Everything breaks sooner or later. If you haven’t broken it, you haven’t run it hard or long enough. But there is a difference between a catastrophic failure and something that’s broken and needs replacement. I don’t mind something that breaks and needs to be replaced, but something that catastrophically fails or will fail catastrophically, I don’t want around me.
I’ve had multiple holsters fail on me. The latest one was a Storm Holster that broke while I was wearing it at church. It wasn’t that big a deal because I didn’t even know the holster was broken until I got home hours later and took it off. It felt weird suddenly and became uncomfortable while wearing it, but I never dropped the gun and it never became visible.
Years ago, I had a holster catastrophically fail. While working as an armored car guard, I was walking through a hotel lobby with a .22 revolver in an ankle holster as a back up. I’d been wearing it for months. I came out of the plush carpeted hotel and turned left to go towards the truck and heard the unmistakable sound of a gun clattering on the ground. I looked behind me in surprise to find my gun sitting on the ground, my holster had broken and dropped my gun. I was disgusted and scared to death because if the gun had fallen out three steps before, it would have fallen on the carpet and I would have never heard it and walked off, leaving it on the lobby floor.
I like to push my gear until it breaks and then replace it. I also like to buy stuff with a lifetime warranty so they can replace it for me. Years ago, I used Blackhawk tactical gloves, back when they used to replace things for free. I bought a set for $75 and wore a hole in them. Sent them to Blackhawk, they replaced them. I took them to combat, wore them out again, got them replaced. After three new pairs, they caught on and wouldn’t replace them anymore, so I bought another set. When that set wore out and they refused to replace them, saying their policy had changed, I bought different gloves. The point is that the gloves never failed me. They just wore out and needed to be replaced. They lasted until the end of every operation and never failed to protect my hands.
Same thing with my latest holster and I’m simply going to replace it.
What gear have you broken? What stuff do you need to replace? Or will you throw away?
Stay Safe,
Ben
Hey Ben, I can only imagine the shock you must have felt when you heard your gun fall on the floor! Thanks goodness it didnt go off accidentally and injure someone. Some of the new Kydex based holsters and grade A leather holsters tend to come with lifetime warranties.
Thanks for the thought on the holsters Joe. The one I was wearing had a lifetime warranty too. It was one of those stretch deals with a thumb-break on it. Since then I’m totally turned off on ankle carry. It just scares the snot out of me that I could have dropped my gun and walked off and had someone else pick it up. I haven’t carried in an ankle since. That was at least 10 years ago.
But you are right, a better holster may work. Or it maybe that I just click my heals when I walk or that I walk goofy. I don’t know, I just haven’t bothered to try and figure it out.
Thanks for the comment and thanks for listening!