"No thank you" were my words when offered this holster free not once but twice.
A design that requires you press your trigger finger in the direction of the trigger while you draw is just retarded.
The popularity of this POS blows me away. I'll stick with an ALS or SLS.
I've seen the ND problem happen about three years ago with an M&P and a Serpa with a guy working a detail with me. It's amazing that him, myself or one of the other two guys standing around wasn't injured. The round went down his pant leg, came out through the ankle, ricocheted off the tarmac, then pinged off a wheel of a jeep that that someone was standing right next too. I have no idea where the round went after that. The holster was shit canned immediately afterwards.
It taught me A) Serpas are gay, B) rounds can do some really funky stuff when they hit hard surfaces and C) always, always, always have an aid kit when there are guns around regardless of the setting.
However, I have a Serpa in my box at home for my 1911 with the release tab that engages the trigger guard ripped off and the retention screw tightened all the way down.
I have three serpa's and various platforms and quick release platforms. The M9 in a serpa was the first pistol/holster I ever used (mil), and one thing that I really do like about the serpa are the QD setups. I obviously use an M9 for work/work training, but my personal handgun is an G21. They also make serpas for every other gun I may purchase in the future for myself or my woman. I can bring my work rig home, swap out QD holsters, and wear it when I go shooting. I'm very big into the train how you fight mentality and having that ability is appealing to me. I also have pretty big hands so I have never come remotely close to getting my finger inside the trigger guard, and drawing is very fast.
I did have one of my M9 holsters get "crushed" on one of the flights overseas and had to replace it because it was too tight and took some serious force to get weapon out. It's definitely not a quality holster, I'm not saying it is.
I want sexy kydex holsters and all of that, but the problem for me is that the range is the only time I would ever use them and the training would not transfer over to work, and thats a no go.
Serpa holsters of some model/generation or another are also one of the standard issue holsters for the agency I work for as well.
I used to take it upon myself to briefly mention the possible problems that can occur while using this holster to other agents but I stopped doing that a long time ago. My suggestions held no weight compared to gun magazine promotions and internet photos of them in use.
Agents always cite their improved draw speed while using the Serpas though. That's fine and good, but the thing that turned me away from using one was seeing documented cases of them failing should some kind of debris lodge itself into the release mechanism. We work in the desert where a myriad of natural debris can find itself in that holster and F it up. I was not worried about the potential ND because I believe and always will that that is more of a training issue.
Our other approved holster choice is a Safariland 6280 and it seems that more and more, there is much hate for this simple yet effective holster. I would say three out of five agents have switched from the Safariland to some kind of Serpa. Agents always cite that while on walks, the hood comes open and their pistols have fallen out with the Safariland. I am not sure, but I believe this is more common among our more "robust" agents.
The one area where the Serpa is in fact better than the Safariland that only concerns uniformed LEO/LEA is that the Serpa appears to be more difficult for successful gun grabs.
I gave my issued Serpas away to some Barney Fife at work. I'm doing a detail right now where I am not even in the field and I still will not use a Serpa.
Last edited by CGSteve; 06-12-11 at 20:46.
hey just a quick question, has anyone ever done any torture test on different holsters to see what it will take to make them fail? alot of people assume things will fail by the looks of them, and not by actual expierence(not sayin any of the points in this discussion arent true, but im sure many of you know what i am talking about) we see plenty of torture tests on the rifles and sidearms we carry but rarely on the gear we carry them with. id like to see various holsters thrown in sand, mud, water, gravel, mabey left outside for a few weeks with a rubber training gun in them and then see the results. if i wasnt working 60+ hours a week id do it myself, but things are a little busy down here in south texas
"You know how they say God left Africa in the 1990s? well if he went to Mexico, he sure as hell didnt stay very long"
I have personally heard/seen Kyle DeFoor give a lecture and illustration of why a Serpa is not a good idea. This was echoed by several former Tier 1 guys. More than a few guys in the class were not pleased to learn part of their kit was shit.
I feel the standard Safariland 6280 holster design is also lacking in a couple of ways. The hood does indeed easily find its way open while seated inside of a patrol vehicle. Once it is open, it is basically a "gun bucket". Should the Officer approach a traffic stop or subject on the street with the hood down and suddenly find him/her-self in a ground fight, their pistol will inevitably fall out of the 6280. The police academy that the majority of our recruits are sent to has decided to advise the recruits that in-order to gain a "speed advantage" when approaching "high risk" stops, it is acceptable to rotate the hood down on their 6280 holsters. In my personal opinion, this is beyond stupid. I have never found that defeating one of, or any of a holsters retention devices in anticipation of having to draw your pistol from the holster actually equates an increase in speed with the draw. I have found just the opposite to be true. Whenever I have seen officers try to gain an advantage in their draw by rotating the hood down on their 6280 holsters during training or re-qualifications it always causes a hitch in their draw. Basically under stress, they still look to rotate the hood down with their thumb when they do actually draw the pistol.
I greatly prefer the 6300 series ALS holsters from Safariland. Should the hood find its self open, the pistol is still positively retained by the ALS feature in a gun-grab or ground fight situation.
Last edited by nickdrak; 06-13-11 at 01:21.
Seeing a youtube video of a pistol jammed in good when I was researching buying one of these was enough to put me off.
HIJACK
Does Safariland make a line of holsters for multiple platforms that are recommended replacements for the Serpa? Or does any other company? Preferably with a QD setup so that multiple weapons could mount on the same rig?
Are there any kydex holsters with at least some kind of active retention?
HIJACK
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