I ordered a Phantom LC from Raven Concealment back on March 22nd. I was told to try Raven because of their superb quality and remarkably comfortable fit. I gave them a call and decided on exactly what I wanted after having spent a bit looking through their website.
When I was going to place the order, I talked to Jay about my different options. He was very polite and took the time to go through them with me. At that point I was ready to purchase it, but was informed that they do not take orders over the phone. I am the type of person that would much rather talk to a real person and place an order with them. However, that not being an option, I placed the order online. As I expected, there were several small differences between the options we had discussed over the phone and my options online. I ended up calling him back twice and both times he was still as polite, even though I'm sure he was thinking, "this guy has got to be pretty dense". Even with the additional phone calls, I still wrote a small paragraph in my order explaining some of the custom aspects to my order. Something that was kind of odd and threw me for loop was the difference between Raven Concealment and Malabar Front. I didn't understand the relationship at first and was unclear why Raven didn't just sell their stuff on their site. I also found the Malabar Front site to be rather cluttered and confusing. Part of my order was the Soft IWB Loops and I was unable to find them a second time when looking. I finally found them on a sidebar next to another part of my order. The order was placed and a confirmation email was dispatched.
I was told by my friend whom had suggested the Phantom LC, the wait for these holsters is considerable. I asked Jay about it and he said they were on a 60 day wait. Two months is an incredibly long time, but I decided to give these guys a fair shake and try their products. I received the holster on June 7th, two and a half months after I ordered it.
Once I received the Phantom LC, I tried the fit and finish both with the gun and on my person. The gun and the surefire x300 fit very well. It was snug, but not too tight. I could tell they had spent a lot of time perfecting their kydex shaping process and the attention to detail was high. I wore it camping and long range shooting the next weekend with some friends. After about 2 hours I found that is was digging into my side while in the prone and standing positions. I was wearing it at about the 3:30 postion OWB and it just wasn't working. I normally wear all my holsters in that same position. I tried pushing it back to 4:00. It seemed to be fine for the rest of that day. It wasn't the most comfortable holster, but I would see how the rest of the weekend went. The next day we got into some handgun drills for about two hours and my comfort level went from tolerable to painful. The holster was rubbing me raw and the contour didn't seem to be molded correctly to fit me. I thought about my possible solutions during the trip, but none of them were good. I delt with it for the rest of the trip and later that week I was thinking about returning it to Raven or selling it on the secondary market. I gave it one more try. I was headed out to a local steel shoot my buddy was putting on and decided to take this along. I pushed it back to 4:30 after still having pain at 4:00. Still it was digging into me and rubbing like crazy. It was just an uncomfortable holster, plain and simple. My buddy whom had recommended it was there and he told me the apparent secret to these holsters. You have to wear them at 5:30 or they are hell on your hip bone. I put it at 5:30 and by god he was right. It instantly became a very comfortable holster.
Overall, I am impressed with the comfort in the 5:30 position, the weight to strength is quite good compared to some other plastic/kydex holsters. The price is reasonable, but not great. I paid $114 including IWB loops and shipping. The IWB loops are alright, but I'll probably never really use them. The holster is just too large to comfortably fit inside my pants and walk around all day. I don't blame this on Raven, yet attribute it to having a light on a gun, which is a large object to try and conceal comfortably IWB. The waiting time is very long and though not really of much concern for me, it could be for others. I enjoyed the customer service when I was ordering and found the staff I interacted with to be friendly and knowledgeable about their products.
Questions, concerns or comments...please post.
Cruiser
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by dojpros
Bookmarks