I’ve been pocket carrying small guns for about half a decade now. One problem that comes up with pocket carry is separation. Sometimes, when drawing your pistol, the gun can stay with the holster, and come out of your pocket as one unit. Also, you’ll sometimes have the gun come out and separate just fine from the holster, but the holster will fling out of your pants too. Well, there’s a new product on the market that aims to fix this.
Back in July, Jeff from the Hercules Company reached out about his new product, the Burr System. The Burr System is essentially 3 products that help to alleviate some pocket carry woes. It aims to retain your pocket holster in your pocket when you draw your pistol, and to make sure that you have good separation. I bought the entire Burr System to test, and I actually like it quite a bit.
In this review, I’ll outline what each part of the Burr System does, and my experience using them. However, before I get into the review proper, I do want to discuss my transparency in the reviewing process.
The Burr System was not a product that I was aware of until its creator reached out to me. Jeff offered a set of the Burr System to me, at no charge, in exchange for a review. However, I generally do not take free items in exchange for reviews, as for me, I think that really ruins the professional integrity of the reviewer. My policy on free items is that I will only accept them if I can give them away when I’m done, which is really quite hard to do with the Burr System. As such, I bought my Burr System using my own money.
Now, I do want to state that this is not something that is a slight against Jeff or his company. Companies need to get stuff into the hands of reviewers, and sending out loaner items is a lot less appealing than to give things away. I just don’t want free product to keep, as I think that can taint the waters of integrity.
As a closer for the transparency disclaimer, I was not compensated in any way by Jeff or his company for this review. I paid my own money, full price, for the complete Burr System. With that out of the way, what is the Burr System?
The Burr System is three products, but they are not a holster themselves. Rather, they are accessories that you use on your pocket holster. We’ve got the Burr Skin that adheres onto your pocket holster, the Burr Stick which attaches to the Burr Skin, and the Burr Clamp, which fits over a pocket holster.
Each component is pretty reasonable in price too. The Skin comes in around $15 to $20 bucks depending on your holster. Jeff offers 10 Burr Skin templates right now, with more on the way. The Stick will run you about $10 bucks, and the Clamp is $4 bucks. All of the products are made by Jeff in Colorado, with the skin itself being based around 3M’s grippy velcro.
For my testing, I used my normal Aholster Pocket for my Bodyguard 2.0. This was a holster that works well and has great retention on the gun, but if your technique is lax, you can have some separation issues. Now I do want to preface that the Burr System is not a replacement for proper technique when drawing your gun, but it does make it easier to have separation on the draw.
With that said, let’s get directly into the components themselves.
The Burr Skin is the heart of the system. It is a really simple thing, and I’m shocked that it took this long for someone to bring it to market. The Burr Skin is a sheet of grabby, hook-only Velcro. Its goal is to grab your pocket better, so that when you go to draw the gun, the holster stays behind and the gun leaves.
Jeff has trimmed each sheet to contour your holster, and we attach it using the self adhesive backer on the velcro. I cleaned my holster with isopropyl alcohol before attaching it, and it’s held up quite well, even with heat and sweat getting onto it.
On the liners of my pant pockets, I’ve found the Burr Skin to grab pretty well. I’ve found it to certainly aid my draws, and depending on your pants, this may actually do a lot more lifting than it does for mine. If you had a really slick holster and really open pockets, I could see this being a massive aid for you.
It bears repeating. I’m shocked how simple the Burr Skin is, and I am baffled why it took so long for someone to make it. To me, this is like grip tape or stippling on your handgun itself. It gives more traction, with zero downside on your holster. This is the standout product of the bunch, but I’ve used it in conjunction with the next element quite a lot.
The next product is the Burr Stick. This is an L-shaped piece that you attach to your holster that has the Burr Skin on it. One side is the loop portion of the velcro, and the other is the grabby hook. It has a solid plastic core, which has a little flex to it, which makes it easier to slap it on your holster.
The Burr Stick has two goals: It is there to facilitate better separation of the holster, and to help to alleviate printing.
For the separation, it’s quite simple. The short leg of the Stick acts like a hook, and will catch the seam of your pocket on the draw. For holsters that don’t have a very defined hook on them, this will be really helpful. On my Aholster pocket, I’ve already got a bottom hook, but the Stick still acts as a more positive way to get holster separation.
For the printing, well, I don’t think it really does all that much for me. On my holster, to have the stick in a spot where I can still grip the gun well, it’s not really doing much to alleviate printing. The grip on the Bodyguard is the biggest printing spot in a pocket for me, and the stick really can’t do much about that. I still toss a notepad in my front pocket in front of the gun, which does a better job of hiding it.
For using both the Skin and Stick together, it’s been fantastic. Now like I said earlier, these products will not guarantee that your holster will separate from the gun, as you still need to have some practice with your technique. However, it does make it a lot easier to have good separation, and to keep the holster in your pocket on the draw.
The Stick isn’t essential, but I find it pretty helpful. However, I’ve basically had no use for the final part of the Burr System.
The last part of the Burr System is the Burr Clamp. This is, well, a clamp, and it goes on the bottom of your holster. This is there to better retain the gun in the holster, especially for holsters with a really loose fit for the gun. It’ll also help to keep your gun upright in your pocket, so that it isn’t tilting around.
With my AHolster, the gun is extremely secure in the holster. It’s also thin enough that the clamp doesn’t really stay on it. Jeff did let me know in advance that I’d probably not have much use for it, but I still wanted to highlight it here, as it does have a lot more utility if you are using a soft holster. I’ve used holsters like the Galco Pocket Protector and DeSantis Nemesis in the past, and I think the Burr Clamp would work pretty great on those.
Well, that’s all three components covered. Let’s get into my final thoughts.
The Burr System, and specifically, the Burr Skin, are really noteworthy products. I’m a sucker for stuff that takes a thing that I’m already using, and just makes it a bit better. The Burr System does that to the T, and I really do like it.
If you’ve got a kydex holster that’s compatible with the Burr Skin, I’d recommend it. The Skin alone does a lot to aid in making pocket carry better, and it has no downsides. The Burr Stick could be helpful too, but that really depends on your pockets. I like it a lot, but I could see it not working out for some folks with certain shapes of pocket. The Burr Clamp would be really handy if you use a soft holster. However, for me, it has basically just lived in my holster bin in my office.
I’m really excited to see such a simple yet effective product on the market. I’m hopeful that Jeff is able to expand to more holster options for the Burr Skin in the future. I really, really like this product, and more variety will only make it better.
I have an extremely detailed video review of the Burr System on my YouTube channel. You can find that linked below:
Below are some of our previous reviews of pocket holsters and pocket holster accessories on PrimerPeak:
If you’d like to support me on Patreon, I’ve got the link for that here. Nearly everything that I do on Primer Peak is paid for out of my own pocket, and my content is not shilled or driven by manufacturers or companies. If you decide to donate, I’d really appreciate it, as it would allow for me to continue to bring you quality work.
Big thanks to Jeff with The Hercules Company. I would not be aware of this product if he hadn’t reached out, and I’m quite thankful for that.
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