Guns: Side Guard Holsters review - Tuck Snap IWB holster

Many inside-the-waistband holsters have wide attachment points that help distribute the weight of a gun along a belt:

The downside of the wide-body, dual-strap design is its bulk; all that extra material is overkill if you're toting a small gun like an Airweight J-frame. For that kind of handgun, I like going with a smaller, more minimalist IWB - in this case, the Tuck Snap IWB from Side Guard Holsters.

The SG Tuck Snap uses a single flap with a metal-snap loop to attach to the belt. The holster is "tuckable" (you can tuck a shirt in with your gun on your belt), as the flap is only attached to the holster at the bottom:

The enlarged holster mouth protects the side of your body from getting chafed by the gun, and the holster body protects the muzzle of the gun. The build quality is fairly high on the SG Tuck Snap. Here's a shot of the stitching and boning on the back of the holster:

The Tuck Snap is comfortable on the hip, and conceals easily with an untucked shirt or covering garment. As with most tuckable holsters, the feasibility of tucking your shirt over the gun will depend on the size of the handgun, your shirt, and how much printing you can tolerate.

The Tuck Snap retained my J-Frames well...almost too well. The holster grips the gun so tightly that if you don't push the holster off with your thumb, it'll come out with the gun, hindering your draw. This is exacerbated by the tuckable belt loop; instead of staying on the belt, the whole darn holster flops out.

My normal draw stroke incorporates a thumb break/sweep, so it's not a big deal, but it's something that might trip up the unwary. Even with this drawback, the Tuck Snap is a good holster, and gets the Shangrila Towers seal of approval.