VIPER PRODUCTS

Viper holsters have been around in one form or another since the early 1990’s. In the beginning Jim Cohen designed and built the locking trigger mechanism and Colin Maag did the enclosing leather work.  Jim at that time was a gunsmith with his own business building and repairing guns for IPSC, Action Match and Service Match.  Colin did leatherwork making belts, holsters and mag pouches and other leather products.

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Jim and Colin both took a step away from shooting for a while.

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When he returned to the sport and no longer a gunsmith, Jim started working on the holster again with a new enthusiasm to better the design.  With all the makes and models out there means each design is different.  He has also come up with designs for magazine and speed loader pouches.  All the work is done in his workshop in Capalaba on Brisbane’s Bayside.  Nothing is injection moulded, everything is machine engineered. 

A VIPER Holster starts as a piece of round black ACETAL cut to size the ends are faced off on the lathe, then slabbed down on the mill.  Edges are constantly being cleaned off so everything is smooth and measurements are exact, depending on the holster it might stay on this mill or go to the CNC machine for more work.  The flipper also starts out being a round piece of Acetal that is slabbed down.  The flipper is one of the most important pieces of the VIPER Holster design as each brand of gun is unique. The machining for this has to be exact so after the slabbing, most of the work is done on the CNC machine.  Jim has designed all the programmes for the CNC machine and is constantly improving his designs for the holsters and pouches or the programme for the machine.  The aluminium is bought as bar stock or square channel and cut then machined for the belt hangers, magnet holders or revolver lengths.  The VIPER name is engraved on the small jewellers CNC machine using a programme Jim designed.