Gateslinger's Leather
Good leather is an investment. Poor quality leather will break and poor finished leather will fade & destruct over time. You've spent good money on your pistols, spend good money on the piece that keeps them in place. Besides, looking good is equally important to good function.
The holster style is important to how you want to shoot. A full-drop style holster (Hollywood invented) has advantages but won't let you shoot Classic Cowboy. There's a great book call Packing Iron- Gunleather of the Frontier West by Rattenburg which shows period correct styles of the Old West that were available. Holster style really matters in terms of speedy draw and keeping the pistol in the leather during movement.
I own two rigs. My first rig I purchased when I was starting out was from Big Ed at San Pedro Saddlery. The holsters are 2-loop Mexican style, strong-side. I shot with a cross-draw holster for about 8 months and then on the advice of Evil Roy dropped it to dual strong-sides. My time and speed improved and I don't need to worry about doing a cross-draw shuffle at the line. It was a great first rig and I still use it from time-to-time. Big Ed does nice work and the prices are good.
My current rig
(shown at the right) was custom ordered from William
Brown Leather Company in Tombstone, AZ. They are great to work
with. I stopped in, had them take measurements for the pistol and shotgun
belts and then spent about a half-hour reviewing the border stamping style,
leather finish color, and accoutrements (silver conchos) I wanted on the
rig. If you go to their website, my holsters have been featured since July
2003. They can build you any holster style of the Packing Iron book that
you like with virtually unlimited options of custom tooling, stamping, conchos,
etc. The rig I ordered is expensive (about $800 for the pistol belt,
holsters, and shotgun belt), but good custom leather is a great investment that
will last for years. Besides, even if I have a horrible match, at least I
did the match with style!
The pistol holsters are patterned from the "Rattler John" style holster rig. History note: Rattler John spent a year or so with the William Brown Leather company designing his own pistol holsters to be quick and effective. Rattler John said he's gone through 5-6 holster designs before coming up with the final version. Evil Roy used essentially the same pattern for his signature rig made by Kirkpatrick except that Kirkpatrick uses a kydex liner to keep the holster shape instead of an extra layer of leather with a different hard glue like WBL does. You can buy the "Evil Roy" rig from Kirkpatrick, but the original concept of the pistol holster was designed by Rattler John. Incidentally, WBL advertise my holsters as Rattler John's holsters in the back of Cowboy and Indians magazine.
My goal with the second rig is to get a fast draw from the hoslter. Note that the trigger guard is exposed. This is really essential for me on my weak-side draw, so I can grab the pistol with my weak hand farther up at the trigger guard and then swing the butt out into my strong-hand palm. The holsters are solid and don't crush, so pistol draw and holstering is quick and secure. I also ordered a matching shotgun belt in configured for 7 two-round loops of 12 guage, 10 single-round loops of 12 guage, and 20 rounds of .38 spc on it.
Pick your rig, pick your style. It's personal preference.