Let’s review some of the classic designs of
elder statesman John Bianchi’s holsters.
Note thumb-break. This one holds S&W Combat Masterpiece .38.
Monrovia, California, police officer John Bianchi was a gun enthusiast for whom it was hard to find a holster exactly right, a problem exacerbated by the fact he was left handed. He started crafting his own in his garage and, before long, the pace would soon change his life. The year was 1958.
The rest, of course, is handgunning history. The Bianchi factory put the community of Temecula, California, on the maps of shooters everywhere. There were Bianchi police duty holsters and concealment rigs, military holsters and outdoor holsters, cowboy holsters (before cowboy action shooting became popular), and match holsters. According to Reese Riggles, it was John Bianchi who coined a term for it all — Gunleather.
Bianchi Classics
There are way too many holsters produced under the Bianchi banner to cover them all in a 1,000-word column. Heck, there’s barely space to touch the high points.
1960 was the year the X15 was introduced, the most famous and ubiquitous of modern butt-up shoulder holsters. Capable of carrying a 4" .357 Combat Magnum, or a 1911A1 .45 and pretty much anything in between, it was comfortable to wear thanks to a shoulder harness made of soft leather and softer elasticized fabric. The spring-closed leather holster held everything tight to the body for remarkably effective concealment of a full-size fighting handgun, and the draw was surprisingly fast. Stacy Keach, as the title character of TV’s Mike Hammer series, wore his .45 auto in an X15.
The ’70s proved to be the dominance decade for Bianchi, and 1971 saw the introduction of the Model 27 Break-Front duty rig. Somewhat resembling the old Berns-Martin front draw, it was more secure and better made, and it became the defining “police security holster” of the period, vaulting the company into the position of market leader. Two personal friends of mine owe their lives to the refusal of the B27 to yield their weapon to determined attackers who caught them by surprise. John Bianchi reportedly won a “Patent Lawyer Inventor of the Year” award for the Model 27. In ’75, Bianchi bought the original Berns-Martin company, and produced a modernized variation of their famous old Lightning shoulder holster, too.
The rest, of course, is handgunning history. The Bianchi factory put the community of Temecula, California, on the maps of shooters everywhere. There were Bianchi police duty holsters and concealment rigs, military holsters and outdoor holsters, cowboy holsters (before cowboy action shooting became popular), and match holsters. According to Reese Riggles, it was John Bianchi who coined a term for it all — Gunleather.
Bianchi Classics
There are way too many holsters produced under the Bianchi banner to cover them all in a 1,000-word column. Heck, there’s barely space to touch the high points.
1960 was the year the X15 was introduced, the most famous and ubiquitous of modern butt-up shoulder holsters. Capable of carrying a 4" .357 Combat Magnum, or a 1911A1 .45 and pretty much anything in between, it was comfortable to wear thanks to a shoulder harness made of soft leather and softer elasticized fabric. The spring-closed leather holster held everything tight to the body for remarkably effective concealment of a full-size fighting handgun, and the draw was surprisingly fast. Stacy Keach, as the title character of TV’s Mike Hammer series, wore his .45 auto in an X15.
The ’70s proved to be the dominance decade for Bianchi, and 1971 saw the introduction of the Model 27 Break-Front duty rig. Somewhat resembling the old Berns-Martin front draw, it was more secure and better made, and it became the defining “police security holster” of the period, vaulting the company into the position of market leader. Two personal friends of mine owe their lives to the refusal of the B27 to yield their weapon to determined attackers who caught them by surprise. John Bianchi reportedly won a “Patent Lawyer Inventor of the Year” award for the Model 27. In ’75, Bianchi bought the original Berns-Martin company, and produced a modernized variation of their famous old Lightning shoulder holster, too.
There's More Handguns in
the April issue...
• Pocket Perfection
• Time Marches On
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