Did anyone use the Safariland Raptor series? If so, how did you like them ?
Did anyone use the Safariland Raptor series? If so, how did you like them ?
We used them for several years when we converted from Berettas to Sig's. We first tried to use an identical holster, the Safarland 070, but about 20% of them wouldn't ever break in. This was with 226R's.....holster didn't really accommodate the rail. We then went to the Raptor. Easy transition, since the draw stroke was nearly identical. Not ideal, though....and then a Sergeant almost lost his gun in a violent struggle out of a holster with a broken SLS hood spring....went to the ALS/SLS combo with the hood guard afterward. Not a huge fan of the hood guard, but love the ALS system.
Anyway...the Raptor was okay, especially as a transition from the 070. No good in the long run, in my opinion, because there is no WML capability.
I had issues with the raptor that were not issues with the 070. With small hands and short fingers, popping open snaps was fine, but holding the middle release against spring tension affected my master grip. The SLS/ALS combo is far superior, IMO.
Last edited by Chuck Whitlock; 09-08-2018 at 10:56 AM.
"It's surprising how often you start wondering just how featureless a desert some people's inner landscapes must be."
-Maple Syrup Actual
Our Raptors had the SLS hood and were rock-back only.
I used an 070 with a Beretta for years. It was a good holster, if you trained with it. I won the class shoot off in my Gunsite 250 class using a 92G from an 070 holster. That said, the ALS is the best duty holster yet devised, in my opinion. With the SLS hood, as secure as an 070, and faster. My opinion, YMMV.
I believe that there is more to the holsters in this experiment than just speed. I think the speed is just the easy metric to test. I trained on the SLS and switched to an ALS as an instructor. I had the chance not only to shoot both for years, but I got to see data points from a 1,000+ officers shoot each for years. Not just shooting the AZPOST qual but AOT up to and including FoF.
One of the takeaways I have is the ALS is faster because it's easier to remove the retention. That will be true no matter the other retention features one uses. So it's not just speed. It's the amount of fumbled, failed and screwed up draws that occur across the bell curve of officer's ability. With the ALS the numbers of fumbled draws went down drastically with those officers that just, show up to qual and never/rarely train. On the rare occasion that the ALS jammed, almost universally because the officer pulled up on the pistol before bringing the thumb switch back enough, it was quite easy to remedy. That was not true for the SLS. What we found was that officers that had a panic response after a fumbled ALS draw also went drastically down.
I will take the speed increase because I don't get to choose how much time I have. The bad guy, fate, etc does. But the 2nd and 3rd order effects of that speed that I talk about above are just as important to a successful gunfight, IMO of course. As far as retention being more important? Maybe. It's certainly a balance. Luckily most major holster makers will give a complete menu of retention in various configurations. So we can pick our level and our combination of holsters that are quicker while being harder to steal.
What you do right before you know you're going to be in a use of force incident, often determines the outcome of that use of force.
"It's surprising how often you start wondering just how featureless a desert some people's inner landscapes must be."
-Maple Syrup Actual