Attaching pistol holster to new Sitka bino harness

[John Havard]

Has anyone yet tried to attach a holster to the side/bottom of the new Sitka bino harness? The video on their website talks about being able to remove one of the accessory pockets and then use the molle loops on the harness to attach a holster. But it looks like the holster would be up too high if one did that? Any first-hand experience with trying to do this?

 

[Marty]

 

[Beendare]

John,
You might want to consider a couple things I found when playing with this;

1) it can get to be a lot of weight

2) You don't get a clean draw
_____

BTW, love my Dryad riser.......

 

[Marty]

I'm wanting something like to carry my G20 10mm (see picture above). I've contacted several leading holster manufacturers about developing a Sitka Mountain Optics Harness (MOH) specific holster; none have done so.

In my own prototyping, I've found that holster height is critical to making an efficient draw stroke. As a result this critical factor, an off the shelf MOLLE holster will work but may impact your draw.

Second, I found that the holster must be as close as possible to the MOH. Every centimenter/inch away from the MOH pulls the harness away from the user. As a result, the Safariland QLS is not suitable for this application.
I've got a couple more findings but really curious what things you've found to work or not work as well. Cheers!

 

[Desk Jockey]

I have run one on my chest rig. Right side in place of the range finder pouch in these pictures. It works. Does not interfere with a bowstring or shouldering a rifle at a reasonable speed (I wouldn’t do it for bird hunting) The draw stroke is odd but it gets the gun up off your hips. TBH I don’t have a lot of experience in brown bear country but if I ever had to use a pistol on a bear, I doubt a speed draw is going to be what really saves the day. Seems like you best have the gun in hand well before you take a shot or you probably aren’t going to get the chance.


FWIW - I don’t carry a pistol often when I hunt and I tend to carry it on a rigid extender (safariland ubl) that gets it below my pack belt.

Chest rig for hunting.

I mentioned this in another post and someone asked for pics. I started with an Fhf bino harness and added a range finder pocket. I hand a lot of stuff in my pants pockets and no place to put my phone and gps so I started to play with this idea. The base rig is a blue force gear rack minus...

www.rokslide.com

 

[Marty]

I have run one on my chest rig. Right side in place of the range finder pouch in these pictures. It works. Does interfere with a bowstring or shouldering a rifle at a reasonable speed (I wouldn’t do it for bird hunting) The draw stroke is odd but it gets the gun up off your hips. TBH I don’t have a lot of experience in brown bear country but if I ever had to use a pistol on a bear, I doubt a speed draw is going to be what really saves the day. Seems like you best have the gun in hand well before you take a shot or you probably aren’t going to get the chance.


FWIW - I don’t carry a pistol often when I hunt and I tend to carry it on a rigid extender (safariland ubl) that gets it below my pack belt.

Chest rig for hunting.

I mentioned this in another post and someone asked for pics. I started with an Fhf bino harness and added a range finder pocket. I hand a lot of stuff in my pants pockets and no place to put my phone and gps so I started to play with this idea. The base rig is a blue force gear rack minus...

www.rokslide.com

Mind sharing some pictures of the setup and/or the model of weapon and holster used? Thanks!

 

[Jermh]

I've thought about modifying my harness for a holster but I just feel like it would get in the way trying to draw my bow

 

[John Havard]

Beendare, the interference with bowstring is what has turned me off to the high mount shown in Marty's photo above. Plus, even if I wasn't trying to use a bow I'd have to dislocate my shoulder and/or elbow to draw the pistol out of such a high holster.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Mind sharing some pictures of the setup and/or the model of weapon and holster used? Thanks!

I de-rigged it a while back and my g20 is on long term loan to a buddy that lives out west so no pics.

I used a pancake style comp-Tac holster that was probably a predecessor to the warrior. Replaced the belt loops with molle clips held on by Chicago screws and strap it to the right side of the chest rig next to my bino harness. Rides on the right side of my rib cage below my peck. Bonus - I find the chest rig a lot more stable than simply attaching a bunch of crap to a bino harness.

As I said, the gun rides high and the draw is odd and requires you to break your wrist on your firing grip in an unnatural way and you essentially end up with a elbow high position and the gun at your front deltoid / armpit to clear the holster. Punching through to a shooting grip is pretty natural from there. Advantage is the gun is up high and off your hip and legs. It is probably more accessible by your offhand than a strong side hip carry. I also rigged a small loop of buggy to go over the grip for extra retention in the woods. As I said above, I doubt a fast draw is really going to save me if a bear is close and makes the first move.

Warrior Holster + Light

The Warrior™ Holster with light and laser attachments are available in the drop-down box above. If your combination is not listed, we do not yet make Warrior™ holsters with that attachment. Please do not choose a combination that does not fit your firearm and light. For questions, please call...

comp-tac.com

 

[Desk Jockey]

Beendare, the interference with bowstring is what has turned me off to the high mount shown in Marty's photo above. Plus, even if I wasn't trying to use a bow I'd have to dislocate my shoulder and/or elbow to draw the pistol out of such a high holster.

If you look at photos and video of a bow draw, this is less of an issue than you think. Personal and bow geometry vary person to person but in general you bow string will go from the bottom cam, up through your forward shoulder and arm pit to your chin and anchor point. Your unlikely to snag anything on your chest below your collar bone. So much for the old Amazon cut off the boob trick.

 

[John Havard]

If you look at photos and video of a bow draw, this is less of an issue than you think. Personal and bow geometry vary person to person but in general you bow string will go from the bottom cam, up through your forward shoulder and arm pit to your chin and anchor point. Your unlikely to snag anything on your chest below your collar bone. So much for the old Amazon cut off the boob trick.


If I was shooting a wheelie bow that could well be true. However, my recurve bow string with proper form would be dangerously close to the holster.

 

[snowyelk2020]

Hey everyone,
I found this post to be helpful when I was doing some research on what bino harnesses are most compatible with a pistol holster and turns out the winner in my book was Sitka's Optic Harness. What really sealed the deal was that it came with two accessory pouches (no other binoharness came with any) and was also MOLLE compatible. I snagged a cheap MOLLE compatible holster from Amazon, threw my glock 19X in, and slapped it onto the right side MOLLE loops of the Sitka harness. I am beyond happy with how it turned out. Despite being a bit of a weird angle I am able to draw quickly and efficiently from the harness all the while the pistol is completely locked down while I'm hiking. Anyway here's a pic of the set up and a link to the holster.

Cheers

Amazon.com : Tactical Right Hand Waist Gun Holster,MOLLE Vest Pistol Holster for Glock 17 19 22 23 31 (Tan, Vest) : Sports & Outdoors

Amazon.com : Tactical Right Hand Waist Gun Holster,MOLLE Vest Pistol Holster for Glock 17 19 22 23 31 (Tan, Vest) : Sports & Outdoors

www.amazon.com