Blackhawk Serpa CQC holster

[wahoo95]

Saw one get jammed up here locally while doing some drills that required lying on the ground. A few small pebbles get into the retention area and locked it up to where the guy couldn't draw the gun.

Sad really, but people buy the becasue they are cheap and easy to find. Thing is a basic Safariland ALS paddle or belt holster can be had for the same price.

[nickdrak]

Another problem that I have personally seen cause issues on multiple SERPA holsters being carried by cops is the flimsy mounting system. I have seen SERPAs ripped directly off of the belts of guys carrying them during training. The way the belt slide attachment is affixed to the holster is super weak. I have also seen another well respected instructor who experienced the same failure during class. In his instance, the pistol became locked in the holster due to debris locking up the retention button. When the shooter and others trying to assist the shooter began to pull on the grip of the pistol, the holster ripped right off of the belt slide attachment.

The BIGGEST problem I see with SERPA holsters is that they are cheap....and so are most cops. Therefore, they have ended up being one of, if not the most prevalent holster design you see cops carry on a daily basis.

[sgtjosh]

The Serpa for the X26 Taser is also crap. You can grab the side of the holster and twist the X26 from the holster without ever pushing the release button. My agency issued me one. Once I saw this flaw, I popped for a more secure Safariland ALS version.

My agency also issues the Serpa duty holster...crap. They had to send out a safety recall notice, because the gun could be ripped out by an attacker.

My two cents...you cant beat Safariland for on duty carry.

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Holsters require maintenance. I blast the SLS and ALS mechanisms of my Safariland Holsters with B/C Gun Scrubber/compressed air and then an aerosol can dry lube to clean out and lube the mechanism every so often. I work in the brush and have seen the mechanisms become sluggish/almost frozen without maintenance.

[markm]

I HAD to buy one of these shitty things when I first got my M&P 45 because there were no other quick options available at the time. I knew is was junk, but had to have something to be able to move around on the range with a hot weapon.

I eventually got my phantom, and tossed that thing aside.

[JSantoro]

Same gun, same reason: at the time, a holster for a Glock 21 would fit, was all that was immediately available, and I wan't leaving the store without a holster.

....and my skin was crawling every time I wore the thing, until my Safariland and my Minotaur came in.

If one likes to say that the SERPA is a great holster, it's because they've never had the pleasure of having a piece of gravel, mud, snow or the like ( in my case, it was a sliver of gravel) get stuck behind the release lever, keeping it from being depressed at a time one desperately needs to draw the weapon. Knowing that you HAVE a pistol on your hip, pulling on it with enough strength to uproot small trees, and having it be as accessible to you as *insert name of one's most-desired actress/porn star/female athlete here*'s panty drawer -- meaning NOT AT ALL -- is a distinctly BAD feeling.

If I hadn't had a fire-team of other Marines with me at that moment in 2006, I'd be dead...because of a damned holster.

It's not even the frequency of the SERPA failures across the market; I get how some unicorn-vagina and chocolate-rainbow visionary type can ignore how often folks report glitches. The world is full of either Pollyannas or people that blithely manage to walk between raindrops, and I can handle that. What I don't get is how folks can ignore the implications of the TYPE of malfunctions these things are no-shit KNOWN (note that I didn't say believed; belief is NOT a metric...) to exhibit, and continue to use them.

Saying some analogue of how SERPA "hasn't failed yet, in X years of use...." is a completely factual statement that I have no doubts over, but the center of gravity of the statement is the word "yet." How many lives may hang on the balance of little words like "yet" or "if?"

How many top-rate instructors/schools patently state that they will not allow SERPA holsters on their ranges? This isn't a game of Smear the Queer, those thing just suck donkey dong, period. The folks that own them are at least not doing any of the sucking, but are definitely cupping the balls while the holster does the sucking for them, which is still nasty.

Get a different holster, and leave that poor donkey the hell alone.

[Moose-Knuckle]

I have never given anything from Blackhawk a serious look. IMHO they are on par with the airsoft grade shit. After are they are made in the same country, imagine that.

[supersix4]

Saw one get jammed up here locally while doing some drills that required lying on the ground. A few small pebbles get into the retention area and locked it up to where the guy couldn't draw the gun.

Sad really, but people buy the becasue they are cheap and easy to find. Thing is a basic Safariland ALS paddle or belt holster can be had for the same price.

This is the only holster with active retention that I have. The rest are RCS, etc.

[Shawn.L]

I used one during the beggining of my "serious" shooting , when I first started to get into training, competeing, and finding out what I didnt know.

