When I first saw the Alien Gear ShapeShift holster system, I thought it would be great for backpacking. Unfortunately, Alien Gear does not produce a holster for my Beretta, so I parked that idea.

When I bought my Sig Sauer P938, I checked the Alien Gear website and was very pleased to find they made a holster for it. In the package, there was a desk/dashboard mount that I adapted for use on my hammock ridge line.

I made a small wooden block that screws to the Alien Gear mount, and it has a slight groove to grip the ridge line. It works perfectly.

The above pictures show the ridge line mount in detail on my Hammock Gear Circadian hammock, which has a larger diameter line than the Chameleon hammock featured in the images at the top of the page. I probably should have made the groove bigger to match the line, but it still works well a year later (2025).

The complete ShapeShift system included another holster mount, which can be fitted on my backpack’s hip belt. I made a minor modification to the paddle, adding an elastic retention cord. The retention cord ensures the holster doesn’t come off the hip belt if my pack gets turned upside down.

The same holster mount transfers to my pants belt when I’m not wearing my pack.

I also discovered that I could modify my existing Blackhawk Sherpa retention holster for my Beretta to take the Alien Gear mount. So now I’m free to carry whichever gun I want without changing the hardware that’s attached to me or my gear.

I’ve also realized that with a little bit of engineering I can use the same mount for my camera. Because of the way the mount works, that might work a lot better than my Peak Design Camera clip when I’m carrying bigger lenses. I’m going to have to give it a try.

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