Really Miles? Another Kydex whopdeedoo holster has hit the market? Never mind I can make the things in my garage with a couple of presses and a heater, now I have to find another excuse to shell out for this thing that is apparently so special and unique from every other Kydex contraption on the market?

Yes. This is a Kydex holster review, similar to every other Kydex holsters out on the market. And yes, I am going to say why I think this company does things differently from other Kydex makers out there on the market.

Black Rhino Concealment is a small Veteran owned (Marine Infantrymen) business out of Gilberts, Illinois. I don’t think they have more than five or eight guys within the company, working on the holsters they produce at any one time. I first ran into them at Bullpup 2016 and was really intrigued by their holsters and their pancake wing attachment (now, I know they aren’t the only company using pancake wings, but they are the first one that I encountered with them). Curious, I went ahead and ordered one of their light bearing models for my Sig Saur P229 with a Streamlight TLR-1 attached. I was so impressed with their “Pancake” belt attachment loops that I actually ordered two sets of the loops for two of my other Kydex holsters. Anyways, their current product line is a standard outside the waistband holster for $70, same design but with a light for around $75, Trigger Guard style for around $20, a dedicated Inside the Waistband holster for $60, Single magazine carriers for $25, and finally Double magazine carriers for $40. Their standard with light/without holsters all come with their pancake wing belt attachment, in addition to some IWB clips that allow the OWB to be converted to an IWB. All these products come with the ability to pick from a 0/10/15 degree cant, a wide variety of colors and textures, right or left handed, and an extremely wide variety of firearms.

Customer Service

These guys were quick. So quick they sent the holster to my billing address in DC and not my physical address in Indiana. I wasn’t annoyed at all though, honestly it was probably my wrong input of the address. But I made the order on a Sunday, and the holster was being shipped out on a Monday or Tuesday. So turn around time for customer service was around a day or two to get everything made and shipped out. Similar deal with the pancake wing belt attachment sets that I bought for $20 (essentially $15 for two sets and then $5 for shipping, compare this to buying just one set for $20 from Raven Concealment). These are not for sale on their website, but if you just give them a call, they’ll get your order sorted for as many as you want.

90/10 Mold

So one of the two things that got me really excited about their design was this thing they call the 90/10 mold that is incorporated into all of their holsters. Before I explain it myself, I’ll let their website description do it justice-

The Tactical Carrier System holster or TCS is an all purpose Kydex holster. The curvature is unlike any other design and stems from a 90/10 mold. 10% of the gun sits on the inside of the curve while the other 90% sits outside. This allows the holster to be worn very tight against the body resulting not only in better comfort but better concealment.

Essentially what they are doing is bending the ends of the holster in much closer to contour with the waistline, then adding the pancake wing attachments to create an even more flush surface. By doing this, they are pushing the firearm placement outwards from the body, and allowing more of your waistline to fit into the holster, instead of a traditional Kydex holster where the holster is actually pressing into your waist. The whole set up makes for an extremely flush fit around the curvature of your body in both cases of an IWB and an OWB form. How they get the 10 percent on the inside and 90 percent on the outside is something I’m not entirely sure of, I’d probably have to get a Kydex person to explain it much better. But whatever they are doing, it certainly works.

My holster came with the holster, Pancake wings found on all their OWB products, and some IWB clips if I wanted to convert it.

Pancake Wing Belt Attachment

As I mentioned previously, they certainly aren’t the only or the first Kydex maker to utilize these attachments, but they are the first maker that I came across to use them, before seeing other companies with it. The idea is absolutely brilliant and I don’t know why more companies don’t utilize it. The wings allow for a much tighter fit to the body than a standard rectangular belt attachment device. Although this device would probably work better on a standalone duty belt or similar contraption, the Pancake attachments are just great for concealed wear. Now bear in mind, that if you wanted to use these Pancake wings on a traditional flat Kydex holster, it isn’t going to work as well as if you had it on Black Rhino’s, but it is certainly going to be much more concealable than the regular box loops that came with it. This is because the holster itself is flat and thus has a tendency to keep its shape against your body, unlike their 90/10 mold that curves around your body.

On a traditional Kydex holster, notice how the holster is pushing into you, see how the belt is being pushed out by the holster itself.

Notice how much deeper that traditional loop sticks out, than the Pancake.

But it still helps it conceal it much more.

Tightness

I know there are a lot of people out there who are concerned about the finish of their gun and holster wear, markings, etc… This holster is tight, really tight coming out of their shop. To the point of shaving a good amount of Kydex with the holstering of the firearm. But I like it, and I’m concerned with what it does to the finish of my pistol because I have it for self defense, I’m not worried about selling it for a good price later on, the thing is tool, not a diamond necklace. I will add that because of my particular handgun, a Sig P229, there is an issue with the decocker knob sometimes getting caught up on the little indent in the Kydex that was made for it. You can see it in the pictures of where the metal has actually rubbed off on the Kydex. This isn’t a safety issue at all, in that the gun won’t be decocked when holstered, just an indication of the tightness of it.

Another neat feature is that the Pancake wings allow the holster to work better with belt loops, holding the holster itself in better place.

Choice of belt

I typically wear a leather Galco belt at all times, but I would absolutely recommend a nylon or tactical like material of a belt to be worn with their holster. Because it is so tight, the leather and the plastic attachments make an extremely annoying creaking noise whenever I’m walking with the holster on. I put a Cobra style belt on and the creaking went away because that belt wasn’t made out of leather. This belt isn’t a problem with my typical IWB Kydex I have for my S&W Shield, but just as a cautionary note, don’t count on not making a lot of noise if you normally wear a thick leather belt with one of these holsters.

Top notch is for the slide release, bottom is for the decocker, both of some metal rubbing off on them.

Function/Draw

Function was great, the pistol locked up tight whenever I holstered it, and I’ve not had any problems with drawing the handgun from the holster. I will say that the decocker sometimes gets in the way with the Kydex, because it sticks out just enough to make holstering a tidbit burdensome, but this really isn’t an issue at all. I’d also imagine that all Sigs might have this problem in any Kydex holster that has the Kydex come up to the height that it does on this one.

Mine has a 10 degree cant.