Good construction, poor design - Texas 1836 KYDEX Versus - Appendix Hybrid Holster w/ Magazine Carrier

First of all, I must say this is a well built holster. The kydex, leather, and hardware are of high quality and workmanship. It is honestly very comfortable to wear, which is what I am searching for in a sidecar AIWB holster.

But while the construction is good, unfortunately the design details do not make this a good holster.

The retention is not good. As with any good holster, it does have an indentation on the kydex portion of the trigger guard which serves to retain the gun by "capturing" the trigger guard, but it's not significant enough to hold it into retention. On all my other holsters, including my CompTac hybrid, you can tighten the retention so that this indentation produces a noticeable "click" when the weapon is fully secured. This holster design doesn't do that. Even with the retention screw cranked down the weapon just sort of "glides" in and out of the holster.

The sweat guard is also very large, and this is a problem for several reasons. First, it is so wide that it interferes with my ability to get a full grip on the weapon during the draw. Most sweat guards only cover the slide, including my other hybrid. This one is an inch wider and taller, and covers a big part of the weapon's grip as well. A good sweat guard protects the metal parts from rubbing on your skin but does not interfere with getting a full grip during the draw. This one does not do that.

The sweat guard is also so long that when the weapon is unholstered it completely obscures the mouth of the holster. With a little time, the leather is going to soften and the sweat guard will end up flopping completely over the holster. This makes reholstering more challenging and potentially dangerous. Again, my other hybrid holsters have a shorter, narrower sweat guard which allows for a full grip during the draw and does not flop over the mouth of the holster when empty. I could trim the sweat guard and ruin the stitching, but I refuse to do that on a new product and would rather just return it.

Lastly, the magazine carrier portion of this sidecar holster is very shallow. The XDs magazines are not very long, but the cavity is much too shallow. There is not much area putting pressure on the magazine so it tends to be pretty loose even with the retention screw cranked down.

I will be returning this holster for a refund.