Galco Belly Band

I was at one of the "cool kids" gun shops recently when I came across this Belly Band thing by Galco.

I'd been thinking about purchasing an "alternative" holster for a while now, and I'd mainly focused on that Smartcarry.

Well, after asking around about Makarovs and finding more ridiculously priced .45 acp, I proceeded to leave the store.

As I was getting back into my car, I went back and bought the thing.


I'm pretty satisfied with it, as it holds the gun securely, and close to the body.

I'll probably only use it for jogging and driving back and forth from my apartment to my parent's house for these reasons:


- it is much easier to access the pistol from this belly band than it is to access it from my leather while seated in a car

- that said, the draw is much sloppier than from my leather from a standing position. If Galco provided some mini clips to attach the belly band to the belt or something the draw would be a lot better, but as is, it's sloppy and weird. Still fast, but not as consistent as a holster.


- it is comfortable to carry my gov. model 1911 in this thing for a while.
= BUT After a few hours, the leather starts to chafe my skin. I have no idea why they designed this thing so that right hand users would have the leather against their skin.


- the mag holder is good, but the bigger pouch is only good for a wallet, which is nice when running, I guess.


The cross draw holster was all but useless, IMO. It points the butt of the gun away from the body and is not well designed, IMO.



All in all, I'm glad I bought it.

Another bad thing about this Belly Band that I discovered today is that Right hand wearers are not afforded sufficient trigger protection.

one side of the belly band is Leather, but the other side is just an elastic material that is very flexible.

If you were carrying a DAO with no external safety and enough bad luck, you could conceivably activate the trigger by being poked there.

With my single action 1911, with its firm thumb safety, this is not really a problem.
I could see this being a positive if you realize it, though, since it allows someone to get off a surprise shot by fumbling with their shirt for a microsecond: "Give me your wallet! why are you playing with your nipple? PEW PEW PEW! OUCH!"


I also managed to gouch a nice chunk of skin out of my soft, creamy underside with my hammer today while practicing manipulating the trigger while still in the Belly Band. :(


Seriously though, this thing is comfortable for just whipping on and driving down the street to the store for a few minutes.