I wrote this once I had a clue, it was mostly aimed at another forum I frequent where Open Carry is a big deal and the Serpa is like the ****in OC uniform for douche bags who thinks it will retain there gun and they there fore "dont need no stinking training"

some background first.
I have used a SERPA holster for both CC and OC for the past year 2 years. I have used it to carry a XD-9 earliest on, and various 1911 models in the last year and a half that I have been carrying a 1911.

I have taken several training courses using it from Various trainers.

I have used it to do more than one retention and disarms session, and with informal FOF.

My honest assesment of the system is that while it provides a small amount of retention the downsides outweigh its benefits.

Let me quantify "small amount of retention".
There are two types of dangers to being disarmed. The first is a "gun grab". A gun grab can best be explained as a rough attempt to take your gun by someone with neither knowledge or skill, or who is perhaps too inebriated to be either.
The second type is a real disarm. This would be attempt to remove your gun by someone who knows what they are doing (at least to some degree) and is able to physically employ a method to do so.

I have seen SERPA holster bodys ripped right off the frame, (using belt loop attachment) the screws that hold it in place pop through the plastic using medium strength in class. Against a gun grab, the holster body is not strong enough to withstand a good pull and rip from a normal sized man. When using the paddle the holster will move around the belt, bunch up clothes and make contolling its position difficult.

I have also seen training guns (same dimensions as the real thing but solid hard plastic) pulled right up out of the holster. With a good pull from a normal sized man the tab that holds the gun in on the trigger guard will bend and give way. In one class I had the gun ripped right from me (while I was resisting) and the role play BG commented "wait, isnt that a Serpa holster????" with confusion.

Against a real disarm the button is easy to identify and push. The draw on the SERPA is easy, this is the downside to that.

I have yet to see someone have the fabled ND by having the button pushing finger enter the trigger guard. My fingers are long enough that even if I try my finger hits the front of the guard, I would need to bend it to get it in there. Nonetheless one trainer told me he saw it happen once. I have only heard of it happen with GLOCK or other guns without a manual safety.

As I said I have used this holster in numerous classes, and done countless presentations from it. All without fail. I trained well to use it. During one class the instructor commented that by the end of class I would toss it out, he had seen it complicate a draw so often he was certain.

This class involved drawing after being pushed to the ground, while wrestling, and from other disadvantageous positions. I had no issues, although another classmate popped the button off his half way through as he kept fouling the draw, and I would disarm him every chance I got.

Recently I have experianced a few times where my cover garment wrapped around the holster and it caused me to have to double tug on the pistol, as it complicated my draw. This may not be a concern for anyone who OC's only (ever wear a jacket or coat when its chilly????) but I have seen draws need more than one tug from experianced shooters if they get flustered or put into FOF.

My real concern and reason for this write up is the number of people I see open carry with this style of holster thinking they have "retention", and taking a false sense of security from that. At most, without the holster physically failing, it will give you a precoius half second to imploy some sort of defense.

If you are not trained, and have not practiced, what to do.... well then, you wont do anything.

Ive scince been in more classes, and follow up Retention and Disarm classes with students having these...... and its only reinforced my opinion that this is bad kit for all but a limited application (not mine).

[Dachs]

I must have been living with my head in the sand for the past year or so, because I never realized that these holsters had these types of issues. I'd always heard the tales and horror stories of people getting debris in the locking mechanism, but I always brushed it off as a few random cases that the internet blew out of proportion.


And I guess I just assumed that my agency wouldn't allow it to be a standard issued holster if it had these issues...I never did any research on the matter myself.

I switched to SERPA Level 3 about a year ago and haven't had any problems with it. My draw speed increased and I felt more comfortable with its retention-Ha! The Safariland holster's bail would seem to find its way open (especially if I was reaching over into the passenger seat to grab something while I was wearing my vest).

But, I've never had anyone try to rip the SERPA off. Seems like thats the exact wrong time I'd want my holster to fail me. So, I just dug my Safariland out of a box in my closet. It's going back on the duty belt tonight and I'll be hitting the range with it tomorrow morning to practice my draw with it again.

Thanks for the heads up.


edit: as far as the AD/ND thing...thats 100% user error imo. If you are drawing it correctly, then you should never have an ND.

[nickdrak]

Dachs,

Im not a big fan of the 6280 series holsters with only the rotating hood. They do always find their way open, and when the hood is rotated down it is basically a gun bucket with zero retention. Get into a struggle on the street and bad things can happen.

I have since switched to the 6300 series ALS holsters which offers an active retention device that is very intuitive to release with your shooting thumb. They also offer it with the rotating hood as an option as well, but I prefer the open top 6325 without the hood.

I highly recommend that you take a look at the 6300 series ALS holsters from Safariland.