In my view, any maker who relies on blue guns without also having had the real pistols in hand for the t&e, is asking for trouble for himself and his customers. I jumped off leather workers.net within a day after discovering that hobbyists there were relying on blue guns rather than beginning with the real thing.

The controls on auto pistols, for example, can hand us designer/makers some unpleasant reminders that holsters can interfere with them. Personally I first experienced this with the Colt 380 after discovering that the thumb safety didn't lock the slide when "on", so the blowback slide moved when the pistol was inserted into a tightly moulded holster, putting the pistol out of battery.

These same things happen with mag buttons, triggers, sights, safeties, slides, and anything else that moves or interferes. It's why trigger shoes were such a problem in the 60s: bang!

The courts, in which I've appeared early and often, are mighty unforgiving of any amateur approaches to safety shortcuts in design, testing, quality assurance, and manufacturing. Buyer beware.

Although I use blue guns in manufacture, for mouldings, all my designs then went to USA for t&e before they went into production. No new models can be introduced until that testing can be repeated on them. And, yes, there were two fails including one that was too tight for its Glock to pass testing and that revealed a flaw in a process (drying) that I then fixed up, replaced the holster, and when it passed t&e I have slavishly adhered to the best practice.

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Red Nichols The Holstorian