Competition Holster Showdown – How Black Mammoth Stacks Up | Pewcentric Spotlight

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(0:04) Hey, Dave here from Pewcentric, the marketplace for firearms enthusiasts just like you discover unique gear, services and training.

(0:10) Basically everything but the guns.

(0:12) Pewcentric Spotlight is our ongoing series of deep dives into listings that are available right now on the Pewcentric marketplace.

(0:18) And today we're taking a closer look at Black Mammoth Holsters.

(0:21) Holsters may very well be the most competitive market in the gun landscape, just given the number of sellers.

(0:28) And unsurprisingly, there's a wide degree of quality.

(0:30) It is not hard to make a crappy holster.

(0:33) Very few can do it at high quality and at scale.

(0:36) And of course, the kind of holster you need depends a lot on your use case.

(0:40) Inside-the-waistband concealed carry is very different than open carry for law enforcement.

(0:45) And when it comes to practical and competitive shooting,

(0:48) draw speed is one of your top priorities.

(0:50) And when it comes to competitive shooting, maybe apart from Open Division, the two big names in the industry are Red Hill Tactical and GX Products.

(0:58) When it comes to GX holsters, they have an outstanding reputation.

(1:01) I've never been able to buy one.

(1:03) I've only seen them for the precise reason of the message that you see on their website right here.

(1:07) They are either always not taking new orders or they're perpetually backed up for months.

(1:12) They are known for that lever and clamp innovation in the holster industry that has really great retention when it's locked, but is very smooth for the pistol to be drawn when it's unlocked.

(1:24) And when it comes to Red Hill Tactical holsters, as you can see here on the table, I've had many over the years.

(1:30) This is just a subset, from hard-to-find holsters for kind of oddball pistols to your traditional Shadow 2 holster.

(1:39) And I'll note I got this one used when it came with my pistol.

(1:43) And it's fantastic from day one that I got it until now.

(1:46) And then you have this light-bearing holster.

(1:49) They have a lot of different options and finishes, and I can't really say anything negative about Red Hill Tactical.

(1:55) In my book, Red Hill Tactical and GX have set the benchmark for competitive pistol holsters, and any new entrant like Black Mammoth is going to be held against that standard.

(2:04) So to make this analysis as apples to apples as possible, I'm going to be showing a variety of holsters for the same pistol.

(2:11) In this case,

(2:13) my CZ Shadow 2, the real pistol, as well as my ASBR one from 71 Creative.

(2:18) I think we can simplify this all down to three main areas that we can use to compare these different holsters.

(2:24) First is build quality.

(2:25) I'm talking about rigidity and durability.

(2:28) Typically,

(2:29) based on the thickness of the material, but not necessarily.

(2:32) A second area of comparison is fitment and trigger coverage.

(2:36) Yes, a competition holster has to allow a quick draw for the pistol, but you can't really compromise on the coverage of the trigger and the trigger guard.

(2:44) Safety is the number one priority.

(2:45) And the third area is options for customization.

(2:49) It's not only a challenge for a holster maker to support the wide variety of pistols out there, but those pistols, especially for competition,

(2:56) get a lot of customizations themselves that would affect the fitment with the holster.

(3:00) And beyond the variety of options for the pistol itself are, of course, the customization options for the holster.

(3:06) What hole patterns are supported?

(3:08) What are the retention options?

(3:09) Is it available for left- and right-handed shooters?

(3:12) What are the color options on the outside and on the inside?

(3:15) Just like Matt Lee of Lee Holster Hangers mentioned, it's challenging to be competitive in this market because you have to support all the different colors and options.

(3:24) And the same is true here for the holster space.

(3:27) So let's go through these three areas.

(3:28) If we take a look at each of these holsters quickly, this is a generic no-name holster.

(3:33) I have no idea what I paid for it or what brand it even is.

(3:36) It is not sturdy.

(3:37) You can see a lot of flex in this holster.

(3:41) Of course, I got to break out the calipers, as I always do.

(3:45) You can see here,

(3:46) 0.12 inches and again, it's not just about the thickness—but at 0.1,

(3:52) it explains why it's flimsy.

(3:54) Now, in terms of the fitment, I think it does a great job of covering the pistol.

(4:00) I think it's a little loose in there, but it does the job for coverage, and further it works with the Shadow 2 from 71 Creative as well, which is sometimes a challenge given

(4:14) the deep cut that we have here.

