Shoulder Holsters

While we often think of the shoulder holster as a product of the gangster era of the 1920-30s, the rig was actually a creation of the gun toters of the Old West. The concealment that a shoulder holster afforded allowed Western shootists to be “well heeled” while not attracting unwanted attention. The most common type of shoulder rig used on the frontier was the Texas Pattern, which made its debut sometime during the late 1870s and is believed to be the earliest style. Texas gunman Be