I’m sure many of you suffer from the same affliction I do: restless project syndrome. I spent two decades working every holiday and never taking vacations. As such, I have never been a big “holiday person”.
This Christmas I decided to take some time and fiddle with a cheap gun-show holster that recently made an appearance on this very website. You can CLICK HERE to see the video.
Since I am still waiting for some quality replacements I figured it was time I invest a little sweat equity into building up my VP9 holster library. Because let’s face it, if you want easy to attain after market accessories, you need to carry a Glock.
The beginning: I worked out the funny habit this “holster-ette” has to pushing the mag-release levers when inserted at a particular angle. Frankly this was mostly done by simply reinserting the pistol into the device and just shaving a high-point. Check! Step one done!
Next: This holster rides way, way, way too low. So low that it is difficult to draw the handgun without having to adjust your hand to get a full master-grip. And let me tell you, this issue is what is wrong with 95% of ALL holsters being sold today. No joke. They either aren’t made correctly or aren’t configured correctly by the user.
Your firearm needs to be retained by the holster, not necessarily the belt or pants. If you don’t think this is that big of a deal, I suggest you realize that in the real world it’s the first shot that is the most important. Not the 15 coming behind it.
Here you can see the leg of the clip is too high. What I have done is moved the clip mount down and then cut off, and rounded the hard corners left from cutting it.
Later on if I am so inclined, I might upgrade this with a standard strut and soft-loop connection. IMO that is much more secure when under stress, easier to takeoff without unholstering the pistol, and in a pinch allows you to tuck your shirt in behind it. More on this in a later post.
Here is the finished product. Notice how much higher the grip of the pistol sits above the belt? This is critical. Look, let’s be real. Is it a quality holster? No. Is it perfect? No. But it’s upgraded enough to get me through. Yes, shades of my old 1911 days are showing though, “You want to carry it? Fix your shit!”.
Hopefully this little primer is useful in evaluating your holsters? Even the best made holster is junk if you don’t have it configured for success. Unfortunately, most holsters I see civilians carrying are setup to lose gunfights. Not win them.
Marky
www.john1911.com
“Shooting Guns & Having Fun”
Areas of focus: Defense and National Security, Modern Light Weapons, Small Arms, Weapons Training.
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