Re: Blackhawk CQC Serpa holster (review)
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Gunfighter14e2</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Jim D</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I'd like to see some of the training resume's of the guys here preaching "training over equipment". Chris Cerino shot himself with one.
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/12/firearms_training_officer_acci.html
Anyone here defending the Serpa a better shooter than him? If so, speak up.
Dozens of people have shot themselves using THIS holster. Find me one who shot them self while drawing from a Safariland ALS. Just <span style="font-weight: bold">ONE</span>... if you can.
This holster doesn't "force" you to keep your finger flat, nor out of the trigger guard. All it forces in inward pressure with your trigger finger on the button.
MOST people buying this cheap piece of shit aren't getting training on it, either. It is fundamentally flawed, and inferior in durability to it's competition. It's mass marketed and cheap...most people paying money to take training classes are using holsters like Raven Concealment, Safariland, Comp-Tac, etc. They are looking for a quality product.
If anyone wants to suggest that I don't know what I'm talking about with pistols and drawing a gun, I'll take the Pepsi Challenge with anyone here. Training credentials, pistol shooting scores on your choice of drills (on video if you like), draw times from concealment or open... name it.
If folks want to keep buying Serpa's, go ahead. You have every right as an American to purchase the cheapest piece of junk you like. </div></div>
Interesting, so you believe only those who are faster than everyone else on a one way, are the only ones to qualify equipment, where basic muzzle control an the trigger finger, mean nothing. It's the design of the gear, first an foremost. Is that about right?
First of all,... All my training from Uncle an others drill into you long before any gunfight starts, if you are not assessing/planning/controlling, the situation before any enemy/bad guy weapons are even drawn, you fucked up royal.
If your pushed into making self inflicting mistakes in the draw while under pressure, a safer environment, may be a better life skill for you.
Second, no piece of gear will make you place your finger into the trigger guard, that is a decision, conscious or other wise, your brain made, no one else. No one jumps from an auto to a 5 speed mid racing season, they wait until off time and get in a lot of practice, first. If your putting your finger into the trigger housing before the weapon clears your body, no matter the holster, your going to be a stat for the Brady bunch.
Third, I can point to many folks that have/had all the paper work you can tote at one time, that said they were the best thing for the gig. However when it came to use the gear for it's intended purpose, they came in second, and because others believe they were all that, they went into bags or on a gurney as well.
This debate is about products vs training, but it could go another way if your so inclined.
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You evidently have not used this holster in a FOF training environment. Virtually every instructor who runs aggressive FOF training, or who induces significant stress on their students via other means, will tell you straight out how fingers curl when people don't get a clean draw and pull harder, and how easily fingers go into the trigger guard because of that.
I have seen more than a couple fingers fly into the trigger guard myself, while I was working full time as a range officer (saw something like 500,000 rounds go downrange on my watch, there). There was never an ND because of this while I was there, but I saw the potential for it, and have people come close to it.
Defoor was the chief firearms instructor at Blackwater USA for years, and will tell anyone who asks how many radio calls he heard for students who had ND's using that holster (often shooting their own leg in the process). He started the safety brief in my class by asking if "anyone using a SERPA? No? Good. That should drastically reduce our odds of having anyone shot here today since no one is using that piece of shit."
I guess Vickers doesn't know how to spot a troublesome product either.
I'd bet a paycheck that the average students who goes to train at BW or with Vickers knows a thing or two more about the safe use of a firearm than some of the contributors here in this thread to the Serpa's defense.
Like I said, if anyone here wants to suggest that the dozens of SERPA holster users who've shot themselves with it, boils down exclusively to a training issue...feel free to share just how much you believe in getting solid training on the use of pistols.
Other wise, all I see is a bunch of Serpa owners who want to defend their choice in holsters, and try to write off all of these documented issues as not being a problem for them because "they are trained and know what they're doing."