SERPA Holster Review

Here comes another important tip from the Personal defense network. I want to talk about this Serpa holster for a minute. We're not going to do any live fire here. The gun is actually empty. There's no magazine in the firearm. Of course, the chamber is clear. You're going to put it in the battery and put it into the holster. Now, this particular holster has gotten more attention than any other holster design in recent memory. A lot of people talk about it in classes. A lot of people are talking about it, of course, on the internet. And even in some of the gun magazines that are in some of the gun shows. And I've talked about it before and I'm actually a fan of the Serpa holster. I first saw the design at the shot show. I don't even remember how many years ago. It was probably about 2004 maybe. And it was an early prototype. Maybe it was 2003, maybe 2005. But it was when it was first coming out when it was first designed. The idea was that it was an intuitive retention device. It was a device that we were all teaching people, everyone in the industry was teaching people to keep their finger aligned along the actual holster outside of the trigger guard. So that when the gun came up out of the holster, the finger was aligned on the frame and would be nowhere near the trigger. Well, if that's where we're teaching people to put their finger, it's natural and intuitive to put a retention release device in that exact same place. So that when you lay your finger in the natural spot, it's released and you can pull the gun up. If your finger isn't in that spot and someone tries to pull the gun, of course it's kept in the holster. And I've always said that retention is a training issue. It's not a gear issue. Yes, the retention device helps to keep the gun in the holster, but we can't rely on the retention device. Cause this particular holster here right now is set up as a paddle design. So even if the gun stays in the holster, someone could relatively easily get this entire gun and holster off of my belt and at least take it away from me even if they couldn't immediately get it out of the holster to be used against me. So the issue here really isn't whether or not this is bomb-proof and foolproof, no retention device is . The issue here is whether or not it's dangerous to have a retention release device that is actuated by the trigger finger. And what I'll submit to you is that if you do it wrong, this could be dangerous. If you intentionally push in on that button with a great amount of force as if you needed to do something differently than you're already doing when you draw your gun, then yes, you could increase the amount of pressure that you're pushing in with the trigger finger from what you would normally do. And then as you push in, actually create a tension that the finger hits the frame, slides off and it comes in and hits the trigger and fires around. That could happen if you do it wrong, don't do it wrong. Simply lay your finger against the side of the holster just like you would with any other design. That will deactivate the retention device. And then, the next thing you need to make sure you're doing , is pulling the gun straight up out of the holster. And this is where I do think there's a design flaw here. This speed cut, this cutout on the front of the holster is the design flaw if there is one with the holster. What happens here is, it allows people in theory, to rock the gun backwards and maybe gain of tiny fraction of a second in the speed with which the muzzle gets pointed forward. In practice, I don't see very many people actually taking advantage of it. When we look at slow motion of video, when we look at still pictures that are taken during the presentation very rarely do we actually see the muzzle coming through this cutout. We actually see the gun coming up before the rotation starts. And honestly, I think that's what should happen. I think that we should be bringing the gun up high and orienting this way. Of course, we know that if we're always training to do this, we could actually be doing ourselves a disservice as we sweep the gun forward but really need the gun to be pointed out here to our right. So that if we come up and orient this way towards a threat we're being much more efficient than if we come out this way and then swing around towards a threat to our side. So always coming up and then always orienting the muzzle directly towards the threat, getting the gun up high so that we can push it all the way out extended into our shooting position is a better presentation, anyway. So the danger comes in when people do exactly the opposite of what that cutout is designed to allow and they rock the gun forward during presentation. Of course, if I rock the gun forward during presentation what you can see happens, is the top of the slide comes forward through that gap. As my finger tracks up straight through the groove I end up aligned with the trigger. And in several instances of people shooting themselves when they're using a Serpa holster, I've seen the bullet go through the holster. In other words, I've held the holsters in my hand on two occasions and seen a lot of photos of other accidents and other negligence really where people have rocked the gun forward and managed to then angle the gun backwards and down. Well, that's an indication that they did something wrong. What they did was they rocked the gun forward as they were drawing. And that's what allowed the tracking of the finger to come in and hit the trigger. This is wrong on the user's end. This cutout does allow it to happen. But we still need to be training properly and come straight up. Now, there are other designs of the Serpa holsters. The higher level retention holsters, some of the ones that go on drop legs and other things that don't have this cutout. And I prefer that design. I prefer it to not have that cutout. When the gun rocks forward, people end up tracking their fingers straight out of that groove and they could hit the trigger. Now we still shouldn't be putting that much pressure. All the things I said before about simply laying your finger up against the holster and allowing that button to be deactivated, not pushing it like it's a separate step, like it's an extra button still exists. But it's that rocking forward that by the way is usually incredibly inefficient. If I were going to be firing at a threat to my rear, then rocking forward might start to make sense. But I still say it's better to come up and orient this way and then drive out. If we're going forward, which of course most of the time we're going to be, there's no benefit to rocking the top of the gun forward which actually points the muzzle backwards, and then having to bring the muzzle all the way back to the front as we extend and orient the muzzle. So the Serpa holster is not inherently dangerous. It's not inherently flawed. It's not a problem. But it's not bomb-proof, no retention holster is. I think it's a good, intuitive retention device. I think it's a good efficient holster. But I think you have to, just like with any other device in this arena, have to train to use it properly and practice to use it properly in order to be able to use it safely. So consider this holster for range work. Consider this holster if you wear an outside the waistband holster and you want to be exposed, if you want to have it concealed, whatever you want to do. I think this is a good option. I don't think it's inherently dangerous. Just make sure you use properly. Be sure to check out the Personal defense network for more important tips just like that one.