Kydex Part III

Blackhawk! Serpa



(Another installment of Fred's wonderful Kydex reviews)

So when I bought my SigPro 2022, I found that Fobus didn't make a holster for it.  So instead of feeling sad, I used that as an excuse to get one of those high speed Serpa active retention holsters.  I had to get it straight from Blackhawk! since the SP2022 apparently isn't too common.
The SP2022 holster was only available in black (what is this? 1998??) although some of the more common gun options are also available in tan, like the 1911:

The Serpa line of holsters are actually made out of a carbon fiber composite, not kydex, so the material is a bit thicker, but holds it's shape pretty well, and is quite tough.
The holster comes with both belt and paddle attachments that screw on to the back and are adjustable for cant:

As I mentioned with the Fobus review, I'm a fan of the slight butt forward cant, so it's adjusted accordingly.  It can be rotated even further forward, which would be beneficial if you spend a lot of time in the car.  (Again, Wisconsin, so that's not really a worry for me...)  The paddle has three claws to grab onto your belt, two on the holster side that are adjustable for belt width, and one on the inside as a backup in the even that the outside ones pop off or something (hasn't happened to me yet.)  It's also nice and wide along the belt, spreading out the weight of the gun nicely.  I'd say is the most comfortable paddle I've used to date, and with the thinness of the 1911 it's almost easy to forget it's there.

As noted, the Serpa is an active retention holster, there's a little claw deally that grabs onto the front of the trigger guard, and a button that needs to be depressed in order to draw.

The button is right where your index finger rests when you grab the holstered gun in a good firing grip, and aids in indexing it along the frame as you draw.  It takes a little getting used to, but as with all things gun, practice plenty and it becomes a non-issue.  There is no need to push the button when you reholster either.
The holster also extends the full length of the gun, protecting the front sight, and has a "speed cutout" around the chamber area, allowing you to begin to rotate the muzzle forward just a little sooner (at least in theory) but the only real benefit I've found with that is that I can see and feel the loaded chamber indicator on my Sig without drawing the gun.  The holster also has a nice wide sight track, so there's some room for fancy big dot sights or whatever.
After a bit of range time my draw is just as fast from this one as it is from the Fobus, with the added benefit of  a retention system.
There is a screw just forward of the trigger area allowing for some adjustment of the passive retention, however a chief complaint of the Serpa is that they do tend to "loosen up" over time, letting the gun kind of rattle around in the holster.  It hasn't been too much of an issue with the 1911, but I did add some chunks of the fuzzy side of some stick on Velcro to the Sig's holster to tighten things up a little.  It hasn't effected the draw, and has stopped most, if not all, of the rattling I was experiencing.

The mag pouch, on the other hand, is by far one of the most mediocre of products I've used.  Like the holster it can be either belt mounted, or there is a clip you can screw on to give it paddle-like abilities.

The problem is that the clip snuggles down between the belt loops, so when on your belt it feels kind of wobbly and prone to rotation.  Although it does feature a tension adjustment screw between the mags, something the Fobus lacks.  It does hold the mags inside well, and I'm sure would be fine if purely belt mounted, but I don't like standing in the parking lot before class taking my belt off so I can leave the mags in the car, or worse, be seen putting the holder back on afterwards and have to talk to the campus police because of some stupid freshman's panic. (stranger things have happened on this very campus)  I think it would benefit from a similar belt/paddle system as the holster rather than an integrated belt mount with belt clip seemingly added as an afterthought.  For that reason alone I still just use the Fobus mag holder when I'm rocking the 1911.

So to sum things up, I've easily got more "miles" on the Serpa system than any other kydex, and have suggested it to anyone who's asked my opinion about it (and quite a few have.)  For a bit more you get adjustable cant, active retention, and possibly even color options, what's not to like?


Part II - Fobus
Part IV - Raven Concealment Systems
Part V - Conclussions