The very first thing that came to mind when I saw the SilencerCo Maxim 9 was “how the heck am I gunna holster that thing?” Well there’s good news: we’ve gotten a sneak peek at some of the holsters that SilencerCo has on hand to test out.
It’s not the smallest package, but it does look functional. And that’s what counts I guess.
Is that one oh them SERPA style holsters? You’ll be lucky if you don’t shoot yer self every time you draw…at least from wut I herd on tha internets
Or have actually seen on youtube.
In defense of SERPA holsters.
Tfunk, I’ve heard that before but I don’t know what everyone is concerned about. I have a SERPA holster for my SIG, when I draw, my finger is no where near the trigger. Yes my finger is straight, yes my finger is on the right side of the firearm, and yes my finger is in position when I un-holster to actuate the release.
During weapon draw, three fingers and a thumb are wrapped around the grip, the forefinger is depressing the holster release around the front 1/3 of where the slide meets the receiver. If I royally screw it up, I won’t be able to draw the weapon.
I guess if you make the mistake of not practicing the draw with your daily carry or if you change up your gear so you’re wearing the freshest and newest CC gear… you have made your bed and you’ll sleep in it.
I believe his comment was in jest.
That said, the “problems” with drawing a Serpa are the same with any holster. If you make your finger into a hook and press it into the holster you’re asking for trouble.
You draw with your finger straight on any other holster and the Serpa is straight up designed for this kind of draw. Why would you change to using a hook with a Serpa? Just use the exact same way you draw with any other holster so that when the gun comes out your finger is flat against the gun just above the trigger guard. If you aren’t doing that with your other holsters you should be.
If you shoot yourself and blame the Serpa, or even suggest it was a factor then you’re wrong. The factor was that you’re an idiot who changed his/her draw when it wasn’t necessary or recommended.
Definitely (maybe) in jest 🙂
I carried a SERPA for almost a year and only managed to shoot myself and my squad mates a handful of times…
Seriously, no ND’s, and in conditions where “tha expurts” say it will lock up (sand, small rocks, talcum powder sand, moisture, etc) never an issue drawing from it
My thing against the index finger release system is not the AD, but the inability to draw quickly with the other hand. Maybe there’s a way but I dunno…
That’s a valid concern.
The Serpa holsters are generally for OC and I think they deamed retention a higher priority than other considerations. Thinking about the Serpa holsters I have and where I generally wear them, offhand draw would be cumbersome no matter what, but the Serpa would make it harder. I should try out offhand draw. I rarely use those holsters but Mr. Murphy being a sneaky bastard and all…
Good call.
SERPA Type holsters are unsafe in my opinion. I have witnessed or read about the paddle locking up due to debris in the release area and ND’s that have happened due to fingers getting in the trigger guard after either regular unholstering or after an initial failure to release followed by the user hammering on the paddle to release the firearm. The recent video of an student having an ND where the instructor allowed him to continue the drill was a great example. The student hit the release after he tried to unholster and friction caused the firearm to stay in the holster. He released his tension on the weapon and hammered the button on the side of the holster. The student just cleared the holster and then sent a .45 ACP round into the ground in front of him, almost perforating his hand.
I work in aviation and frequently have reason to look through airline accident reports. Even when a failure was completely pilot error there are usually 1 or 2 mitigating factors that if addressed could have prevented loss of life. In the case of the SERPA style holsters the user is %100 percent at fault, but for us to not investigate the other factors means we change nothing and simply rely on humans to no longer make mistakes. Good luck with that. The SERPA designs lend themselves to ND’s when things don’t go perfectly with the draw and tend to retain debris in the paddle area leading to locked up guns (the latter happened to me once with a chest mounted SERPA holster and an M-9 after a little crawling through some dirt.
LAV, Todd Green, and Travis Haley are a few of the names I recall as having banned the SERPA designs from their classes. That is good enough for me to stay away from them.
I think just about any holster with retention mechanism other than friction, and maybe a snap strap across the back, is going to be much more of a pain for offhand draw.
They work reasonably well in cross-draw (e.g. grip forward on side opposite your draw hand), for what that’s worth.
Mr. Lawrence:
One of the attractive things about the SERPAs is their availability for a wide variety of pistols. For me, having several holsters that all work the same way is a big advantage.
Do you have a recommendation for an alternate holster with similar levels of retention and (usually) ease of extraction, but without the issues you describe?
The points made are valid. The Blackhawk SERPA holsters are available at almost all Big Box and Mom and Pop type firearm and accessory stores, are inexpensive, and available for a wide variety of firearms.
My reccommendation for a similar holster would be the Safariland model similar to the one in the link below with the ALS system.
http://www.safariland.com/products/holsters-and-gear/holsters/concealable-holsters/belt-slide/model-7377-7ts-als–concealment-belt-slide-holster-34850.html#start=1
The holster MSRP’s for around 50 bucks and that particular model is available for 96 different types of firearms. I use a Safariland with the ALS and find it far superior to the SERPA because your force to release the firearm is a downward force with your thumb. MidwayUSA has the Glock 17 version in stock right now for $45.
I appreciate the pointer, but none of the pistols I own are ones the ALS line covers. Heck, they don’t even seem to cover 1911s, but that might be my phone not working well with their holster finder.
Any mechanical retention system other than a snap can get jammed by debris. In fact, dirty snaps can fail to disengage too, I’ve had it happen.
I stand by my original statement. The holster doesn’t lend itself to ND’s. People lend themselves to ND’s. People who try to go faster than their skill level allows are what’s causing this. Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast. Practice being smooth and the speed will come.