(4:18) I don't think it goes all the way down, but I think it's pretty good and it covers most of the trigger guard, as you can see there.

(4:26) What about this holster?

(4:28) Again, it doesn't matter.

(4:29) I don't want to mention the name of the maker of it, but it is a double layer of Kydex.

(4:35) So you would expect it to be more rigid, but it's thinner still.

(4:39) They use probably a different kind of Kydex.

(4:42) We're talking about 0.16.

(4:45) So yes, it's thicker,

(4:47) but still not that sturdy.

(4:50) It does support pretty good fitment.

(4:54) Great coverage there.

(4:57) Not so good for the ASBR pistol.

(5:01) As you can see here, it doesn't cover the trigger guard, so it's not going to be suitable for practice with this ASBR.

(5:07) In terms of the coverage and in terms of customization options, this one actually fits the Nitrofin, so it has a lot of different choices for the outside and the inside color and knobs.

(5:18) So I think they do a good job in terms of supporting the different options.

(5:21) This is one of the few that supported the Nitrofin until Red Hill Tactical added support for that recently.

(5:27) Speaking of Red Hill, this quality is substantial.

(5:31) Now, if you look at the thickness on this, now we're talking about 0.17, 0.18.

(5:39) It's substantially thicker than this other holster.

(5:42) It's going to be hard to see, but the more important thing is that's why it's more rigid.

(5:47) Again, I've used this tens of thousands of times.

(5:51) There's that little bit of a hold there at the end, but it doesn't really impede the speed of the draw.

(5:58) Very high-quality fit.

(6:00) Excellent coverage of the trigger area.

(6:02) Let's see how it does with the ASBR pistol.

(6:05) Not so great.

(6:06) You can see that it's poking out here a little bit, but it's not terrible.

(6:12) But that means it's not really retained in there.

(6:14) It's just kind of sitting on the holster.

(6:17) Customization options,

(6:18) Red Hill does an amazing job.

(6:20) They support practically anything you can think of in terms of the hole patterns and the knobs, except for the lever.

(6:32) In terms of the Black Mammoth, this one is very sturdy—equally as sturdy as the Red Hill Tactical one—because they're probably using the same materials, same exact thickness at

(6:45) 0.16, 0.17.

(6:51) Fantastic rigidity here.

(6:54) In terms of the fit,

(6:55) I mean, that's perfect.

(6:57) And of course, one of the options that this has that none of the others do—that GX was really the innovator for—but is now available through Black Mammoth—is this clamp or lever.

(7:06) There's no way I can pull this pistol out when it's locked in.

(7:14) But when it's unlocked, it slides out with effortless ease.

(7:23) I love that.

(7:25) Does it work with the ASBR pistol?

(7:28) It sure does.

(7:29) In fact, it's not even touching the bottom of this area, which means it's fully seated in.

(7:35) Of all the holsters I have on the table, this is the only one that I can use with both my ASBR pistol from 71 Creative and my Carry Optics CZ Shadow 2.

(7:48) So it's the only holster that has that.

(7:50) It's the only holster that has this lever option on it.

(7:54) And again, he supports all the other customization options.

(7:56) Same hole pattern support as Red Hill.

(7:59) You can see they're both sporting the Tek-Mount, and colors on the inside and the outside.

(8:10) So basically that's how these all compare for the Shadow 2.

(8:13) Okay.

(8:13) Well, it's one thing to see how these different holster makers support the very popular CZ Shadow 2 pistol, but how do they stack up when we're going to support a very different kind of pistol?

(8:23) So here I'm sporting my PX4 Storm...
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(8:23) So here I'm sporting my PX4 Storm, which is a very oddball, not-very-popular pistol.

(8:30) We have a weapon-mounted light from Streamlight.

(8:33) We have suppressor-height sights.

(8:36) We have a red dot.

(8:38) This is a challenging pistol to make a holster for, for a number of reasons.

(8:42) Not least of which is the challenge of accommodating the sights and the light and still providing good retention,

(8:49) so it doesn't just pop out of your holster while at the same time protecting the trigger and still being good for competition.

(8:57) But that's a lot of things you need to balance when you make a holster for a pistol like this.

(9:01) So let's run through the three areas again.

(9:03) So starting with this one on the left, I don't even remember who makes this one.

(9:07) I mean,

(9:09) I think you can already see how flimsy it is.

(9:13) We're talking about, again, it's not even 0.1.

(9:15) It's even somehow thinner than the other one I have for the Shadow 2.

