I’ve been pocket-carrying a Taurus 738 TCP for several months, and as any rational firearms owner will tell you, you don’t pocket-carry without a pocket holster.

There are approximately seventeen million different types of pocket holsters out there.  Heck, even if you limit yourself to the lineup of one manufacturer (DeSantis in this case) they have six different pocket holsters for this particular pistol!  How on Earth are you supposed to narrow it down and pick the best one?

The answer is obvious — forget the “best” one, and just get one that works.  After scouring reviews, and my prior experience, I knew I wanted three main things for this particular application:

1. It had to be small
2. It had to not “print”
3. It had to be cheap

Regarding point 1, I mean, what’s the point of getting the tiniest pocket pistol, if the holster you choose is just going to make it bulky anyway?  A small, thin, sleek holster was definitely high on my shopping list.

As for point 2, go to any gun show, try any of the huge variety of pocket holsters they have, slip the pistol in your pocket and look down at it (or, ideally, in the mirror.)  Every time I did that, I saw “gun”.  The telltale shape is just too obvious to ignore.  Now, in the past, that’s just what we had to live with, but nowadays multiple holster makers are directly addressing the problem, so why not choose from among those that offer anti-printing pocket holsters?

As for point 3 — okay, I don’t normally buy products to be cheap, especially when it comes to firearms; my primary factors are quality and suitability, and the price has to follow.  But — the TCP is a bit of an experiment for me, and frankly, I don’t want to pour a ton of money into an experiment.  The pistol itself was $199, after all.  So I felt that a holster should, ideally, be reasonably inexpensive.  I didn’t need the cheapest thing on the market, but I also didn’t think that $100 would be reasonable for a $199 pistol; I mean, if you have that much to spend, why not spend it on getting a more powerful pistol in the first place?

So after some extensive shopping and narrowing it down among the various candidates, I selected the DeSantis Super Fly.  It hit all three of my criteria nicely: it’s thin and small, making for a very compact package overall.  It has a detachable anti-printing flap.  And, I got it off Amazon for about $30 including free shipping.

TCP in DeSantis Super Fly

Since receiving it, I’ve been using it for pretty much constant daily carry, and my entire review could be summed up with: “thumbs up”.  It works.  It does what it says it will.  The sticky fabric keeps the pistol exactly in place in the pocket, and it’s shaped such that the grip is always perfectly presented; drawing the pistol is effortless.  The trigger is fully covered, and the anti-printing flap does reduce the telltale “gun profile”.  And it’s ambidextrous.

It’s really very good.

TCP in DeSantis Super Fly with anti-printing flap installed

After some continuous wear, I do have to say that the anti-printing flap has become somewhat curved, especially near the bottom right on the picture above, and the net effect is no longer a big square presentation in the pocket (like a wallet or a paperback book) but now it’s a bit more triangular.  Which is not ideal, obviously; it looks a little more like a gun in the pocket now (because what else would you have in your pocket that looks basically triangular?) but I think it’s still vastly more concealed than a traditional holster which easily lets the profile of the handgrip stick out and print.

With or without the anti-printing flap installed, every time I’ve drawn the pistol the holster has stayed in the pocket like it’s supposed to.  However, I’ll admit I’ve rarely taken the anti-printing flap off; with it off the holster becomes downright tiny, but then the shape in the pocket is much more recognizable as a pistol.  I bought the Super Fly specifically because of the anti-printing flap so that’s the way I use it, and I do think it helps hold the pistol in position better with the anti-printing flap installed.

TCP in Desantis Super Fly with anti-printing flap removed

Other than the bending and curving that you’d almost expect to see on the anti-printing flap and the portion below the trigger guard, I can’t really say there’s any other signs of notable wear.  It still looks good, there’s no frayed edges, it’s not coming apart… I mean, really, for $30, it performs great and has held up well and does pretty much exactly what you need.  What more could you want?

I’ll tell you what more I could want.  There’s one thing I wish the Super Fly provided, that it doesn’t, and that’s a convenient way to carry a second magazine.  DeSantis makes a different holster, the Ammo Nemesis, which includes a pocket for a second mag, but it doesn’t have the anti-printing flap and it looks like it just takes up a lot more room in the pocket than I’d like.  The Super Fly is so small it fits easily in my blue jeans front pocket.  I’ve got other pistols and holsters that won’t, and require Dockers or cargo pants, but the TCP/Super Fly combo easily fits in any pants or shorts that I’ve got.  I just wish it had a provision to carry a spare mag.  As it is, I’ll probably work out something with Velcro and a commercial magazine pouch to come up with my own solution.

If I had it to do over again, would I buy the Super Fly again?  Maybe.  Not that there’s anything wrong with it, but the Recluse has caught my eye and I might consider it over the Super Fly if I was buying from scratch.  I haven’t tried the Recluse, so I don’t really know, but I like the Recluse’s trigger block and its built-in magazine pouch and anti-printing design.  It’s 60% more expensive than the Super Fly, so that’s a factor, but I also prefer the two-sided coverage of the Super Fly over the one-sided coverage of the Recluse, so … I don’t know.  I think if the Super Fly does ever wear out, I might replace it with a Recluse.  Until then, I’m quite content with the Super Fly, it does the job and does it very well.