All posts tagged Safariland holsters for sale

The good thing about the Safariland product line

Safariland holstersThe good thing about Safariland’s product line is they probable have the best selection of CCW and Duty holsters for the majority of medium to large frame firearms.   My experience with them is they are not outrageously priced and can be a bit on the heavy side, but at least you can get a holster.   Now that so many people are getting compacts and sub-compact firearms for off duty, it is an issue that takes a lot of patience and research to find a holster and probable 10% of the time we just tell  our customers they might want to look into getting a custom kydex holster instead of buying a factory made holster and finding out they don’t like it.    We have been stocking more and more of the Safariland holsters for Glocks and Sig Sauer handguns because so many people, including our own State Police are using the Surefire  X300 on their Glock 21s and want an off duty holster that also holds the light.

Safariland probable has the best holster fit guide where you just click through the questionnaire and answer things like, Manufacturer, caliber, barrel length and if you want a light.   There are more left handed Safariland holsters than the Blackhawk Serpa product line and you can also use a non-xiphos flashlight in them.   The xiphos flashlights are really a bad idea and I can’t name a single person that likes the light, let a lone the Blackhawk Serpa/Xiphos  combination.   I saw a holster design last year for a new Flashlight option from Blackhawk but it was not available for many firearms and is an endless issue for Police or Citizens trying to use the same gun.   If you are using or want a Streamlight TLR1,TLR2 or Surefire X300U, your best bet is to research the Safariland product line.

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A very successful year in Delaware County

philadelphia police supply storesThis year was a very successful year for us in the Delaware County area in launching our tactical store and we double the size of our business in the first 6 months.  People are still finding out about us via word of mouth whenever they need a new holster, police boots or even just Ambulance companies hiring and people  needing to get a pair of pants.  Much of the product line we stock in our store is for people to checkout instead of buying it online.  Duty gear like handcuff keys and various police belts are things that people in the Law Enforcement industry lose or wear out over time and are always in need of.    Police vests, tactical pants, uniform pants, belts, hydration unites, SWAT team bags are things that are always wearing out and need to be replaced.

We’ve learned there are so many types of handcuffs, swivel and hinged doesn’t always narrow it down, some are different weights and types of metal.  The items we have brought in this year are the Safariland lightweight handcuffs and in our region there are no Philadelphia Police Supplies shops around here and many of our Law Enforcement Officers are very happy to see a business like this open up.   Tactical vests, body armor are all things people need to be sized up on and this is something that has to be done right so that there are fewer returns.   We stock a large number of Blackhawk serpa holsters, safariland products, pepper spray, mace, tasers, batons, police badge holders and more and more duty gear.

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Leather, Kydex, Suede and more gun holster options for Duty Holsters

safariland holstersWe get phone calls from customers  that ask very broad questions and sometimes it’s apparent that people just want to know we’re open and when they can stop buy.   The whole point of having a showroom  here in the town that we have one, was because there are a great many things that people don’t want to buy online.  There are all kinds of parts and accessories that also Police and Security agencies lose or wear out.   Identify badges, leather wallets, key chains, handgun keys and the list goes on.   A few days ago we had mace pouches that we had to fit to various pepper sprays because the fit had to be perfect and not just hold it, it had to hold it correctly so it would be easily secured and deployed.

Handgun and flashlight holders are all different in style and fit.   We’ gone through a long list of accessories and flipped through the Safariland holsters and accessories book that we got when we became a dealer.    The differences between a holster that worked for you and a holster that was kinda working are slight and some safety issues can come about if you don’t go by product codes or get technical support.   Even the differences between a streamlight Strion, Stinger ect can be vest because the bezel or lenses have different dimensions.  Sometimes it’s nice to just be able to go in and ask questions from someoone that knows what they are doing.

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Duty holsters, can you deviate from Safariland?

safariland holstersThe short answer is YES but many people stick with the Safariland products because even though sinking $100 into a holster is expensive you get something that unless you break it in some wild adventure, it might last most of your 20yr career in Law Enforcement.   There are so many products listed in the Safariland catalog that many dealers of the Safariland product line don’t even list all of it.  Recently we actually had an issue with some of the technical info not being up to date and we had some incorrect holsters come in.  We didn’t  know that there was no difference between the M6 flashlight and the TLR-1S light.  Everyone and their dog is using the TLR lights now so we are stocking them for the local departments.

Blackhawk Serpa holsters are still very popular and a quick fix for anyone looking for a retention holsters but I don’t even have to ask why when a cop walks in our store on why he wants retention.   You gotta have retention and Safariland holsters like the ALS are the way to go because when you have to holster your weapon and cuff someone you don’t want them pulling your own firearm and using against you.  The Stats are there for cops being killed with their own weapons and  even for swat teams that are primarily using AR15 or M16, you need retention on your handguns to prevent them from flying out when you are moving around.

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Official Safariland Holster Dealer

It’s official, Rogue Elite is now an authorized Safariland and Bianchi dealer here in Southeastern Pennsylvania.  Our Broomall showroom and the demand from local law enforcement has given us a strong and stable foothold in this area after 7yrs of drop shipping various products for years.  There are many products that our Law Enforcement Community have asked for and many of them can only be had by direct dealers and not through drop shipping distributors.   The Safariland product line is vast and the variations in firearms, light and lasers that are available to them can great complicate the holster selections.