(9:20) And it's obvious just from the feel of it.

(9:24) So I wouldn't call it rigid at all.

(9:27) And when I've actually mounted this on a belt, the actual holster will flex.

(9:31) And it's actually hard to do a draw because the whole holster is kind of not that rigid in this area here.

(9:37) I think it's got great trigger coverage and I think it's safe, and you know it fits well.

(9:44) I wouldn't say that it's the easiest to draw, though.

(9:47) It's got a lot of bite that I've got to overcome to pull the pistol out.

(9:53) In terms of customization options, none.

(9:56) You can have any color as long as it's black, and that's about it.

(10:02) And I mean, it's not great and I don't use this holster anymore.

(10:08) Okay, so let's take a quick look at the Red Hill Tactical holster.

(10:12) Again, exceptionally durable and rigid.

(10:16) It's probably the same measurement as before.

(10:20) Yeah, 0.17, 0.18 on the thickness, because it's got that double layer of Kydex,

(10:31) exceptionally durable.

(10:35) It goes in nicely, has good retention, but is still easy to draw.

(10:35) Now, in terms of trigger coverage, it's exceptionally hard to get this right with a gun with a weapon-mounted light.

(10:42) I'm not sure I love the choices being made here.

(10:45) I mean, there is a lot of coverage missing from the trigger guard here.

(10:55) And even when I hold it on the side, though you may not be able to see, you can still see it poking out a little bit here.

(11:01) Is it safe?

(11:02) Yeah, I still think it's very unlikely someone can go in there and manipulate the trigger,

(11:11) but this definitely is maybe the one that exposes the most of the trigger guard and the trigger itself.

(11:12) I'll also note that this seems exceptionally wide.

(11:14) The bottom of the pistol is here.

(11:16) And then we have this flap or wing that comes out.

(11:23) And the problem with that is the way that I currently index my draw is I have my finger like this and then drag it up the side of the holster.

(11:39) So it feels like it's taking a longer journey.

(11:51) In terms of customization options, Red Hill supports anything you can think of.

(12:03) As you'll note, I intentionally got them both in the blue hex pattern just to make it apples to apples.

(12:10) Rigidity.

(12:11) I mean,

(12:14) this may be the most rigid holster I have.

(12:18) Again, double layers of Kydex.

(12:21) It's the 0.17, 0.18.

(12:29) I mean, this thing is not moving at all.

(12:33) Okay, so in terms of the fitment,

(12:38) perfect.

(12:40) Does it snag with the suppressor-height sights?

(12:44) No.

(12:50) Does it hold on to the light at the end of the re-holstering?

(12:54) Yes.

(12:57) But it's still very easy to draw.

(12:57) But look at the superior coverage here in the trigger guard area.

(13:03) This is substantially harder to get anything into the trigger guard or trigger area.

(13:15) I think Black Mammoth has done a better job creating a safer holster.

(13:28) Customization options are equivalent.

(13:47) Much better fitment and trigger coverage.

(13:59) So how does this all come together in real-world performance?

(14:29) Which one can I draw faster and more consistently from?

(14:41) I used a MantisX system for testing.

(15:06) Running consistent drills to measure time to first shot.

(15:35) Testing grip and draw consistency.

(16:28) Switching between Red Hill and Black Mammoth.

(16:40) The Black Mammoth draw felt smoother.

(16:52) Data supported that it shaved slight time.

(17:14) Testing with PX4 showed similar results.

(17:32) Clean, consistent draws.

(17:38) Was the difference meaningful?

(17:45) Not really.

(17:46) Most performance comes from the shooter.

(18:05) But importantly, the gear does not get in the way.

(18:17) Black Mammoth performs at the same level.

(18:24) Now let's look at pricing and availability.

(19:28) Red Hill Tactical total cost: $100.43.

(19:57) Black Mammoth total cost: $85.

(20:04) That’s about 15% cheaper.

(20:22) Red Hill lead time: 30–45 days.

(20:28) Black Mammoth: 2–3 weeks (often faster).

(20:40) Final conclusion:

(20:53) Black Mammoth holsters are as good or better than Red Hill Tactical.

(21:01) At lower cost and faster delivery.

(21:19) Strong option for competitive shooters.

(21:39) Dave will use Black Mammoth for upcoming USPSA season.

(21:47) Visit pewcentric.com/blackmammoth

(21:51) Like and subscribe.

(21:59) See you next time.

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