The Crossbreed Modular Belly Band Re-Visited

I wrote a review some time ago on the Crossbreed Modular Belly Band, which I bought for use with my Ruger LCR.  I use a belly band almost exclusively as my deep concealment option as I have found it the best way to carry under tucked-in clothing, or while wearing gym cloths.  I found that I could not recommend it because I experienced binding with the hybrid attachable holster, which uses a leather backer and kydex shell.  This holster seems to be susceptible to the downfall of all such hybrids that use leather: over time the leather deforms and can trap the gun.  I have found that the gun sometimes hesitates to come out.

However, the issue remains that this design, incorporating a hard shell holster, is vastly superior to the typical belly band, so I persisted in working with it.  It seems that I was able to overcome the issue by significantly stretching the holster out.  Oddly enough, most other reviews I have read about this system indicate that retention in the holster is not tight enough.  My example has been the opposite, though I seem to have overcome the problem by stretching it out a bit.

The other limitation with this system is that the elastic band does not hold steady as does a good gun belt when drawing the gun, so I find that if the holster has decent retention (which is what we want) the band gives and stretches some along with the drawn gun.  I don’t think there is any getting around this problem, it is simply the nature of an elastic band.  While seemingly awkward at first, with reps you get used to this particular draw stroke.

So, as of now, I don’t know if I can truly recommend it, but I will tell you I am using it because it seems to be the best option out there concerning belly bands.  If Crossbreed dropped the leather backer and used all kydex the product would be as good as it can get.

While the holster shell could use improvement, I will tell you that this setup does a great job of holding the gun and blade that I have affixed to it very securely and it is very comfortable for extended wear.  This band gives me the option of be armed at the gym, while wearing board shorts or sweatpants (I don’t do either very often) or while wearing tucked in, formal clothing.