Many tactical teams need thigh or drop leg holsters and many are using the TLR-1 or TLR-3 gun lights.  Not everyone chooses to use the same gear and many have used the Safariland holsters with the Surefire X300 flashlights.  The change in flashlights can cause many to use a different holster and at $140 per holster that really can get expensive.  There is usually a very thorough testing period before a department chooses a sidearm and flashlights take just as much time to test out.   Normally it’s Surefire or Streamlight but we have seen quite a few of the Viridian laser flashlight combos.

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Safariland retention and thigh holsters

For those that work in the industry you see new products and supposedly new accessories that people want to pump you up about.  Marketing and advertising products are going to try and get you to believe that you need to buy it, but there are many things that are all about preference and styles.   Some products like the Safariland ALS are tried and tested and we’ve sold so many of them that it’s not something we’re expecting to see improved upon.

While the Beretta 92 or more commonly known as the M9, is still military issued, most in the Special Forces prefer to use something else. Most of our customer base use Glock firearms because the low maintenance firearm and the time tested Safariland holsters have the most reliable locking mechanism for Law Enforcement and Military applications. Every Police Officer that walks in our store prefers Safariland. The Glock 17  is still the most popular firearm we sell holsters for.

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Holsters vs. Holsters

There are so many variations of holsters and certain holsters are a must for certain environments.  I never understood people that take a firearm or a holster and don’t use it the way it was intended or try and cut around corners.  For instance, I have a friend that carries a Safariland holster around with the ALS system but he doesn’t keep the hood up to lock the gun in.    The locking system design is actually being skipped over.  The real problem with this line of thinking is under stress, the locking system can get knocked back and then the person with the firearm will get a surprise when he or she pulls the firearm and it does not release.  Practice with the guns and gear the way they were suppose to be otherwise unintended issues will arise.

The same thing goes for people that carry 1911s and keep the thumb safety off.  I have seen thumb safeties on 1911s come back on and this is the same issue that can occur on Safariland holsters with the ALS design.   The one thing I do like about kydex holsters over the leather holsters that we sell is that re holstering in a kydex holster is easy and there is hardly the need to wiggle the gun around or adjust the holster before re-holstering.  Some leather holsters can start to flop over time and that can be an issue under stress.   Choose your holster and firearm and be careful your short cuts don’t end up becoming a liability.

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New guns vs the old guns

We got a lot of weird questions about firearms and clothing and some things just aren’t worth our time pursuing.   There are new products  coming out every couple months and there are always new guns after SHOT Show or the NRA Convention that we basically have no interest in buying up holsters or gear with.   We normally wait for our customer to give us feedback on products and if there is enough interest in them, then we’ll bring in holsters, tactical lights or keep standard capacity magazines around.   Tactical lights are becoming a major headache for some manufacturers because there are fit differences between each tactical light.

Lately there seems to be a trend from local police departments to go back to Glocks just because some of the products have become so complicated it’s just not worth the hassle being the first to pick up a new handgun.   One thing that seems to be true is everyone goes back to Safariland holsters for their Sigs and Glock pistols.  Today a local police department asked us to look into getting them holsters for the Sig 220 handguns that are issued to them.  It was odd to hear that that gun is still in service locally, but it is.   There are polymer Sig pistols and even if they have an advantage, in the market place, there just aren’t as many options for them.

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Glocks the unshethed knife

I remember when Glocks started showing up in Law Enforcement agencies and people were claiming that they were more dangerous than previous firearms that were issued.  Supposedly they were sold as not having a safety and from what I saw, yes, I actually did see more accidents over a course of a year when they first were issued.  Now that Glock pistols have decades long experience you can’t argue with something that obviously works and work well.  The military issued sidearm the Beretta 92 or M9 as it is called defanitely is not  up to what the Glock can do and by watching what military contractors are using.

The Glock trigger safety really should not be called a safety because it does not work like a traditional safety at all.   It is more of an accidental discharge prevention safety but a top selling Safariland holsters with the ALS system are the reason we refer to the Glock as an unsheethed knife.   If a Glock is put in a retention holster it is like sword that has been sheethed.  There are always trade offs with firearms but it truely is an out of the box point and shoot sidearm.  Love them or hate them, they work, and work well

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Locking holsters it is about preference

We have been selling far more Blackhawk holsters than ever before but several Law Enforcement Agencies that we deal with have bad mouthed them and have told us that they have banned them from training classes.   There are flaws in the Blackhawk system and it is true that a dirty locking system will cause the gun to get stuck and it will be difficult to retrieve, but the funny thing about the videos that are floating around YouTube are that if you did the same thing to an M16, the gun would jam up also.

Many of our Special Forces and Law Enforcement still prefer the Safariland holsters although they do seem a little bulkier than other holsters.  There really are duty holsters and for the most part Safariland Holsters are best for that job.  People that bash locking holsters need to take new students to a range and have them use thumb break holsters and you’ll see in about 5 minutes that Safariland and Blackhawk designs are superior.   Not only is it about being able to get your firearm out quickly, it’s also about locking the gun in place so it doesn’t fly out when you have to run or are in an altercation.

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