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Ruger LCP Holsters

Custom Kydex Ruger LCP Holsters

Almost everything else we press for is heavy enough to stay where you put it. The LCP is not. It weighs less than a phone, and that single fact rewrites what a holster for it has to do — there is no mass helping the shell keep the pistol seated, and no belt involved at all if it is living in a front pocket.

So we build these differently. Not smaller versions of a waistband holster, but shells designed around the way people actually carry the lightest pistol Ruger makes.

Build Your LCP Holster
LCP or LCP Max?
Tan Kydex Triton Series IWB holster by Neptune Concealment

.380

Both of them
The cartridge is the one thing the LCP and the LCP Max genuinely have in common.

6+1

LCP capacity
Single stack, single column, and a grip that most hands do not entirely fit around.

10+1

LCP Max capacity
A double-stack .380. Taller and thicker in the grip, and a separate mold because of it.

Pocket

Where most of these live
Which makes the shell an outline-breaking, trigger-covering job rather than a belt-mounted one.

Pick Your Variant

The Max Is Not a Trim Level

Ruger has sold several pistols under the LCP name over the years and the important split is between the original single stack and the LCP Max. The Max is not a nicer LCP — it is a redesign around a double-column magazine, which made the grip both taller and thicker. On a pistol this small that is a great deal of difference.

Your RugerWhat sets it apartOrder this
LCPThe original single stack. Slim, minimal sights, about as small as a .380 gets.Ruger LCP
LCP MaxDouble-stack magazine, taller and thicker grip, better sights as standard.Ruger LCP Max
LCP with an extended magazineAdds grip below the frame. The shell never reaches it.Ruger LCP
LCP Max with the 12-round magazineSame story, further down. Order on the pistol, not the magazine.Ruger LCP Max
Ruger Max-9A 9mm on a different frame with a milled slide. Not part of this family.See the Max-9 page

Quickest way to tell them apart without a tape measure: drop the magazine and look at it end on. A single column of rounds is the LCP; a staggered double column is the Max. The grip height difference is obvious once you have both in front of you and impossible to judge from memory.

Cross-Fit

Why Light Changes the Rules

Most cross-fit questions in this catalogue are about dimensions. On the LCP the recurring theme is mass, because there is so little of it that the usual physics stop helping.

FirearmShares this shell?What to order
LCP Max in an LCP shellNoThe double-stack grip is taller and thicker. It fouls the shell before the pistol ever seats.
Pocket carry in a moulded shellYesWhat the pattern is designed around. The shell breaks up the outline and stays put when the gun leaves.
Appendix carry with a wedgeYesWorks, though there is little grip for a claw to lever against. Ride height does most of the work.
Extended baseplate magazinesYesThey add grip below the frame, which is exactly where no shell makes contact.
A weapon light or laserAsk usSome LCPs wear an integral laser. Tell us before we press, because it sits inside the shell line.
A red dotNoNothing in this family ships with a cut, and milling a slide this small is not a sensible path.

The pocket row deserves the emphasis. A shell for pocket carry has a different job from a waistband one: it must stay in the pocket when the pistol comes out, rather than coming along for the ride. That is achieved through the shape of the shell and the friction of the material, not by a clip, and it is why we would rather press a pocket pattern than sell you an IWB shell to drop in a pocket.

Pocket or waistband?

It genuinely changes what we build. Tell us where it will live and which of the two LCPs you own.

Start Your LCP Build
Carry Style

Carrying the Lightest Ruger

This pistol gets carried in places others do not go, largely because you stop noticing it within an hour. These are the builds that suit it.

LCP Pocket Carry

The classic answer. The shell covers the trigger, breaks up the outline and stays behind when the gun draws.
Shop IWB

LCP Appendix IWB

Almost nothing to conceal, so ride height and a wedge do more here than a claw ever could.
Shop IWB

LCP Backup Carry

Ankle and off-body use is common with a pistol this light. Tell us the position and the shell is cut for it.
Shop IWB

LCP Mag Carriers

A single-stack .380 stick and a double-stack Max magazine are different bodies entirely.
Shop Mag Pouches
Sights & Lasers

What Hangs Off an LCP, and What Does Not

Black carbon fiber Kydex inside-the-waistband holster with a single belt clip

There is no accessory rail on this family and no factory optic cut, so the equipment conversation is short. It is not empty, though, because some of these pistols left the factory with a laser already attached:

  • Integral Crimson Trace and Viridian laser units fitted to certain LCP models
  • Factory sights on the LCP, which are minimal and sit low
  • The taller, more usable sights on the LCP Max, including tritium front sights
  • No rail-mounted lights, because there is no rail on any of them

If your LCP has a laser on it, say so before anything is pressed. Those units sit alongside the frame and inside the line the shell follows, so they are not an accessory the Kydex can ignore — the pistol and the laser get formed as one shape or the shell does not close properly.

Everything else here is refreshingly simple. No optic heights to account for, no plate systems, no rail bodies to name.

Ask About a Laser-Equipped LCP
Recommended Builds

Three Builds for an LCP

Tell us which of the two pistols you have and where it will be carried. On this one, position changes the build more than it does anywhere else.

