USP + CR speed holster

[cjennings]

After shooting one of the steel stages I was holstering my pistol when I had the pistol discharge as it was going into the holster. The round fired through my holster, through my jeans in several places and into the right side of my foot. The bullet was recovered in my shoe. The bullet caused a 3 laceration requiring a series of stitches. Most of the damage was from the hydrostatic impact of the round and it cause some fair local tissue damage. In any event I was extremely lucky, I will be left with some scaring, a sore foot, and a limp for a few weeks… and of course one battered ego.

So I figured as this is a safety issue I might as well call myself out on it as a learning opportunity, so I started going down the list of what I did to recreate the issue. First I was running my HK USP Expert in .40 with a CR speed II holster. Two products I love.

1.Did I not clear my trigger finger? Possible but I really dont think so. The pistol was locked into the CR speed catch and I had to pull it out after the round went off.

2.Did I forget to activate my safety - YES (kind of). I was running production where I needed to pull from a double action to start, I had just changed mags, hit my decocker and was holstering. So like my other USPs I dont ru n with the safety on when pulling from double action… in hind sight, maybe that needs to change, I only ran clocked and locked when running ESP. But please feel free to chime in here, I think from now on one consistent draw motion for all classes would be prudent. Most of my other pistols dont have a thumb safety and are activated by the trigger (glock & MP) or back straps types (XD etc) or just longer pulls like my HK LEMs or SIG DAKs.

3.Did my clothing catch? I am highly suspicious of this.. I was wearing a loose sweater as it was colder. I usually run more normal holsters for my other weapons and never have had issues. However, with the Ghost or CR Speed holsters it would be quite easy to get something caught up into the trigger guard.&n bsp; Needless to say, some more specific shooting clothing is in order. I actually dressed down from what I usual wear and train in when training with work.

4.Finally… was there a pistol / holster interface issue… this was interesting…So I searched on the net when I got home and found this >>>

I was wondering if any other contributers out there had problems with the CR-Speed holster when using a USP ? I was unlucky enough to have my first accidental discharge in 25 years of shooting, ….. Anyhow, the problem exists that the USP has an exposed trigger bar which is wider than the trigger guard.. and the CR-Speed holster has two fingers that lock around the guard to cover the trigger... By trying it at home later on it was possible to trip and fire the action on about 70% of reholsterings.. which is kinda scary because if you don't positively remember to set the safety, or it fails then you are likely to have a little accident. This problem seems unique to the USP as most all other semi auto's have their actuating hardware inside the frame rather than externally…. Typically the instructor told me later he had seen another incident similar to mine....

I cannot say for certain that this was the case. I have been able to catch the trigger bars and activate th e trigger if the pistol is angled just right when putting into my holster. Needless to say, I have another full body holster on its way that I will be using with this pistol. If I go back to my CR Speed holster I will be using it in enhanced cocked and locked with positive activation of the safety.

Hope you get something out of reading this..

Edited April 18, 2011 by cjennings

[Pro-Pain]

wow, glad you were ok!

I have a USP in .45, not the expert, the regular, and just looked at it. It has a sort of "Set of wings" that stick out just below the trigger, and the trigger is fully contained within the trigger guard.

When I holster my Glock, I make it a habit to keep my thumb on the back of the slide, right on the back plate and help push it down. Sometimes the back of the slide will come back just a little bit, and it's just a reassurance for me to be applying positive pressure to keep the gun in battery. Hope this helps!

[cjennings]

I work at a military and LEO training center and I have a few of the instructors tell me the same thing about the thumb placement when holstering. Showing them the holster and the pistol and making it activate the trigger they are all in awe and have not sceen that before. A few have said they have seen similar with "safe action" single pull pistols but that was a result more often of clothing or fingure placement when holstering. They dont see race holsters on the ranges lol...

FYI... the dynamics of a bullet impact are pretty neat.. the top of foot is crazy sore and bruised now. The only thing I can think of is looking at my shoe the bullet got tangled up in the nylon and it snapped the top of my shoe across the top of my foot as it dissappated energy... as a paramedic its pretty cool.. to bad its on my foot.