The draw for any holster is with a straight finger so that you end up indexing your finger flat across the frame as the gun clears the holster. Follow the same draw as you would have with any other holster and the Serpa does fine. Turn your finger into a hook with any holster, in an attempt to speed your ability to fire once on target, and you risk the same problem no matter what holster you’re using.
As for trainers… eh, I guess they might have a point but to me that’s like saying a driver’s ed class banned the WRX and the Evo Lancer. It doesn’t mean they’re bad cars. It means that if you need this class you’re not ready for those cars.
I simply fail to see the problem but that’s just me. YMMV.
Well Strych you can believe in whatever gear you like, just for the sake of your leg and those who shoot with you let me send you a tourniquet or two. They are helpful pieces of kit for when you eventually perforate your thigh.
Good luck.
I use a serpa holster all the time. ITs called PRACTICE when you have one and when you draw so you learn NOT to slip your finger into the trigger housing when you pull the gun…but that is true for ANY holster you use. Its idiots who get shot when using seraps!!
Just to clear this up right here right now:
http://www.lightfighter.net/topic/serpa-blackball-list-sticky
That’s the result of poor training. When you grab the gun, you lay your finger FLAT on the holder in the long groove to release the lock. If you do that your finger will land flat along the slide every single time guarenteed even under high stress. I wear a level 2 serpa off duty and a level 3 serpa on duty. The fatal mistake people make is holding their finger in a C shape and pressing the release with the tip of their finger. Under stress your finger may slip into to trigger guard as soon as you clear the holster.
The Psycho Pass gun!
Now if we can ever get them without mountains of paperwork and being treated like a criminal!
Price? On the Maxim. Not the holster. If they release them and they don’t take $200 extra to obtain, holsters will fall out of the sky for these.
The price is $1499 not including the $200 transfer fee.
That’s an awful lot of money for something you don’t get to play with for 3-12 months.
Ugh finger grooves, aka no-one-complains-when-there-are-none.
Why not, or else I can’t justify buying all those Dremel bits and pieces anyway…
If they pass the HPA, and if the prices are reasonable, this will become my new edc as soon as I can afford it.
Already on the waitlist, have a feeling its gonna be a while.
“If they pass the HPA”
That is a very very very big ‘if’
Let’s have a comprehensive review of this thing. Looks terribly front heavy to me, so I wonder about balance. Is it still accurate with a nearly empty magazine? Can it be fired effectively with one hand?
The price alone is seriously intimidating. But it wouldn’t do me any good given “free” if I can’t control it.
Re weight distribution I think just about any pistol with a can on it is going to have that issue to some degree. Just guessing here, but I’d wager this one would be better than many simply because it’s designed in, and they can try to keep the center of mass further back.
And I agree, a review would be great.
“I think just about any pistol with a can on it is going to have that issue to some degree.”
Exactly. 🙂 Until this issue can be addressed reasonably, these guns won’t be of any use for EDC. And, since self defense, EDC, is the only use I’d have for any gun, the technology needs to improve a lot before I’ll be buying any of them.
But I’d certainly like to handle one and see how they shoot. A good review would help that a lot.
They need to have a woman set this thing for balance, ease of use, etc. Men have strong hands and forearms and can “manage” the imbalance of the design but it is different for a woman. Is she can do that, rush out and get one!
I think my wife would beg to differ with you re forearm strength. Ultimate limits are personal genetics and gender, of course; that said, I know women (Mrs. Consequence included) who can handle an all-metal full-sized pistol with no problems. My wife is a woodworker, but all that really says in this context is that exercise helps.
The balance is not much different than a long slide 1911. I had the opportunity to compare the Maxim directly against a Glock 17L and it is alot more nimble than you would think. It is deceivingly light and swings easily, the front is all aluminum. It is a little longer than the 17L but nothing like running a traditional setup. One hand firing was fine, overall it felt like shooting any modern polymer striker fired gun.
The biggest takeaway most people had after handling it and especially those of us lucky enough to fire it was that it feels like a normal gun. It isn’t too heavy and doesn’t feel flimsy, which were my two anticipated problem areas. It is very well balanced and the slide and controls feel solid, just like a normal gun.
The pistol does not feel imbalanced at all. Most, if not all, traditionally suppressed pistols look and feel front-heavy. The Maxim 9 may ‘look’ front-heavy, but that is not the case. Not even close. Once you feel on in hand, you will agree. It is very well balanced, even with an empty magazine.
Well the movies were right, Judge Dredds pistol is here.
Maybe its like smart phones, they get big, then small, then big, then small…..
At least the designers were smart enough to use Glock magazines. The cost will eventually fall but the tax fee and proprietary holster will keep the cost close to the msrp. Ouch! Damn cool gun though, can’t wait to see one at the range.
GunfightersINC will be building their Ronin (OWB), Kenai (Chest) and Spectre (Shoulder) holsters for the Maxim 9 as well.
Does it come with a shoulder sling, it looks a bit bulky and cumbersome.
One of the main reasons I’m hoping the Hearing Protection Act gets passed is I believe there will be more integrally suppressed designs on the market as a result. No extremely long waits, no additional paperwork, and a gun that’s much less ear-shattering and easier to control? I’d be down for that.
I have this combo. I think Serpas are fine, but this one was designed by boneheads. The “cutout” for the RDS covers half the footprint (u can see in the photo) so it doesn’t work with RDSs, dumb!