Welcome back to our NPE carry holsters. Over the past several months I have worked with several Non-Permissive Environment carry holsters. This article is our Crossbreed Pocket Rocket pocket holster review. Let’s dig in.
Full Disclosure: This holster was provided to me by Crossbreed Holsters for the purposes of this review. However, I receive no financial incentive whatsoever for the sale of Crossbreed holsters. The opinions here are mine and mine alone.
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Crossbreed Pocket Rocket Holster
Like most Crossbreed holsters, the Pocket Rocket is a hybrid design. This means it is Kydex on one side and leather on the other. I admit that I am not a big fan of hybrid holsters. The leather portion of belt-carried hybrids eventually loosens up, causing retention issues. I did not think this would be a problem with the Pocket Rocket since it is carried in the pocket.
The leather side of the Pocket Rocket is very stiff. The leather side is backed with a tacky material that does a good job of keeping the holster in the pocket. The Kydex shell is attached to the leather with rivets. This creates hard edges that are extremely conspicuous in the pocket. Initially this was my chief complaint with this holster.
The gun snaps into the shell easily. Retention is a bit mild, as would be expected for a holster that is carried inside the pocket where there is little chance of the gun falling out. The positioning of the gun on the backside of the very stiff leather became my biggest problem with the Crossbreed Pocket Rocket. It is tricky to draw the gun, and very difficult to do so quickly.
Due to the extreme printing of this holster, coupled with the difficulty in drawing from it, I did not carry this holster in public at all for this review. I did carry it for approximately 2 hours around the house.
The Basics
A pocket holster should do several things. Let’s see how the HOLSTER performs in each of these categories.
1. Protect the trigger. The Pocket Rocket does indeed protect the trigger. PASS
2. Keep the gun in a consistent orientation. The Pocket Rocket keeps the gun in a consistent orientation. This is due in equal parts to its rigidity and the very tacky material on the back of the holster. PASS
3. Break up the outline of the gun. The Crossbreed Pocket Rocket does break up the outline of the gun. However, it creates its own, big, ugly outline. the leather is so rigid it looks very conspicuous in a pants-pocket. It draws attention to the gun, which runs counter to what we want a pocket holster to do. FAIL
4. Release the gun cleanly when drawn. When carried as designed, it is difficult to draw the gun. The firing hand can get around the grip because the entire right side of the grip is covered by the leather holster backing. FAIL
5. Protect the pocket from the gun. Protecting clothing from unnecessary wear is one reason for using a pocket holster. with just a bit of around-the-house wear, the sharp edges of the backer were causing a black ring around the margin of the holster. This both made my pants dirty, and indicated that wear was occuring. FAIL
Also, many pocket holsters are ambidextrous. Is this one?
Ambidextrous: NO.
Crossbreed Pocket Rocket Holster
The Crossbreed Pocket Rocket (full review coming soon) has a very unconventional hybrid design. As such I don’t include it in the list of “common pocket holsters.” Due to the design of the holster, it is impossible to have a firing grip on the gun while it is in the pocket. It is also difficult to get the gun out of the holster quickly, with a clean grip. As a result, times were significantly slower than other holsters in this category.
- Hand on Gun draws: 1.76, 2.12, 2.25, 2.81, 2.03, average = 2.19 seconds
- Hands in Fence draws: 3.67, 2.40, 2.89, 2.88, 2.75, average = 2.92 seconds
Average numbers for pocket holsters with more conventional designs are 1.09 seconds (hand on gun) and 1.80 seconds (hands in fence). The Pocket Rocket runs about 1.1 seconds slower in both categories.
My Thoughts
The Crossbreed Pocket Rock isn’t for me. The extreme printing makes it far to conspicuous for my purposes – carry in places where I cannot carry. The positioning of the gun and difficulty drawing it sealed the deal. I did attempt some back pocket carry with slightly better results, but am still not happy with this holster. At $30 it is an inexpensive holster, but you’re only saving $9 over Mika’s Pocket Holster which is, in my opinion, a much better option. Personally, I’d recommend going with a pocket holster from Desantis, Galco, Kramer, or Mika’s over this one.
