Holsters In Airsoft.
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
In my last post I looked at
side arms in airsoft and their pros and cons and promised that I would go
through some different ways there are to incorporate them into your load out.
First you need to select your preferred type of holster, there are a few on the
market and it all comes down to your preference.
My personal favourite is
what’s known as a moulded holster, these are made out of polymer so they are
solid and durable. They are made to fit a certain pistol so you do have to buy
one for each of your side arms. There are a few companies that make these
holsters such as Blackhawk, IMI defence and also WE have also released their
line of holsters. Here are some examples of Blackhawk Holsters, IMI Holsters and WE Holsters
As mentioned before they are
pistol specific so if you chose to use one of these then you better check there
is one available before you buy your sidearm. The advantage of these holsters
is that they hold the gun in place and offer great retention with no risk of your
pistol falling out when you are moving. They are also really easy to draw from
with the handle being exposed fully allowing you to unclip with your index
finger, while bringing the pistol up sliding your finger to the trigger
allowing for you to put fire down quickly. Also there are many ways of
incorporating them into your load out, the black hawk holster offer the most
variety I have found with simple belt loops as pictured above, pancake holster
and a MOLLE platform to use on your plate carrier of webbing as pictured above
and is also my favourite way of carrying my side arm. The belt loop is offered
by the others to and works best with assault vests which either don’t have a
holster built in, I used this method when I first started out as the Viper
assault vest has no way of putting a pistol on it so I used the belt loop on my
combats and it sat great just under the vest and was easy to use. This also
works well with chest rigs as chest rigs can get full up with magazines very
quickly, a friend of mine runs his on a belt loop with a chest rig and thinks
its brilliant. The pancake holster, in my opinion, doesn’t work great for
airsoft and is mainly designed for security personal as a means of concealing
their weapon and still be able to access it quickly. The MOLLE platform,
pictured above on my webbing, is great as it allows you to have everything in
one place and being MOLLE you can move it around your plate carrier or webbing.
The other good thing about the MOLLE platform is that you can fit the holster
either vertically or horizontally; I have seen players have it mounted on their
plate carrier horizontally at the top of their plate carrier.
Another way is what’s known
as a drop leg platform, these are available from Blackhawk and IMI, they strap
to your belt and then down to your thigh. I have tried these and they can work
well but I find that with a lot of moving the leg straps can come lose and
begin to move.
You can also buy fabric
adjustable holster like these;
These can be adjusted to fit
most hand guns, and they can fit onto most load outs as the straps can fit in
the MOLLE loops or can be attached to a belt. I have used the viper holster for
my first side arm but found that even with the retaining loop at the top, my
pistol still fell out and when I was in a fire fight I would move to pull it
and to my horror my gun would be missing, luckily I found it every time, some
people aren’t that lucky. So if you can I would always choose the moulded
holsters.
Which one will you choose?
Glen.
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