Duty Gear

[mongooseman]

After years of being assigned to investigations, I’ve started a new, mostly administrative type duty that requires a uniform and duty gear. I put up the concealment gear and have been practicing with a duty belt, which means magazines with a snap release and a level two holster.

Any timed drills involving a draw or reloads have predictably resulted in slower times (not that I was ever fast to begin with). I’m going to continue to work on getting better, but how much will age and equipment realistically affect what I can do (I’m 55, with some of the expected wear and tear that goes with being on the job for nearly 30 years)?

[lwt16]

I'm 48 and recently was issued a new holster with the rotating hood.....after having the old triple retention Safariland holsters for nearly 20 years.

I figured I'd never get as fast as I am now but I can't tell you how many draws and hours of practice I have had to put in to get used to this new holster. Practice until you are sick and tired of it and then practice some more. Age and wear and tear be danged.....

I practice constantly at work.......while others hang out in stores and internet when it's slow, I'll be somewhere in my zone hidden from view drawing.....and drawing......and drawing.........including dry fire practicing and mag changes.

It helps with the arthritis in the hands too. Dry weapon manipulations and dry draw stroke practice is part of every shift for me.

Regards.

[ST911]

When wearing duty gear, it's a safariland 7390-83 ALS with ALS guard, and a model 79 open top vertical mag pouch. Flapped mag pouches are gone. My times are only marginally slower (<.3-.5 sec or so) than other methods. I work hardest on getting the master grip and retention deactivated in a smooth single motion which is the biggest potential time suck. I can work that without even removing the gun from the holster.

[Erick Gelhaus]

I can't disagree with anything above. Shoot the same drills you were before, work on getting your times to where they were. Draw times may or may not be different given that you aren't drawing from concealment but you are working through retention devices. We do not mandated flapped mag pouches, so I can't remember using them, ever. But going from a concealed reload to a flapped pouch reload, what'll the time difference be?

Being chained to a desk interferes with some on-duty dry practice but I'm still getting several dry presentations in every work day.

[John10-19]

If you're using a Glock 17/22/34/35 etc, I recommend picking up a SIRT pistol and a couple SIRT magazines. I find it far more convenient to switch to SIRT gear, while off duty at home before or after a shift or while wearing concealement gear, and get a few quality draw repetitions alternated with draw and shooting repetitions. While on duty, I pratice rotating the SLS hood down while getting a consistent high grip on the gun. After seeing some switched on people spectacularly fail, I am not a fan of dry fire practice while on duty.

If you're not regularly cuffing people, I recommend investing some time practicing removing the cuffs and getting them indexed while using your new duty belt.

I also try to do some practice Taser and baton draws/presentations.

[jlw]

What duty holster are you using?

If it is a rotating hood holster, the single biggest mistake I see with those is people rotating the hood forward and then establishing their grip rather than doing both at the same time.

[Lon]

What duty holster are you using?

If it is a rotating hood holster, the single biggest mistake I see with those is people rotating the hood forward and then establishing their grip rather than doing both at the same time.

THIS +1000.

I have short thumbs so the hoods have always been a problem for me. That's why I just use the ALS/ALS Guard combo holsters.

[Sherman A. House DDS]

I’m new to LE but used a hood holster 6280 with my USP and a G22 in the armored truck industry. A, “hack,” that is by design but many dudes like us tend to overlook is using the, “paddle,” on the hood by centering our thumb press straight down on it. But by design, the faceted edges of the thumb paddle are where your thumb is designed to press, and if you do that correctly, your hand will land on the back strap of the pistol in a full-firing grip, just like you should and how Chief Weems mentioned above. Same with the ALS/SLS models.

Many of us old guys who are used to break front, SSIII, or the myriad of holsters that exist pre SLS/ALS, are used to having to do some sleight of hand and thumb theatrics to disengage the retention prior to beginning the drawstroke.

It’s nice that rigs allow a proper, safe draw with good economy of motion these days.


civiliandefender.com

[jlw]

Here is a video from Bill Rogers on draw technique from the SLS/ALS holsters. One would think he knows of what he speaks, since, well, he designed them.



I have found that driving the elbow to the rear with the strong hand in a "C" grip and then coming into the pistol with a slightly rearward angle that you can drive into the gun with your thumb pushing the bail/hood forward and down at the same time you are establishing the strong hand grip.
@Sherman A. House DDS, I was required to use the old 070 holster for my first 10 years. My only real gripe with that holster is that it doesn't support the weight of the gun well. I can actually live without being able to attach a light.

[andre3k]

I tried to get away from flapped mag pouches, but the open top safariland pouches would always loosen up on me and everytime I ran or got into a fight the magazine would inevitably come out. Yeah they are slow on reloads, but I'm jumping fences and grappling more than I'm reloading so I stick with the old style pouches.