I’m of the opinion that a handgun should either be on your person or in a safe. I don’t have too much difficulty drawing my Caracal C from an outside-the-waistband holster but I can see the advantages of this system. And the disadvantages. Especially in a convertible. [picture courtesy grassburr.com, h/t americanhandgunner.com]

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24 COMMENTS

  1. A similar solution, and one that I like better because it doesn’t involve screwing/bolting things to your car, comes from Gum Creek Customs. I’ve had my eye on one of these for a while now, just haven’t gotten around to pulling the trigger.

    Also, all the Grassburr holsters seem to be designed around the “perpendicular to the dash” design. None of them look designed for the “parallel to the dash” option that Gum Creek gives you.

    • Sure it does. I have mine mounted in that orientation (under the dash and roughly parallel to the ground) in my car.

      I’m not familiar with the gum creek design but it doesn’t appear to have the ability to adjust the angle of the mount. With the grass burr you can rotate it so you can draw it at an angle. That is, looking at the gum creek picture, you could rotate the grip so that a left handed person could draw it out to the left more.

      I’m not a fan of the bolt the mounts the grass burr. I wish it were more of a quick disconnect. It tends to unscrew as I drive ove the course of a few days so I’m constantly retightening it. I could put lok tite on it but I’m reluctant to do that yet.

      • Skyler: OK, well, that’s good to know. None of the pictures I could find of the Grassburr holsters ever showed them in any configuration but “conventional perpendicular.”

        You’re correct that the Gum Creek designs can’t really be adjust for “angle.” It’s basically a complicated strap with a hook at each end, and the holster is going to lie “in line” with that strap. You can use any holster you want, as long as it has a belt clip/loop/strap, because that’s how it affixes to the car mount. A left-handed person would certainly be at a disadvantage to some degree using either of these designs.

        • How is the Gum Creek one any harder for a lefty than a righty? First off Gum Creek says the included holster is ambidextrous, so when you install the holster you flip it over. Secondly, you can buy just the strap and add your own holster to it.

        • When Skyler referred to “angle,” I interpreted that in this way: In a conventional, right handed draw from near/on the center console, the gun would be more or less parallel to the transmission tunnel. With the Grassburr design top mount, you could “cant” the holster at an angle to the tunnel, pointing the barrel of the gun toward the right front tire, resulting in the grip of the gun being angled more toward your left hand. Thus, an easier draw for lefties.

          My statement about lefties being at a disadvantage with both designs was a general statement about the difficulty in drawing and presenting to an attacker at your window. Regardless of holster design or position, when a righty draws, he’s near-automatically in position for a cross-body shot at the driver’s side window. A lefty is going to be at a disadvantage simply based on the difficulty of presenting to a close-proximity strong side attacker. If we were in England, the advantage/disadvantage would be reversed.

        • For lefties (indeed all shooters) you need to train with your OH for these and other situations.

    • DeSantis makes a nice one that simply loops a strap around the seat cushion and hangs the holster between your legs. Very comfortable, totally concealed, easy to install/remove. I suppose with a delrin-buckle and some belt material just about anybody could make this themselves.

      picture

      link by firearm model

  2. I had a similar setup in a Z28 a while back. It worked great but I only used it when In the car. It went back in my OWB holster when not inside the car. Transitions were not an issue since I did it in the car.

  3. Lovely. So if I want to get out of the car I have to unholster the gun from underneath the steering wheel (not even sure if this is legal in my state) and awkwardly re-holster it in my IWB holster from a sitting position.

    If someone sees me doing it they’re going to call the cops and I’ll have to go through an ordeal with that. If a bad guy sees me doing it and concealing it he now knows I have a firearm and am trying to hide it. So, according to some, he’d shoot me first if he was planning mass murder. OR he’d have an easier time of stealing my firearm if he chose to do so since my IWB holster has about jack when it comes to active retention.

    Then there’s the issue of possibly getting into a car accident, which is much more plausible than the situations above, and having a solid hunk of steel loaded with live rounds potentially becoming a projectile.

    • Michael B.: Where do you live? Shouldn’t be too hard to figure out the legality. As far as “projectile in an accident,” a thumb break or snap holster should take care of that concern.

      • Same state as you. Last I heard it has to be encased in something like a center console or a glove box. Does an exposed holster satisfy that requirement?

        I’m sure I’d be a real hit with the boys in blue (or green, here) if I got pulled over for a traffic violation and they saw a gun hanging out from under my steering wheel.

  4. I have one and love it.

    You don’t need to reholster anything. You keep a different pistol there.

    It works great in Texas because you don’t need a permit to have a concealed weapon in your car. So it’s okay if your wife needs to drive your car and she doesn’t have a permit.

    It allows me to carry my smaller guenon my belt where it’s not easily accessible while driving and have a larger more powerful pistol available.

  5. I know that you’re not going to believe this, but car holsters are illegal in Massachusetts.

    Yeah, I know. Who woulda thunk it.

  6. I too subscribe to the school of keeping the firearm on your person at all times. I carry appendix IWB… So no need for a car holster because I have complete access to the firearm even while seated and buckled in. Just never been able to get into the whole car-holster thing.

  8. The beauty of this system is how easy it is to take off & hide in your console or glove box if you’re worried about someone noticing it through the window when you park. I would use my edc for this (Beretta PX4 Storm Compact) for this anyway, so the only thing they would see if I left it, would be the holster & as I said, it’s easy enough to take off & hide.

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