The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission just dropped a recall notice for Blackhawk’s new T-Series L2C holster, citing a potential safety issue.
The notice targets the L2C holsters built for Sig Sauer’s P320 and the P250 but specifically outlines safety issues with using that holster for an M17 or M18 handgun — the Army’s new modular handgun that was built to replace the Beretta M9.
According to the CPSC, the holsters can inadvertently disengage the safety leaving the gun in a condition ready to fire, and increasing the chances of a negligent discharge.
Read More: Is the Blackhawk T Series holster the SERPA killer?
Unlike the standard civilian P320, the M17 and M18s have external safeties as per the requirements of the Army. The clone versions offered to the civilian market also bear those external safeties.
Blackhawk has worked hard in recent months to rebrand itself and change consumers’ minds about their product quality and design. For years Blackhawk’s signature retention holster — the SERPA — has earned a bad rap, with some agencies and departments banning it over safety concerns with its paddle release mechanism.
But under new management, the company saw the launch of the T-Series holster as a path out of the doldrums — a strategy the L2C recall certainly won’t help.
In an interview, a Blackhawk official said the company brought the safety issue to the CPSC back in August when Blackhawk’s engineers tested the more compact L2C holster with an M17 and M18.
Engineers realized extra plastic in the original version of the holster could partially disengage that handgun’s safety.
“We caught it, we recalled it,” said Willie Vernon, Blackhawk’s senior director of marketing.
“Thanks to the new nature of this holster as well as the relatively new nature of that handgun being made available to the public, the great likelihood is that there are very few people out there who would meet both criteria of owning a T-Series L2C as well as the M17/M18 variants of the Sig P320,” Vernon added.
She said when engineers discovered the issue, only about 1,500 of the holsters had been sold and that the company immediately contacted distributors and even reached out to those who purchased the L2C holster from www.blackhawk.com.
The L2C has been redesigned to remove the extra polymer that was contacting the safety and any new holsters won’t cause the issues that prompted the recall, Vernon said.
According to Blackhawk, shooters can tell if they have one of the affected holsters by looking at the part number on the back of your holster – if it’s stamped with an “A”, then that is the old version. If it is stamped with a “B”, that is the updated version.
Owners of the L2C with an "A" serial number are advised to stop using the holster and contact Blackhawk at 1-888-343-7547 for a full refund.
Ian D’Costa is a correspondent with Gear Scout whose work has been featured with We Are The Mighty, The Aviationist, and Business Insider. An avid outdoorsman, Ian is also a guns and gear enthusiast.
Christian Lowe is senior editor for digital operations and is a competitive pistol and rifle shooter.
