Product Review Hairy Houdini?

[Bongo Lewi]

I ordered a Houdini holster just for grins. I was intrigued by their concept of the split/open top, whereby in an urgent situation you can pull the gun out of the holster on an angle. The idea being if you are confronted and the bad guy is already in your grille, the conventional draw is too slow or physically difficult, which gives the perp an advantage in a grapple. With this design, you can sort of twist it up and out out of the holster and thus fire from the hip.

It's something like the cut down 'trigger' holsters you see now and then. Except it covers the entire gun.

Does it live up to the claim? I dont know but I was interested enough to risk buying one. It's otherwise a fine Kydex holster so there's no down side if this split top concept is just a gimmick.

Most Kydex holsters that are one piece... a folded single sheet like a taco shell... are conjoined at the bottom. This one is open at the top. Check it out, I'll post more after it arrives.



View: https://vimeo.com/1075489964?fl=pl&fe=ti

 

[Bongo Lewi]

I'll summarize in Russian. NYET.

It's an OK holster and the split top is unique but the quality just aint there. It's equivalent to the cheap Chinese holsters you get on Amazon. It works fine, the retention is acceptable.

It's a shame Houdini don't devote more time to the finish work and use better Kydex. The edges are polished but it is sloppy. They did toss in a free Utilclip you can use as an option the standard clips if you want the holster to be tuckable and wear it canted. Also a free wedge.

After doing some rapid draw 5x5 drills, I find the split top to be only marginally faster since you can pull up and out. Especially if the bad guy is already in your face and you have to rapidly draw and fire from the hip at close proximity, necessitating you shooting him in the gut. I can't deny this may be useful but I also know that a bad guy is going to have two holes in his chest before he can put his hands on me. That's just me. I hate surprises and go out of my way to avoid them. If you are the inattentive type or have a hard time making decisions, this holster may be helpful.

Unfortunately the other shortcomings of the holster in terms of material quality and finish I'd not buy another. It's an interesting concept but the build quality just isn't there. This holster is more like a 30 dollar ChingChong special than a $65 holster which was an introductory sale price.

 

[Notshawn54]

Thanks for your review. I’ve been inundated with their ads on Instagram. My hesitation is that I don’t want to relearn or change my drawstroke. Could only imagine trying to rotate the gun out but, oops not wearing that holster today.

 

[Bongo Lewi]

Thanks for your review. I’ve been inundated with their ads on Instagram. My hesitation is that I don’t want to relearn or change my drawstroke. Could only imagine trying to rotate the gun out but, oops not wearing that holster today.

I should have mentioned this tryout was appendix carry at 1:00.

I made it my mission years ago to be indifferent to the gun and shoot any of them well. I think draw is a harder discipline to master than having good form with a handgun.

Carry-wise, I would regularly shift from shoulder to hip to appendix, IWB to OWB, crossdraw and occasionally SoB. Pocket too. Often with different guns. Occupational requirement. Hours of practice with all those variations became weeks then months then years. It's definitely not like riding a bike. You get rusty (meaning slow) pretty quick.

A related thing is... I had to discipline myself to always be aware of where the gun was. Shoulder, hip, etc. The best analogy I can think of is how when you have a handful of grocery bags, your car keys are always in the "wrong " pocket. So you have to jostle the load or set it down and pat yourself down to retrieve the keys. With groceries it doesn't matter. Defensive gun play is a different kettle of fish. Speed is everything.

As I've mentioned a thousand times before, when it comes to carry guns, I don't give a rip about putting shots in one ragged hole. It's irrelevant to defensive shooting. Putting two holes in the 8 inch circle we refer to as center mass and doing that faster than the bad guy with a gun is all that matters. Two seconds is good. 1.5 seconds is very good. So to your point, there's no time for thinking about what holster you wore today.