TheOmnivore
holstersystemhas
Level2 retention
requiringthata
thumbreleasebe
pushedbefore
thepistolcanbe
removedfromthe
holster.It comes
withbotha belt
slideanda paddle
mount.Thethumb
releaseisadjustable
forheight.Holster
cantisalsoadjust-
able.During the course of this evaluation, I
fi red 12 different 9mm Luger factory
loads from four manufacturers. There
was not a single malfunction of any
type.CONCEALING THE
STR-9
When discussing “appropriate”
concealed carry handguns, sometimes
even a full-size handgun makes sense.
This is especially true if you are physi-
cally large enough and/or are dressed
such that you can conceal it. I once
saw not one, but two men, dressed in
casual clothes and sports jackets carry-
ing Desert Eagles chambered in .50AE,
concealed. They were built like line-
men for a professional football team,
but you would never have known that
they were carrying concealed.Large-framed people also usually have
large hands and many of the sub-
compact and compact pistols are just
too small for them to operate easily.
Unless you have really small hands
or are physically small in stature, a
larger size handgun is always easier to
control and shoot accurately.If you are dressed such that you canconceal a full-size pistol, you may want
to consider an OWB (outside-the-waist-
band) holster. For use at the range,
I used a BLACKHAWK! Omnivore
injection-molded OWB holster. This
holster secures the pistol by a fl ashlight
attached to the rail on the dust cover,
so I installed a Streamlight TLR-2s light
and laser combination on the STR-9.This rig provides Level 2 retention and
requires a thumb-activated mechanism
to be operated for access to the pistol.
Because this is a multi-fi t holster, it is
a bit disconcerting at fi rst when you
realize that the holster doesn’t retain
the pistol in the traditional manner.
That feeling soon evaporates once
you realize how securely the holster
connects to the weapon-mounted
fl ashlight. This setup worked very well
throughout the evaluation.Some holsters designed for the Glock
17 may work with the STR-9, but youwill need to check each one individual-
ly to be sure. Leather holsters are likely
to be more adaptable to the STR-9
than those made from Kydex, due to
their inherent fl exibility.STR-9 WORKOUT
After a break-in period of approximate-
ly 100 rounds of ball ammunition, I
began evaluating the function and
accuracy of the STR-9. Accuracy was
certainly acceptable but not outstand-90 CONCEALED CARRY HANDGUNS FALL 2019