My order from Comp-Tac came in. Lots of goodies. I’ll talk about each piece over the coming days as I get a chance to try things out. I’ll try to have pictures too.

I’ll start off with the mundane.

I picked up a spare Minotaur body. I’ve been using the “slide” bodies for a while because I have Springfield XD-9’s of different slide lengths so when I first bought the holster I wanted that flexibility. Now that I’ve settled on carrying a 5″ gun (yes, concealed carry with a full-sized gun… it’s not hard for me to do), I wanted to move away from the slide shell because it doesn’t protect the front sight. It was OK with the 4″ gun (but not full protection) and the 5″ is fully exposed. So I picked up a proper 5″ body. Slipped it on. Adjusted. Works like a charm.

One thing I noticed. The previously purchased MTAC holster had some issues with how the shell was shaped. This new shell is more like my original MTAC shells, which I prefer. They still expose the magazine release button more than I care for, but it seems reasonably done this time around.

Pictures! All pictures taken with my iPhone, and all are clickable for a larger picture.

That’s the first MTAC I purchased. Been wearing it for about 2 years and you can tell it’s well-worn and conformed to my body. Lots of sweat in there (and I do condition and protect the leather) and still holding up well.

Because I knew MTAC #1 was getting well-worn, I ordered another one some months ago. What you see above is the backing and clips from MTAC #2 but now with the new full-sized shell. This leather backing was less “shaped to my body” than #1, so I figured it’d be a better place to start with the new shell given the leather will now conform differently due to the new shell.

This is MTAC #2 with full-sized shell compared against the slide shell that I originally purchased with #2. You can notice the obvious length difference, but what’s more important to notice is the “northeast corner” of the shell. Notice on the slide shell how it protrudes further? There’s a bit more of a lip there, which at the time they said was done to help reholstering (if I remember correctly). I never found it helped nor hindered that aspect, but it did make the mouth a bit bigger above the beltline… which could be useful, or could just get in your way. One of the first things I noticed about the new full-sized shell was it lacked this lip. I don’t know why, but I’m happier without it.

Here’s MTAC #1 with the XD-9 Tactical (5″ barrel). You can see how much the front-end protrudes and how the front sight is fully exposed. If you had a factory front sight it’d probably not be an issue, but with my Dawson Precision fiber optic front sight, it could snag on the draw or just the fact it’s exposed to getting banged up. Notice as well the tab fully covering the magazine release button?

And here’s the new one with the full shell. Notice the partially covered magazine release button? They did that because people wanted the ability to drop their magazines while the gun was holstered. I never found this to be a problem, because the XD has an ambidextrous magazine release, so I always just pushed from the other side. But, maybe someone has a custom gun or can’t get back to the other mag release. *shrug*   I don’t like the lesser protection of the mag button, but I’d reason in practice it will work out alright.