Review: Drop Leg Holster

A while back I attended a comic convention, Armageddon at which there were a number of stalls selling a variety of costume pieces, including a bunch of military looking kit. There was a considerable military cos-play contingent, so it was a good opportunity for me to see how other people wore their costume. Almost all of the costume pieces I saw were just that, poorly put-together costume pieces with bad stitching, un-taped seams, cheep light nylon and flimsy plastic hardware.  I did find one piece that I wanted to add to my collection: This no-name drop leg holster. The material is a stiff quilted nylon, in woodland, my most populous kind of cam. It is a highly adjustable "universal" holster, and to keep the "I don't own any firearms" tradition going, I have it holding one of my Nerf Scout pistols.

As far as a piece of rig goes, its a pretty standard setup as far as I can tell. It follows the same pattern as my 1/2 Leg rig in that it has a vertical belt strap and two thigh straps. A magazine pouch sits just at the forward facing edge of the holster, with a hook-and-loop closure flap.

In this rig, all the key components are adjustable. The top of the belt strap ends in a broad 50mm hook and loop belt-loop, with a hoop of  elastic webbing to give some shock absorption and give for the wearer. A wide Fastex type buckle about half way down gives a fast-on/fast-off option for those times where you need to shake a leg, so to speak, and a thigh-rig gets in the way. At the bottom of the belt-strap is another adjustable hook and loop closing webbing section, which is fixed to the main body of the holster by a plastic hardware loop, again adjustable by hook-and-loop.

Two thigh straps are sewn-in to the back of the holster directly, and following the same pattern as the belt-strap, and features an elastic webbing section, at the body of the holster, with a Fastex style clip. The webbing strap is adjustable with a plastic slide. I found, even with my fairly slim thighs, this was a tight fit. Someone with larger thighs would have considerable trouble wearing this particular model.




The holster section itself is also highly adjustable: Internally there are two strips of hook-and loop, one of which makes up one half of the closure system, the other is positioned such that the loose webbing strip (somewhat obscured by my fingers here) can be affixed to it to cradle the barrel of the holstered pistol. At the top of the holster you can see the webbing tabs with a press stud, for securing the carried pistol. Mine is faulty, and will not "snap" closed. Sign of the low-quality knock-off that this piece is. It also seemed a little "small" and may not accommodate a real pistol, or at least not one with a lighting system.

The holster closes with a three-piece hook-and-loop seam, in which a middle layer (the left side) loops around to the right, and is covered by the long strip of hook-and-loop held out in this picture. This gives a very secure and form-fitting carriage, and the holster is complete.

From this position you can also see that the security-snaps are also adjustable.

All in all, I was happy with this addition to my collection, for what it cost me and what I will be using it for, I will get my money's worth. I would not recommend it however for someone who was going to stake their life on their equipment however. It may well have been made off a good pattern and I like the functionality, the ability to widely adjust its layout and "fit", but this is a theatrical quality piece at best.