Reasonable Holster Expectations

Before I tear into this rant (and yes, it’s going to be a rant), let me make a couple of qualifying statements up front in the hope of alleviating some of the BS crap people will throw back because they disagree with me but can’t articulate a good reason why.

First qualifying statement: As this rant was spawned by reading a dogpile attack on the Blackhawk SERPA holster system on Facebook, much of it will seem like a defense of said holster system. Before someone accuses me of being in Blackhawk’s pocket, working for them, being contracted by them, etc. let me make this clear: I am not employed or contracted by Blackhawk, its ownership (Vista Outdoor), its employees, etc. On ONE previous occasion I was contracted by Blackhawk to write a white paper for them pending the release of a new product – and that had nothing to do with holsters.

Second qualifying statement: I’m not a salesman for Blackhawk or anyone else. I don’t sell a damned thing except my sparkling personality. I use – day to day in my personal and professional capacities – what I have tested and found to work to my satisfaction. My testing usually goes beyond what the manufacturers (of anything) SAY a product will take. I am of the firm belief that if you put a police officer (or a soldier) in a closet with a bowling ball, the bowling ball will come out broken or pregnant. EVERYTHING is a hammer unless it’s long and thin… then it’s a pry bar. We SUCK at taking care of our gear but we demand our gear take care of us. So that’s what I test for and yes, I’ve sent several boxes of broken parts back to manufacturers with a report on what I did to break their stuff and an explanation as to how they can improve it before I give it any editorial.

Third qualifying statement: I don’t write negative reviews. Call me arrogant, but publishing a bad review on a website that gets over 1.2 million unique visitors each month is akin to having Oprah say your book sucks. You still get tons of free exposure. I’m not doing that. If I publish a review, it details information about the product, what it’s supposed to do, what I proved it would do, and what I did beyond that to see if it would stand up to the abuse.

Fourth qualifying statement: I’m a military veteran with seven years of service and an honorable discharge. I’ve served in three MOS positions: Military Police, Infantry and Engineers. Additionally, I’ve been a police officer (and still am) since 1985 and have done patrol, training, admin, SWAT and investigations. Currently I’m assigned training duties but I maintain my SWAT quals as well. Every now and then my Chief taps me to perform an administrative function (usually because it’s short notice and he knows he’ll never get it done in time). I have been a certified firearms instructor, both through my home state AND the NRA, since 1994 (that’s 23 years now). I have been a certified police instructor since 1989 (28 years). I have trained thousands of officers from cities, counties, states, private agencies and more. I have trained beside members of the Department of Defense / Military and federal agencies.

Fifth qualifying statement: Only YOU can decide what requirements you have of YOUR holster and make an appropriate selection based on YOUR needs. Just like your weapon selection, your holster should be one that you are confident in, comfortable wearing and competent in drawing/presenting from. If YOU choose YOUR holster based on someone else’s statements, needs and requirements then YOU get exactly what you asked for: a holster that is perfectly suited for someone else.

Sixth (and last) qualifying statement: If YOU work hard enough, no matter how good the design of your holster or handgun is, YOU can make one or both not function properly. That said, quite often the handgun and/or holster are working perfectly and the problem is the nut behind the bolt (that being you).

With those six qualifying statements in mind, I’d like to discuss holsters. Across the span of the past three plus decades, I’ve “enjoyed” using a wide variety of holsters in various designs and materials. I remember – not so fondly – when holsters were made exclusively of leather with snaps and metal springs (for retention holsters in law enforcement) or simply leather and sometimes elastic for off-duty or plain clothes use. Holsters have come a long way since then starting with the nylon holster boom in the mid- to late-nineties, growing into the heavy use of kydex and on into carbon fiber or other polycarbonate materials so frequently in use today. For all of the strengths of the reinforced polymer designs, due to the evolution of handguns and accessories for same, the custom kydex market has once again exploded and is going strong.

Just as when buying a handgun, if you’re selecting/buying a holster, you should have already identified your needs and requirements. For many, this isn’t an option. A police agency selects its handgun and then a holster to go with it. Quite often the agency will select a holster from the same manufacturer they’ve been using for years with the same retention features so the officers are already familiar with them. For law enforcement agencies and military operations, a Level III retention holster is considered “best,” but some agencies go with a Level II retention holster.

That is radically different from the Concealed Carry Weapons permit holder who picks a holster to fit their weapon – quite often without having sufficient knowledge of holster design, features, operations, etc. To compound this challenge, the shooter/CCW holder quite often doesn’t have a background in any type of conflict operations or management and, therefore, their only exposure to weapon/holster knowledge is what they’ve received from a single source: the instructor who initially qualified them for their CCW.

Now, here is where I run into a bit of a challenge.  Before you take offense at any of the following, please refer back to qualifying statement four. Today we see a plethora of instructors offering their services to the market and the majority of them are good instructors. That said, being a good instructor doesn’t mean that your opinion on every topic related to carrying a firearm is valid for everyone (any more than mine is). Every opinion and/or training point has to be considered from the end user’s standpoint, and as we’ve just said, many of those end users don’t know enough to know any better.

