The Walther PDP has now been on the market for the better part of three years and is Walther’s principal duty-grade, striker-fired 9mm pistol. As the PDP grows in popularity and more shooters start carrying and shooting them, the industry has been responsive in adding holster options for this family of pistols. Nere is a cross-section of different type of holsters for both duty and concealment that are now available for the Walther PDP pistols. The holsters mentioned below fit the standard polymer-framed PDPs: Shooters who own PDP-F or PDP Match Steel-Frame pistols need to double check all holster fits, as they’re different from the standard PDP dimensions.
Raven Concealment Phantom OWB
Raven Concealment has revived its classic Boltaron RCS Phantom holster product line and started included more recent pistol models such as the Walther PDP, the Staccato-P 2011 or a variety of any other pistol that saw a market launch after the original Phantom line became discontinued. Besides pride, legacy or nostalgia, Raven Concealment made the decision to bring back the Phantom, an OWB Boltaron design that’s now been around for nearly two decades. This OWB concealment holster is contoured to hug the waistline so it can be carried either behind the hip with a cover garment or directly on the hip if carried openly. Furthermore, its dynamic design also allows the wearer to conceal it inside the waistband by swapping the belt attachment accessories. Raven Concealment Phantom has been around for a while and it still works quite well, especially now that the design has been revised to accommodate pistols with slide mounted optics.
Safariland 6354 RDSO
The Safariland Group is well-known as a purveyor of OWB duty-belt holsters marketed to law enforcement and military end-users. These days, many tactical professional and civilian shooters on their Safariland 6000 series holsters, affectionately called “buckets,” that can accommodate a pistol with both a slide mounted red-dot sight and a tactical rail-mounted light. End users fix these holsters directly to “battle belts” or modern “duty” belts for training sessions and even competitive shooting events. The Safariland 6354 RDSO is one of the company’s latest “bucket” designs. The 6354 RDSO can be considered a newer version of the established Safariland 6390 RDS, but the polymer protective hinge that flipped over the area where a red-dot sight might fit has been removed. Like its predecessor, the 6354 RDSO is manufactured from impact resistant thermo-molded polymer and uses an ALS locking lever to keep the pistol securely in place. As one of Safariland’s comprehensive OWB duty-holster options, the 6354 RDSO will accommodate either the Streamlight TLR-1 or Surefire X300 series of tactical lights.
PHLster Pro
The PHLster Pro can be best described as the yin to the yang that is the PHLster Skeleton. Both Kydex holsters aim to do the same thing—provide concealment and every-day carry convenience, but whereas the Skeleton takes a low footprint minimalist approach, the PHLster Pro instead incorporates wedging and contouring into its design in order to allow the wearer to forgo having to fit, try, mix or match different wedges or rubber pads for concealment optimization. Because the AIWB/IWB PHLster Pro uses a modern hole spacing pattern, it accepts a wide variety of belt mounting accessories, from classics like “pull-the-dot” soft loops to Raven Concealment Phantom Style Overhooks to more modern choices like Discreet Carry Concepts clips. It’s also ambidextrous and compatible with the PHLster Enigma concealment system.
Dark Star Gear Orion PDP
Dark Star Gear offers its flagship Orion holster to fit the PDP. Like the PHLster Pro mentioned above, the Dark Star Gear Orion is a very modern holster that also employs industry standard hole spacing patterns which allows the end user to configure it with a choice of options. While it’s possible to configure the Dark Star Gear Orion to work as an IWB rig, the Orion arguably best shines as a dedicated AIWB “appendix” rig due to its long-keeled design.
