Up until this spring, I was the only shooter I know who
didn't have a useless-holsters box. I owned exactly
one holster for my carry gun, a Glock 26.
Then my beloved old Blade-Tech UCH broke. Dang. Time to order another one, right? I called. They explained that they'd completely redesigned the UCH but would be happy to replace my beloved old holster with the new model. I looked at photos of the new model and had my doubts ... sigh. What to do?? I bit the bullet and told them to go ahead, I'd get the new model.
Husband graciously agreed to drive up to Tacoma and pick the
new model UCH up for me. He handed them my broken-but-fixable old UCH holster (that they said they could not repair ... sigh) and picked up the new model. And brought it home to me proudly.
It didn't work.
I don't mean, it kinda-sorta didn't fit. I mean,
it didn't work. The loop was set to hold almost the entire bulk of the gun well above my belt line. I have a good sturdy belt and this allegedly-IWB holster just flopped straight out, flipped upside down and would have dumped the gun if I hadn't caught it. *shudder*
A few days later, I was standing in the Blade-Tech office talking to the production guy. He said that the new model UCH they'd given me wasn't done right (no foolin'!) and that he could set it lower. I said please do, and what do you have for padding? That's the only thing I've been unhappy about with my old one. We went back and forth for awhile, then he handed me a
new new model UCH, this one set a little lower and with some foam padding on the back. He expressed his doubts about whether the padding would be durable enough for my purposes, but I was happy to get it and happy he'd worked with me on it. I thanked him and drove home.
Oh, while I was there, I went ahead and purchased a dropped-and-offset range holster for teaching work. It's worked wonderfully and I'm happy with it, though initially I had a bit of difficulty getting it set up. (Note to holstermakers: please remember that us poor schlubs who buy your holsters are
not holstermakers, and don't intuitively understand how to use your equipment. Some instruction how to best use fancy unusual clips or how to adjust tension screws would not be amiss.)
Within two or three days, it became apparent that the
new new model UCH wasn't going to do the trick either. It no longer jumped out of my pants and flipped upside down at least. Instead, it just cantelevered out dramatically, every time I moved or sat down or turned around or did anything at all. Completely unworkable and unsatisfactory. Dang.
Okay. Well, now what. No sense in calling Blade-Tech. I'd already taken a bunch of their time and gotten the personal attention of the production manager. This funky-fitting holster was, apparently, the best they could do for me and it was doing what it was designed to do. No longer their fault. I could blame them for the
old new model UCH, that one was just buggered up, but the
new new model UCH had gotten personal attention from the quality control guy and this was as good as it was gonna get. So now what?
I went online and ordered myself a FIST holster, a K8 with leather on the outside and kydex on the inside. Still waiting for it to arrive.
Meanwhile, I got back from Blade Tech my
old old model UCH, the original one that was broken. They had "fixed it" for me ... sigh. The "fixing" actually made it impossible for me to do what I'd decided to do, which was I was going to find someone who actually does custom kydex work and get them to simply make me a new loop (which was the part that was originally broken). But in "fixing" it, BT had drilled some fresh holes, taken out my old formed loop and replaced it with one of their new injection-molded loops. You know, the too-short loop that gave me all the trouble to begin with on the
new model UCH. *sigh*
So now I'm waiting for my FIST and hoping it works. When it arrives, I will own four holsters for my carry gun: one that I
know works but only on the range not for concealment, two that I
know don't work and I hate, and one that is yet-to-be-determined.
If the FIST doesn't do the trick, I already have my eye on a couple of other makers and possibilities.
Do you suppose this whole thing would be more aggravating or less aggravating if I didn't already know exactly what I really want?
pax
