While visiting the Gould & Goodrich booth at SHOT Show 2016, we learned that the company has been very busy lately. To begin, the company announced a few weeks before SHOT the availability of a new line of duty gear called L-FORCE.
The Sam Browne duty belt, handcuff cases, magazine pouches, flashlight cases, baton holders, keepers, and other items in the L-FORCE line look just like leather, but are instead made of highly durable laminate. The snapping items come in no-shine black as well as hidden snap varieties. The new line comes in both plain and basket-weave.
Perhaps even more interesting was the other piece of news the company shared: G&G has acquired an Idaho-based holster maker called Tactical Design Labs (TDL), and with that acquisition comes one very exciting new holster to the G&G line.
Dubbed the XCALIBUR, the light-bearing version of the holster can accommodate a variety of lights — Streamlight TLR1, Surefire X200, X300, X300 ULTRA, Insight WX150, and Viridian X5L, for example — and for officers who do not use a gun-mounted light there is a version available for that carry option as well.
Presently, the XCALIBUR is available for officers carrying any full-size Glock in either 9mm or .40 caliber, and the company plans to release versions for Smith & Wesson M&P as well as Sig Sauer duty pistols later this year.
Perhaps the most intriguing element to the XCALIBUR system is the innovative retention. There is a fake release button on the side of the holster (it snookered me), and a thumb switch found in the typical spot next to the rear of the slide. But simply pressing that won’t get the job done. One has to also press the gun into the holster ever so briefly to unlock and release the weapon for use.
Naturally, moving to this retention system will necessitate many hundreds of repetitions to redraw those neural pathways so unholstering is automatic when the need arises.
XCALIBUR duty holsters — already in use at agencies including Idaho State Police, Boise State University Police, Coeur ‘d’alene PD, and a host of others — are available for purchase in plain finish or basket-weave.
