U.S.A. –-(Ammoland.com)-I have tested out a lot of holsters in the past. Like any person into guns, after a while, you designate a box for different types of holsters for different guns. I am always looking for the next big thing to test out for the readers.
Bravo Concealment contacted me to see if I would be willing to give a couple of their holsters a test run. I decided to go ahead and try them out. I have some friends who use the brand exclusively, and I trust their opinion, so it was time to see if that trust was well placed. Like Ronald Reagan said in the past, “trust but verify.”
Not only did Bravo Concealment send me one holster, but they sent me two holsters. The first holster was their BCA Outside the Waistband Kydex Gun Holster for my Glock 19. The second holster was their Torsion Inside the Waistband Kydex Gun Holster for my Glock 43.
I tried both Bravo Concealment holsters exclusively for three weeks. Any less time spent on a holster doesn’t give you a real feel for the product. When testing a holster there are a few things I look for during testing, but before we get into that, we need to talk about the Bravo Concealment holsters themselves.
Bravo Concealment makes their holsters out of Kydex. Kydex is a thermoplastic acrylic-polyvinyl chloride material. The advantage of Kydex is that it is highly moldable when heated. This property makes the material ideal for the manufacturing of holsters due to the smaller startup cost when compared to something like injection molding.
There are a lot of Kydex holster companies on the web, but not all holster companies are created equal. Two companies can use the same material and the same design, but one company’s holster will be perfect, and the other company’s product will be unusable.
That brings me to the first thing I look for in a holster which is retention. This property is the toughest thing for holster companies to get right. Too little retention and the customer’s gun faces the risk of all falling out of their holster. Too much retention and the end user will have issues drawing their firearm.
Bravo Concealment did a great job on the retention on both the BCA OWB Kydex Gun Holster and the surprisingly the Torsion IWB Kydex Gun Holster. Retention can be an issue on the IWB holsters. I teamed up with Roger Frame, who reviews guns on Instagram, to test out the holsters.
Over a couple of days, we both did 250 draws on each holster. Drawing from both Bravo Concealment holsters was easy for both of us. Rebolstering wasn’t a problem either. Even when rolling around and running our firearms never came loose. At the end of the testing, the retention of the holsters was the same as when we began.
The second thing I look for in a holster is concealment. The Torsion IWB Kydex Gun Holster has a couple of things to make the gun print less. Bravo concealment added a 10° inward cant to the holster. That small little change to the design made a big difference in my Glock printing. Little things like this separate the excellent Kydex holster companies from lousy holster companies.
Bravo Concealment also added the ability to adjust the ride height of the IWB holster, so the wearer can set the holster to ride lower. In fact, by going to a single clip, the wearer can set their gun low enough that they can tuck in their shirts. I was able to wear all, but the tightest shirts without my firearm being noticeable to most people.
The IWB holster also took up a minimal amount real estate. There isn’t a lot of extra material which causes issues with printing. With a lot of Kydex holster companies, they will attach the holster and clips to a backing that they usually made using leather.
This backing increases the overall size of the holster and chances of it printing. Bravo Concealment, on the other hand, attaches the clips directly to the shell of the holster. The general reduction in size lessens the chance of someone inadvertently seeing the holster.
Their OWB holster also is very concealable. I was able to walk through several businesses without being noticed by just having a t-shirt that covered my Glock 19.
Bravo Concealment was able to accomplish this level of concealment in the BCA OWB Kydex gun holster by also giving the holster a 10° inward cant and going away from the paddle holster design of some of their competitors. Paddle holsters have their place, but they are not a good choice if the wearer is trying to conceal their handgun by how much space is between their body in the gun.
Bravo Concealment used simple belt loops for their OWB holster. The holster held close to my side without bulging. They also offer pancake-style belt loops, but for my testing, I used the stock 1.5-inch belt loops, and they worked flawlessly. For this reason I don’t plan on going with the pancake-style belt loops.
The next thing I look for in a holster is the level of comfort that the holster offers. Bravo Concealment did a pretty good job on this as well. With their IWB holster, I wore it at the five o’clock position.
The holster was reasonably comfortable, especially for its small size. I was afraid that the Torsion Inside the Waistband Kydex Gun Holster would move around, but it remained steady in place. It was as comfortable as some of the other top of the line holsters.
I was also worried that the 10° cant of the Bravo Concealment IWB holster would cause my firearm to dig into my side. I had tried another holster in the past that would an inward facing cant and it was unbearable. Lucky for me the Bravo Concealment holster did not have this issue. After digging out the other holster it seems that it used a much more extreme cant.
I also tried wearing the holster in “tuck” mode, but It was a little uncomfortable because it seemed to move more with a single clip. I also wore the IWB holster as an appendix carry holster. Once again, the holster’s comfort level was comparable to other Kydex holsters on the market, but appendix carry is not for me.
Bravo Concealment also did a great job with the comfort of their OWB holster. With a lot of Kydex holsters, the top of the holster will dig into your side. I didn’t experience this issue with the OWB holster I got from Bravo Concealment. After comparing it to the holsters I had an issue with it seems like the top of the Bravo Concealment holster is a little lower than the others which helped it alleviate this common problem.
The Bravo Concealment IWB holster was comfortable, but the OWB holster was so comfortable that I could hardly tell that I was wearing my gun at all. For this reason, the Bravo Concealment BCA Outside the Waistband Kydex Gun Holster will be my go-to OWB holster for the foreseeable future.
The final thing I look for in a holster is the price. Bravo Concealment prices are very competitive when compared to other holsters in the same price range. Bravo Concealment offers either of their holsters for $49.99. They also sell light bearing holsters for many of the most popular brands of gun lights.
Bravo Concealment also offers a 30-day money back guarantee on all their products. In addition to the 30-day money back guarantee all their products come with a lifetime warranty. It seems that these terms are standard in the holster industry. I can only hope that conditions like these spread to other sectors of the gun world.
Overall, I was pleased with the Bravo Concealment holsters. For the winter, I will be using their BCA Outside the Waistband Kydex Gun Holster for my Glock 19 as my go to holster.
Readers can find Bravo Concealment at https://www.bravoconcealment.com
About John Crump
John is a NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. He is the former CEO of Veritas Firearms, LLC and is the co-host of The Patriot News Podcast which can be found at www.blogtalkradio.com/patriotnews. John has written extensively on the patriot movement including 3%’ers, Oath Keepers, and Militias. In addition to the Patriot movement, John has written about firearms, interviewed people of all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons and is currently working on a book on leftist deplatforming methods and can be followed on Twitter at @crumpyss, on Facebook at realjohncrump, or at www.crumpy.com