Left and Right California Holsters

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

At page 76 of PACKING IRON it states that the California pattern was produced in both right- and left-hand configurations in about equal numbers.

I have wondered about this statement as left-handers make up about 10 to 15% of folks, generally.

Now, Californians were mostly miners, grubbing around in the dirt.  Where do you hang your pistol while you are wading in a creek with a shovel and pan, or kneeling down picking great big nuggets out of your pan.  Surely not anywhere in front of your hip-bones!

My theory is that a choice for a miner is to carry your revolver over your kidney, in a small-of-the-back location.  A right-hander can easily reach back and draw from a holster with the butt toward the front.  Does anyone have any evidence, for, or against my theory.

[Rancid Roy]

A possible supposition Senor.

I suspect [I have no real proof] that the reason for the existence of many "left-side" holsters is that until the advent of cartridge handguns pair of Colts or Remingtons was carried by quite a few folks who "carried" in seriousness.

Also, most of the pictures I have seen of miners [waterborne types on the creek bank] show them not armed at all. Wearing a handgun, or two, and slinging a pick or digging a ditch wiht a shovel is a bit challenging.

Then there is the famous studio pic of the founder of Tombstone armed with a heavy barreled Sharps and two Smith and Wessons in butt-forward, form-fitted holsters. And he might have worn them when he was mining because he was mining in Apacheria, supposedly alone.