Holster design and short arms...

[TwoWalks Baldridge]

The doubling for length also applies to cant also, to add 15deg you must add it on each side of the fold or insert a 30deg wedge at the fold.  Guys and guns are a personal thing and what works for one will never necessarily make another person happy.  Amonst those who shoot competitively in my area, the most common style holsters will look very much like the Kirkpatrick Long Hunter model and have considerable more drop than I like but most of those guys shoot circles around me!

When I cut down the mouth of a Slim Jim, add a filler and flare out the top of the belt loop, in my mind and personal experience it is just as fast  (for me anyway) as a competition holster and yet still retains the natural simple beauty of the original designs.  As holsters developed they simple grew from and expanded on the earlier California Slim Jims so we can always retrofit what we want from the later developments back into the original design and, to some degree, maintain the integrity of the original appearance.  Now think about it, Ill bet there were plenty of guys around in the early/middle 1800s who had short arms and long pistols and made it work.  I even think the nick name 'Shorty" must have been coined in the old west, at least that was what Marty Robins led me to believe!    

Great observations, thanks.  As far as the short armed fellow with a 8 inch barrel in the early to mid 1800's.  They probably handled it the same way I always have ... using the twist draw or cavalry draw.  I did not even think about it being a problem until some organizations have fits over that style draw. 

In my strange way of thinking and seeing ... I don't think most folks in the early to mid 1800's thought about fast drawing, shooting and holstering one firearm and then drawing the next.  Slow and deliberate was probably more the norm and I can do that with the long barrel and conventional carry, so it is more the speed issue.

[WaddWatsonEllis]

Your last part made me think about an article about the average Texas Ranger... that they were taught to let the Rube they were going after expend all the shells in his pistol in a wicked fast but very innaccurate spraying of bullets ... meanwhile the Texas Ranger brought his gun out, took a two handed grip on the pistol and fired once but effectively.....

I also want to add in about cants; the 30 degrees is the maximum angle, including belt angle. If there be uh, excessive avoirdupois, a belt can angle down 10-15 degrees. So when Will Ghormley made my first holsters, a double butt forward rig, he set the holsters at 20 degrees to give me a little slop in case my belt 'drooped'a bit in front ...

[Slowhand Bob]

Just some thoughts or observations on the long barl guns and how to unlimber them reasonably quick.  The most logical reason for the reverse draw was to allow the, even longer, saber to ride on the off side for that long extraction.  After the war many would probably have retained the reverse draw because that was what they had become accustomed to for the pistol AND if the military used it, it must be the right way!  Despite old Wild Bill, I have tried to practice with the reverse draw and find that it  uncomfortable on the joints and requires an extra step added to the sequence and extra steps are time killers under the clock.  All said and done I am still not convinced that Wild Bill was a real fast shootist.

If you can find some old photos of the Civil War era irregulars,primarily Confederate, you will see that many of them tended to prefer the cross draw style for those long barls.  If across the body worked for 20+ inches of blade, then surely it would work even better fer 8 inches of barl.  I have seen several of these pictures through the years showing three guns mounted all the way across the mans front and all guns presented in a cross draw fashion.  The problem with this is that we modern shooters are bound by SASS rules and safety guidelines.  About the closest we can get is a single cross draw paired with a strong hand crotch rocket but we have also moved away from the long barls to a great extent. 

[TwoWalks Baldridge]

I also want to add in about cants; the 30 degrees is the maximum angle, including belt angle. If there be uh, excessive avoirdupois, a belt can angle down 10-15 degrees.

Wadd Watson Ellis, I had not thought about that ... I would need a 10 degree reverse cant to equalize the belt droop for a net gain of 30 degrees. 

Slow and deliberate was probably the lesson of the day.

If you can find some old photos of the Civil War era irregulars,primarily Confederate, you will see that many of them tended to prefer the cross draw style for those long barrels.  If across the body worked for 20+ inches of blade, then surely it would work even better fer 8 inches of barrel.  I have seen several of these pictures through the years showing three guns mounted all the way across the mans front and all guns presented in a cross draw fashion.  The problem with this is that we modern shooters are bound by SASS rules and safety guidelines.  About the closest we can get is a single cross draw paired with a strong hand crotch rocket but we have also moved away from the long barls to a great extent.

Slowhand Bob I know my preference is a cross draw for long barrels and a knife sheath on the strong hand side.  In the real world I only carry one revolver and use the knife far more.  SASS rules are good rules for safety, even when they take away from history.  After all, how many working cowboys carried two revolvers, 1 rifle and 1 shotgun?  If SASS were only after historically correct, then the matches would consist of:
A. One revolver and one rifle (working cowboy)
B. One revolver and one shotgun (sodbuster)
C. Two Revolvers, 1 rifle or 1 shotgun (shootist)

Sure would be a whole lot less expensive for new folks ... especially in this economy.