As many of us know, some of the most popular concealable holsters in use today are the “tuckable” models. These are inside the waistband holsters that will actually allow for you to wear them and tuck your shirt in at the same time. This is a nice option, though these holsters do not require you to tuck your shirt in for their use in concealment.

Many people call these “Crossbreed” style holsters, in reference to the Crossbreed Supertuck holster. The Crossbreed is a very popular tuckable IWB holster that is custom made by the manufacturer. There have been some disagreements online as to who came out with the first tuckable holster, which IMO is a moot point now. Today there are a large number of holsters made in this style from holster companies ranging from small one man operations to the big name, international companies. At this point it is going to be a personal preference as to which you like best. [image_frame style=”border” align=”right”]http://www.usgalco.com/Catalog/large/KingTuk-Solo-O-L.jpg[/image_frame]

I looked at a number of different options before coming down to choosing the Galco King Tuk IWB holster. The link to the holster on Galco’s site can be found here. After reviewing my options the holsters I had narrowed it down to were all very familiar in design. The final decision then was based on price and how quickly I could get one. Being semi impatient, the latter was the most important factor. I found the King Tuk in stock at Optics Planet for $53 and free shipping. Done Deal. I had it in less than a week.

I ordered the King Tuk for my Springfield Armory XD40 subcompact. The nice thing is that this holster will also fit my XD9 service model as well. Upon initial inspection of the holster it appeared to be well made. The leather was nice, if not a little thick for my taste. The kydex fit both the XD40 subcompact and the XD9 service perfectly. These holsters do not have any “active” retention, that needs a button or lever to be depressed. They do however, provide excellent retention IMO. Essentially they fit snugly in the Kydex, then with the addition of the tightening of your belt the retention is increased.

I have worn the holster every day for 3 weeks now for at least a few hours a day. I initially did a solid 10 straight days of wearing the holster for 10 hours plus per day. It is a VERY comfortable holster to wear. After the first day or so the leather softens up a bit and starts to take the form of your body contours. I had no un-comfort wearing this holster for 10 hours plus and my days usually involve a fair amount of sitting as well. Trying to tuck your shirt in takes a little bit of effort to get used to at first, but can be accomplished fairly quickly once practiced. I myself am not a “tucker”. There are maybe a handful of days a year I will be wearing a shirt tucked in. This holster gave me no problems with concealing even under my usual untucked T-shirt. I did not find any printing at all, which is nice considering the XD40 subcompact and the XD9 are not exactly tiny compared to the small pocket pistols many people are using for CCW use.

The belt clips can be raised or lowered (independently of each other) to provide you with some options as to how low or high you want the gun to ride in your waistline. You can also change the cant of the gun by having one belt clip higher than the other. This is the one place I would like to see some improvement. While you can adjust the clips to change the cant, I like my firearm and a fairly steep cant. This can be accomplished easily, but the problem is that then the belt clips are at an angle to your belt and don’t attach as well as I would like them to. I did NOT have an issue with them coming loose, but would like to see them be able to still attach at a perfectly straight angle. Other “tuckable” holsters have the clips attach with one screw, which allows for the clip to swivel. The clips on the King Tuk use two screws and as such are stuck at the angle they are at. This can easily be remedied by the holster owner by drilling a few extra holes, once you have figure out what cant you wish your firearm to be at. I am about to go ahead and do so. A word of warning: Doing so will probably invalidate your warranty. I have not confirmed this with Galco yet or not, so that is an assumption on my part. If this concerns you, you may wish to speak to them before making any modifications. [image_frame style=”border” align=”right”]http://www.sandpointarms.com/wp-content/uploads/kingtuk1.jpg[/image_frame]

One other thing I noticed after  a week of use was that I was starting to get a very small area where the two layers of leather were being pushed down and separating a bit slightly. I have kept an eye on this and it has not gotten worse. In looking at the photo on Galco’s website (and above) you can see that they show a stitching around the entire leather portion of the holster. The King Tuk that I received does NOT have that added reinforcement, which was a disappointment. If the stitching were there I would not be concerned about this separation getting worse as the stitching would stop it.

It would also be a nice addition to the holster if the Kydex portion that actually holds the gun was attached via the same kind of removable screws as the belt clips. It is attached with standard rivets. With removable screws you would be able to purchase just the Kydex portion to be able to use the holster with other guns. Obviously it makes good business sense for Galco to have you buy a new holster for each gun. At the very fair price point this is nitpicking on my part.

All in all I am extremely happy with my King Tuk and will be purchasing a few more for some other handguns that I own. I would not hesitate to recommend this product too anyone looking for this style holster.

Author – Steve Wasylko