The MkIII clip-fed holster story

I think the MkIII drop-leg holster is one of the longest running sagas in BSUK's short history, even more so than the MkV tactical chest rig. It's been a long time coming but the one hand draw, one hand re-holster clip-fed holster is something of a holy grail of Nerfing equipment so it's worth it. Besides, we're a dedicated bunch here at BSUK and we like to get things right.

We released the MkII drop-leg holster in March and it has been our best selling product since. Indeed, it is one we are very proud of. However, Retaliators and Stryfes are incredibly popular among our base HvZ group and the community at large so we felt the need to accommodate them as fast as possible. It wasn't long before the clip-fed variants were up for development.

It all started not long after the MkII release with this:

That's a modified MkII with a plastic centre release buckle on the upper strap. It originated after weeks of me and Steve banging our heads against the wall. There are versions of holster prior to this but they will not be spoken of for the they are abominations. The variant above came from Steve's simple remark over IRC "We need to find a way to break that top strap" So I did. Plastic centre release buckles were my initial answer. It works fine but the reholstering is a little fussy and those plastic buckles didn't last more than 2 sessions before beginning to fail. Single hand resetting was also a problem because getting the two parts to meet wasn't intuitive nor was it easy under fire.

We began looking for alternatives. The very-quick draw action of the MkII was something we'd have like to keep so we tried magnetic handbag clasps (pictured opposite). These were fine for smaller blasters but the Stryfe and Rough Cut were too much for the magnets when rolling around the floor. The final straw for these was a catastrophic failure during combat testing when a Retaliator was dropped from the holster and spun across the floor leaving our test subject to be gribbled by zombies. Frankly, the paperwork was a nightmare! :D We had to find something else that would work and all our testing concluded that a breakable top strap in this fashion would compromise the holster's retention and so we had to opt for something a little more solid.

To the left can be seen the second-from-last prototype for this holster. You can clearly see the retention pop-snap. That strap length is variable and can go over the top of the pistol grip to avoid the Stryfe powering on automatically. This pop-snap can be swept aside with the thumb and the blaster drawn in the same action. This holster still suffers from 2 critical problems, however. First, the 12.5mm pop snap will not remain in place under serious stress - we lost at least another 2 test subjects to zombies before we worked that out. Second, the reholstering action left a great deal to be desired. For a number of reasons the holster would deform, argue and generally scream when trying to put anything back in it. It's important to remember that, at this stage, the holster is still a MkII with a breakable top strap.

We fixed the first problem using these:

These are 15mm heavy duty pop-snaps. These prototyping variants are brass effect but we've ordered nickel for the final variant (because shiny!). They hold the blaster in place very securely but require the addition of a 'grab strap' for easier release and to overcome the stronger grip. The removes the 'snap-draw' capability offered by the MkII but we feel the MkIII fills a slightly different combat niche and so it wasn't a big loss.

We then turned to address the reholstering problem. One of the major problems we noticed with reholstering the MkII was the fragility of the aperture - it would deform too easily and make reholstering awkward. We elected to put some closed cell foam around the top to make it a little stiffer and to force it open. This helped but it wasn't enough and it took a long time with a lot of shouting at the holster as we tried to work out a way of getting it to work. It was during this we took some time off and developed the rifle scabbards and Alpha Trooper drop-leg holsters. The retention stuff we had worked out with the MkIII holster allowed us to very quickly develop a holster that would securely take the Alpha Trooper and allow it to be readily accessible in combat. The rifle scabbards also benefited the MkIII development insofar as we now had a better idea about centres of gravity and mass and their relationship to holsters.

The BSUK drop-leg family (all prototypes)!

We eventually came back to the MkIII to try to get it into production. Steve suggested moving the lower retention strap down and using it to holder the blaster against gravity rather than the internal securing strap we'd been relying on thus far. We made the alterations but now noticed a slippage problem - the 25mm belt loops we'd been relying on were no longer sufficient to carry the blaster in its new configuration. The holster would move around during reholstering resulting in it sitting on the front of the thigh and generally getting in the way. It was here we decided to drop Rough Cut compatibility in favour of developing a separate holster. Fortunately, the new Alpha Trooper drop-leg holster is Rough Cut compatible in both the straight and cross-draw positions.

50mm side release buckles are normally reserved for our tactical belts and such. I decided to try it on a whim and hey presto! It worked! Between that and moving the straps, it looked like we had a working holster on our hands. It worked in our localised testing so we took it to a BUZAN session to test it out under combat conditions.





Both the left and right leg variants have been proven to work fine under combat stress. There were two defining moments for the MkIII holster in that last testing session. A king of the hill game saw myself armed with a Strongarm and a Stryfe in the holster. Hunkered down behind a table, I was able to reload the Strongarm, roll to drop two shots onto a rush from the opposing team before rolling back to reload and shoot, from the floor lying on my back, upwards as another player tried sweeping over the table. During all this the Stryfe remained secure and steady at my side in case I emptied my Strongarm. However, possibly the greatest moment was when a test subject was trapped during a dark round in a safe zone with a jammed Longstrike and a Retaliator side-arm. The Retaliator was drawn from the MkIII, the contents of the two blasters' clips were combed for darts that didn't suck and combined into one good clip. Cue a break out and epic victory for the humans in that round! It was then we decided it was ready for deployment and so the end of the long road of bringing it to market comes into sight.

The final MkIII prototype shown with belt loop, holstering a Stryfe.

The MkIII represents a long path of development that goes back to the earliest days of Blastersmiths UK. It's an item that represents a lot of trials and tribulations on our part but we got there to deliver another good quality product which we hope will serve the community well for long while. The holster itself will be available to order on 24th May 2013 or you can register your interest early and get a shorter lead time by clicking this link.

Now the fun (sort of) bit is over. We've done the development, we have a product now we have to clear the legal and logistical hurdles of bringing a product to market. Frankly, compared to the reholstering issues we faced during development, they're small fry. :D

On a personal note, I'd like to thank the Warhouse (you know who you are), the BSUK team (because you're all awesome),Tim and Matt from BUZAN who acted as our test subjects and the BUZAN committee for putting up with us bitching and moaning as our prototypes fail mid-game. Thank you everyone, you've been awesome.

Remember, 24th May 1200BST they can be ordered fresh from our store with a 2-3 week lead time (seriously, our production team are mostly students with finals to sit).

-Mike, MD, BSUK Ltd