Private]

Hey Joe you never know when your going to need it on the way to the neccessary-to kill that rattler.
But boy it would be nice to find some kind of documentation, why you ask? Well sometimes I am with my southern buddies and we run 2 Mt. Howitzers and I get to play on the guns once in a while, and we carry sidearms, but sometimes it gets in the way of using the rammers and moving the guns around. So I wanted to see if I could carry my 1862 police, and 1863 Navy pockets in a shoulder holster.

 

[LaBonte]

There are variations of shoulder holsters that go back to at least the 1830's - they were more of a vest with built in holsters and the extant examples were worn by riverboat gamblers. I've got a pic some where I'll see if I can dig it up.

holsters for carry on the person seem very rare prior to the civil war.

With respect but belt holster were not rare at all prior to the ACW - they began being used in the early late 1820's with the percussion single shots and saw more use when revolvers first became available circa 1839 (the Colt Paterson led the way and saw quite a bit of use in the West). They were widely used by the time of the California Gold Rush (thus the so-called California Slim Jim style which was developed about this time) and really took off with the advent of the first true belt reveolver - the famed 1851 Colt Navy.

A most excellent book on the subject of holsters is "Packing Iron"

 

[poordevil]

I have a book on guns, ( it is packed away now and the name escapes me) and in the section on muzzzleloaders, there is a pic. of 2 single shot pistols in simple leather holsters sewed to suspenders.

I would guess that what ever a man wanted, and could afford, he could have made...just like today.

P.

 

[paulvallandigham]

I don't know about the whole continent, but many people who had been influenced by Spanish style of dresson the continent during the 18th and 19th centuries, carried their revolvers in sashes, not around the waist, but higher- around the stomach, that out the guns in a "cross-draw " position about the same height as a shoulder holster does today. These were broad sashes, not the skinny sashes worn around the waist. A " Cummerbund" is the closest man's style stomach sash, an originated not with the Spanish, but in India. The Broad waist sash is centuries old as an idea.

The broad sash does a better job of concealing the revolver, and keeps it clean. Wearing even a vest or light jacket will conceal it from view for more formal social occasions.

Many gunfighters carried their revolvers in leather lined pockets in their outer coats, rather than in a pouch waist holster. The Earps used this method in 1874, which is a bit late for your time period. The Early Texas Rangers, who first got the Patterson Colts, and later the Walkers, carried them in either pommel holsters, or in waist sashes. Belt holsters were substituted for use when riding a horse, so that the pounding of the horse did not rub their ribs raw. Cowboys took to using shoulder holsters in case they were thrown by their horse, or the horse fell down and pinned them to the ground, with a belt holster trapped under both the cowboy and the horse. A Shoulder holster could save the man's life, if the horse could not be quickly calmed, and rolled over, and off the cowboy. It let him shoot the horse before it could kick or continue to do more damage to the cowboy by rolling.

The idea of making a " Fast Draw " from a holster is largely a 20th century idea. Holsters were made to protect the gun from dust, and debris, which is why the flap holster was so popular for so long. If you thought matters were going to get out of hand, so that you needed a gun, you took the gun out of the holster and kept it in your hand, often down by your side, so it was not seen as an act of provocation.

Often just seeing that you were armed and prepared to act calmed hot tempers, and improved foolish judgments. It works the same way today.

You can find out a lot about early holsters in Elmer Keith's " Sixguns", and about Texas Rangers and their gear in Col. Charles Askins' "Gunfighters".

 

[Dphar]

Belt holsters were pretty common by the 1840s it seems.
There is a "Gamblers Vest" in "Packing Iron" by Rattenbury pg 154.
It is leather and linen and was made for a pair of underhammer percussion "boot pistols", a loading rod, a small pouch (powder measure?) and a small dagger. Thought to date to about 1835-45.
It would qualify as a a "shoulder holster" I think.

Dan

 

[CoyoteJoe]

Indeed, when I said "prior to the civil war" I really should have said "prior to the revolver". I tend to associate revolvers with that war but of course they pre-date it by 20+ years.