What do I mean? Let me pick on a man who I have ultimate respect for and, honestly, don’t consider myself near in the same league as: Massad Ayoob. I had the opportunity to stand beside Massad some years ago (at a writers’ conference held at the Sig Academy in NH) for the purpose of a shooting competition.  Me… against Massad Ayoob.  I stood the line, ready and waiting for the whistle to start, sure he was just going to whip me without much effort. The drill was a series of plates followed by a split pepper popper. We were using (at least I was) generic Sig P226 9mms off the training gun rack at Sig. Massad beat me, as expected, but only by about a tenth of a second. HOW he beat me was what I’ll never forget. While I stood the line, square onto the target, hands at my sides, Massad assumed an aggressive shooting stance with his support hand held out, just below eye level.  Not being one to pass up the chance to learn something, I asked him what he was doing. He explained that having his support hand out there helped him gain his focus and acquire the target before he’d even drawn his weapon. Further, once we were done shooting, he showed me the crooked trigger finger position he maintained and espoused to help with getting his finger on the trigger faster. I can’t even remember what holsters we were using, but everything Massad did before the whistle was aimed at shaving time so he had maximum allowable time for acquiring a good grip, sight alignment, sight picture and trigger press. To this day I don’t know if I should brag about ONLY losing by a tenth of a second to Massad or just keep my trap shut.

As it pertains to this article, my point is this: Massad’s actions as he prepared for that competition, were determined by the setting and the goal. There’s no way he’d walk around on the street with his support hand constantly held out in front of him to help with sight acquisition whenever a lethal encounter popped up and there’s little chance he’d walk around carrying any kind of generic firearm just dropped into whatever holster he’d been issued.  I guarantee you, Massad would know the gun inside and out and he’d be equally familiar with the holster. Additionally, he’d have considered the holster’s design features, how they were supposed to work, how that worked with (or against) his personal training/performance habits and what he needed to do differently… all aimed toward increasing his chance of emerging victorious in the event of a lethal force encounter.

Go back and read the part that is in italics. I can make that exact same statement about every instructor I have any respect for. Those same instructors, while espousing one holster over another will acknowledge, however grudgingly, that what doesn’t work for them may work well for someone else. They will offer their informed and educated opinion on why they don’t like a specific holster, or why they do like another, but they’ll stray away from the definitive statement of “that holster sucks for everyone all the time.”

Yet that is exactly what I saw on Facebook in my feed this morning. The Blackhawk SERPA holster has been around for a good amount of time now – over 13 years. It’s being used by literally millions (over 8 million and growing) soldiers and law enforcement professionals. There ARE incidents where those using the holster have had issues drawing from it and, in some cases, negligent discharges while using it. All too often (in my opinion) the holster is immediately blamed. There have been instances of the holster being ripped off the mounting platform. To date, as I look for evidence of any of these “the SERPA sucks” claims, every video I see shows a SERPA holster that is no longer in production; they’re at least eight years old (or more). Yes, those holsters had identified (unexpected) issues and they were all corrected once identified. I challenge people to go recreate the same “failures” with a contemporary SERPA. Go do it. Post the video.

For all those on the “never use a SERPA because they all suck” bandwagon, I would ask this: in how many of those incidents has it been shown that any part of that holster pulled the trigger?  The answer is none. The person using the holster pulled the trigger. This may have resulted from improper use of the holster; a lack of understanding of operation of the holster; or any number of reasons, but the holster doesn’t pull the trigger. (I HAVE seen that once and it was a leather security holster where the thumb strap got caught inside the trigger guard and because the weapon wasn’t being handled/holstered properly, the strap pushed the trigger back as the weapon was forced into the holster. It was NOT a Blackhawk holster.)

My outlook is – and many will disagree with it – before we go blaming a holster design that has been used successfully and safely by hundreds of thousands of people, perhaps we should look at the user training and experience level? Perhaps we should look at the handling techniques being taught or used? Perhaps we should objectively – devoid of emotional response – examine whether or not a different holster design of equal performance would have ended with the same result?

The bottom line is this: with every holster any of us ever uses, there is a balance between retention and ease of draw. EVERY retention holster requires some specific manipulation to remove the weapon and if that manipulation isn’t performed correctly, then a fight to get the gun out ensues. In EVERY such situation, there is the chance that the person fighting to get the gun out of the holster will negligently fire the weapon. This is a training and performance issue; from the incorrect draw sequence to having their finger on the trigger or positioned in such a way as to easily put it there, hooked and ready to pull.

Every non-law enforcement shooter has to decide what level of retention they require, acquire a suitable holster that offers that level of retention and then practice, practice, practice. Throughout ALL of the practice, the proper grip acquisition, release of security devices, draw stroke, presentation, sight acquisition, proper sight alignment and trigger press… all of these things have to be practiced in proper sequence and at only the pace the shooter can safely proceed through. Slow is smooth… smooth becomes fast but only with proper, repetitive practice.

And this brings me to the last point: many people jump on the “never use a SERPA because they all suck” bandwagon and their sole justification is because a number of law enforcement agencies have banned it. That may be so. But was the holster banned because it’s a bad holster? Or was it banned because the agency decided it would cost less to train people with a different holster?

Let me close with this statement: I’ve been carrying a SERPA holster – Level II or Level III – ever since they were first released. I’ve NEVER had an issue with drawing the weapon except when I performed improperly. The holster still functioned as designed. I was the problem. To blame the holster after that makes no sense.

Stay safe.