Triteia Series custom Kydex IWB holster by Neptune Concealment

Triteia Series IWB Holster

$60

Short-slide specialist with a reinforced mouth, which matters when there is barely enough pistol to grip on the way back in.

Build the Triteia
Slim Carry by TWAW custom Kydex IWB holster by Neptune Concealment

Slim Carry by TWAW IWB Holster

$60

Cut for genuinely slim pistols worn under minimal cover. A natural match for a single-stack .380.

Build the Slim Carry
Black carbon fiber Kydex inside-the-waistband single magazine pouch with a metal clip

Single Mag Pouch IWB

$25

Formed to the magazine you carry. The LCP stick and the double-stack Max magazine grip at different points entirely.

Add a Mag Pouch
Compare

LCP vs LCP Max

One cartridge, two pistols, and a grip that changed shape entirely between them.

Ruger LCPRuger LCP Max
Cartridge.380 ACP.380 ACP
MagazineSingle stackDouble stack
Flush capacity6+110+1
Grip heightShorterTaller
Grip thicknessSlimmerThicker
ShellIts own patternIts own pattern

The two grip rows are the ones that decide it. Everything a holster grips on a pistol this small is close to the frame, so a grip that grew in two directions at once is not something a shell can absorb. People assume the Max is the same gun with a longer magazine because that is how the naming reads. It is not — Ruger redesigned around the double-column magazine, and we press the two as separate patterns.

Why Neptune

Pressing for a Pistol That Weighs Nothing

A very light pistol is harder to hold still than a heavy one, which is the opposite of what most people expect. Here is what that changes on our bench:

  • Retention set by the shape of the shell rather than by tension alone, because there is not enough mass here for friction to do the work.
  • Pocket patterns designed to stay in the pocket on the draw, which is a property of the shell shape rather than of any hardware.
  • Separate bucks for the LCP and the LCP Max, since a grip that grew in height and width is not a variation we would try to split the difference on.

Heat-formed one shell at a time in Middle Tennessee by a veteran-run bench. Carrying the 9mm as well? See the Max-9 page, or the full Ruger range.

Kydex sheet colour and texture samples on the Neptune Concealment workbench
FAQ

Ruger LCP Holster Questions

No, and the difference is bigger than the naming suggests. The LCP Max was redesigned around a double-column magazine, which made the grip both taller and noticeably thicker than the original single stack. On a pistol this small there is no spare tolerance anywhere, so a Max fouls an LCP shell before it seats properly. We press both as separate patterns. Drop the magazine and look at it end on if you are unsure which you own.
It is the position we build for most on this pistol, and the reason is the draw rather than the carry. A soft pocket holster will often come out of the pocket with the gun, which is exactly the moment you cannot afford it. A moulded shell holds its shape, covers the trigger completely, and is designed to stay behind when the pistol leaves. It also breaks up the outline in the pocket, which a floppy sleeve does not do well.
Yes, and it needs mentioning before we press anything. Some LCPs shipped with an integral Crimson Trace or Viridian unit that sits alongside the frame, inside the line that the shell follows. That is not an accessory the Kydex can simply clear — the pistol and the laser have to be formed as a single shape, or the shell will not close correctly and retention will be inconsistent. Tell us the make of the unit at checkout.
Yes, and most people should. The extended baseplate adds grip below the frame, which is the one region no holster we build makes contact with, so the pistol draws and reholsters identically. It is worth having on a pistol whose grip is shorter than most hands. The only thing it changes is the magazine pouch, so say which baseplate you carry if you are adding one.
Not sensibly, and we would talk you out of it. Nothing in the LCP family ships with a factory optic cut, and milling a slide this small to accept one leaves very little metal and changes the balance of a pistol whose entire appeal is being unnoticeable. If you want a dot on a small Ruger, the Max-9 arrives from the factory already cut for it and is the better starting point.
No. The Max-9 is a 9mm on a different frame with a factory-milled slide and an optional thumb safety, and it is a larger pistol in every respect. The two get confused because Ruger used Max in both names. If your pistol is chambered in .380 and has no cut in the top of the slide, you are on the right page; if it is a 9mm with a plate or a dot on the slide, the Max-9 page covers it.
Yes, priced the same, and properly reversed rather than assembled backwards. Set the Hand field to Left. This applies to pocket builds as much as waistband ones, because a pocket shell is shaped to sit correctly in one pocket or the other rather than being symmetrical. Tell us which pocket you intend to use it in.
An LCP build is $60 and magazine carriers start at $25. Every shell is formed after the order arrives, on a bench window of ten to fourteen business days. Say which of the two pistols you own and where it will ride, because pocket and waistband builds are different shells rather than one shell with different clips.

Build Your Ruger LCP Holster

Tell us whether it is the LCP or the Max, where it will be carried and which hand. A pistol this light needs the shell doing the work.

Configure Your LCP Holster
Ask About Pocket Carry

More fitment: all Ruger holsters · holsters by firearm brand · Ruger Max-9 holsters

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