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EXCATM76
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Posted: 8/9/2012 9:59:25 PM

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So I bought a Safariland ALS paddle holster for my Springfield Lightweight Operator. Surprisingly the holster is extremely loose. I've owned several Safariland holsters in the past and have never had one this loose, the gun will actually move up and down about 1/8" inside the holster, it will rattle when shaken and there is no friction holding it in place. Normally on a Safariland holster you would tighten the screw by the trigger guard, however this one does not want to tighten down, the nut actually spins when I try to tighten it. The Instructions say to tighten the screw at the muzzle of the holster, there is no screw there. SO any ideas on how to tighten this thing up? Is the up and down movement normal on the ALS line?
glock-coma
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Posted: 8/9/2012 11:33:13 PM
I just checked my 6320 for my lw operator, it's the same thing but left handed. The adjustment screw by the trigger guard is the way to tighten it down. It does just spin if it's very loose, but if you hold the back nut with your thumb then use the allen wrench it should tighten down. Your screw my be crossed threaded, so try and remove it and check for stripped threads if it doesn't work. My holster does not have any movement once the ALS Locks it in place. Check the screw that holds the ALS to the top of the holster that may be loose.
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EXCATM76
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Posted: 8/10/2012 10:31:03 AM
Originally Posted By glock-coma:
I just checked my 6320 for my lw operator, it's the same thing but left handed. The adjustment screw by the trigger guard is the way to tighten it down. It does just spin if it's very loose, but if you hold the back nut with your thumb then use the allen wrench it should tighten down. Your screw my be crossed threaded, so try and remove it and check for stripped threads if it doesn't work. My holster does not have any movement once the ALS Locks it in place. Check the screw that holds the ALS to the top of the holster that may be loose.


Tried both the screws, the top didn't do anything loosening or tightening it to effect the fit. I got the one by the trigger guard to tighten a bit and then the head stripped. It never tightened down on the gun. I'm thinking that screw need to be loosened and the part that the trigger guard contacts needs to be slid up and then the screw tightened down.
EXCATM76
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Posted: 8/10/2012 10:51:14 AM
[Last Edit: 8/10/2012 2:44:09 PM by EXCATM76]
For anyone that may have the same problem with this I'll post what I was told by safariland. A little bit of up and down movement of the gun once the ALS is engaged is normal. As is a a bit or rattle with some models. I asked if it would be ok to heat the kydex at the muzzle and press it to the gun to get a tighter fit and she said that would be ok and to just e careful with it. So I will try that and post results. I'm wanting to minimize movement of the gun to prevent unnecessary finish wear and get rid of the rattle.

Safariland also said due to the locking nature of the ALS that the gun will not fit the sale way as with a 6004 or 5288 where the gun locks in and is held by tension.


Update:

I I cut a slot in the tension screw in order to remove it and see if there was anyway to adjust anything and retighten. No dice, The holster is just loose. So I heated up the holster near where the muzzle end of the slide would be, inserted the gun inside a ziplock bad and knelt on it until it cooled. Now the holster fits the gun well and there is only about 1/16" of up and down movement, there is no rattle.

Now I just need to practice about 1000 draws with the release.
EXCATM76
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Posted: 8/10/2012 8:13:53 PM
OK one more update. After wearing the holster for a bit I noticed it was still rattling. Wich was minor compared to how bad it was originally. However it was still driving me nuts. So I decided to try making the spacer at the retention screw thinner. I removed the retention and nut and removed the spacer. Then I cut about 1/16" off of the width of the spacer with a dremel. When I put it back together the rattle was gone and I still have adjustment left in the retention screw should everything loosen up overtime. Now the holster fits like I thought it should from the get go. So if you have a loose fitting ALS and it will not crank down on the retention screw anymore I'd suggest trimming just a bit off the spacer since it fixed my problems.

I should note that Safariland offered to take the holster back and test it and replace it if it was defective. I did not however want to wait the couple weeks that would have taken.
nf9648
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Posted: 8/11/2012 12:20:09 AM
Depending on the gun, I have some looseness in my ALS holsters. None fail to retain the pistol, I can shake the hell out of them and whip them around and the holster stays put until I activate the lever. I may do that spacer trimming, honestly it hasnt been much of an issue.
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Posted: 8/11/2012 12:39:49 AM
My 6378 and 6360 for a Sig P226 (w/X200) both have a little play and rattle. The 6360 I was able to adjust the tension screw on the light area to tighten it up some but it still rattles a bit. The 6378 I used a piece of foam and made a donut sized spacer that fit over the muzzle stud to give some tension, works great now. I've noticed that none of the 6360s for guns without lights rattle, just the light-bearing ones.
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