We all know how important it is to periodically clean and inspect our firearms to make sure they will function as designed if ever called upon, but something else to keep in mind is to give your holsters a good once over from time to time as well to check for wear. But how could a holster ever fail, you might ask?
Case in point:
As you may or may not know, I open carry quite frequently, and as it so happens the holster I use most often for this is a relatively cheap Uncle Mike's nylon holster which works just fine for me. Well, the wife and I spent the better part of yesterday running around all over the country running errands, both open carrying. After quite a long day, we were pretty worn out so on the way home we decided to stop and rent a couple of movies followed by a quick pit stop at the grocery store for some snacks so we could cap off the night by "vegging out" on the couch with junk food and a good flick. While we were picking out a movie, I noticed my holster seemed to want to cant further forward than normal. I have never had a problem with my holster feeling loose before, but I thought maybe the hole in my cheap belt I happened to wear that day started to egg out from all the activity of the day. Then, leaving the grocery store just down the road from the movie place, it wanted to cant even more, but there were many people around and I did not want to reach down and play with my holster for fear of someone thinking I was reaching for my gun so I decided to let it be as we were not that far away from the car.
Of course by the time we made the long trip home and got the car unloaded and everything carried inside, we were both beat and all we wanted to do was crash on the couch and curl up under the blankets in our 'jammies which we wasted no time in doing. My next cognizant memory is waking up this morning.
We knew we had a short window of good weather this morning and we had some chores to do outside, so we dragged ourselves out of bed, quickly washed the sleep out of our eyes and got our work clothes on. I had simply taken off my belt last night and left my pistol in the holster, putting them in the safe together as a single unit. (My pistol is not my primary home protection weapon) I grabbed a different belt and pulled the holstered gun out of the safe and secured it to my waist before lacing up my work boots and heading out into the yard. I made it about half way down the sidewalk to the garage before I felt my holster cant forward. As I reached down to adjust it, it came off my belt. Fortunately, I had a firm enough grip on the gun that I was able to hang on to it and keep it from dropping to the ground. The stitching had come apart on the upper side of the loop the belt goes through and finally loosened up enough to where it could no longer support the weight of the gun.
As I made my way back inside to see if Kim could sew it back together, I couldn't help but think about what would have happened if it would have come apart in the grocery store last night. I can only imagine what would have happened if my Smith and Wesson would have fallen to the floor in the produce aisle. An un-nerving thought, indeed.
Needless to say, Kim and I have now both given all our holster set ups a good once over, and holster inspection will not be something we forget to do again.
