So, my wish was granted. My daughter bought me a Tenicor Velo 4 for Christmas and presented it to me maybe 4-5 days before Christmas!
I tried carrying with with it.
It will NOT carry center-appendix, as it appears to be built more with 1-2 o’clock in mind (I’ve the right-side holster). The wedge is oddly placed for my body type (I’m 5’7″, 185 lb, medium build with 29-30″ in-step, a tad thick in the waist @ 32 inches). Keep in mind that I’m trying to carry the RIA MS 1911, which is 4.25″ in barrel length and has a full-sized grip.
The wedge is problematic, as it doesn’t sit well in the leg/pelvic crease and is peaky, so creates a hot spot for me. I need a bit more wedge but need it wider and not peaky.
The holster also has minimal ride adjustability and no cant adjustability.
At this point, the Crossbreed The Reckoning holster I bought carries a LOT better (I’ve customized it a bit).
I almost told my daughter to return it and to get the Certum instead, but wanted to give the Velo 4 a fair chance first.
I decided to try carrying it a bit more, moving it around to try to find a sweet spot (which I did for the Crossbreed as well – I carry that centerline appendix).
After a few days of trying, I still couldn’t carry it well.
I decided to try a custom wedge via the yoga block method. I bought a yoga foam block and cut out a decent sized rectangle. I then began whittling the rectangle into a wedge, hollowing out a pit for the holster’s integrated wedge to sit. The most difficult part of this process was hollowing out an area to fit the integrate wedge, as I had to ensure it was smoothed out in that area so that the velcro (loop side) would stick in that area. Another difficult part was sticking velcro to the holster itself.
It ended up being a large foam block of wedge to velcro to the holster. Initially, after test-carrying, it was too big, so I removed it from the holster and whittled it down to a smaller shape.
I carried it today during a 5 hour drive.
It wore well the whole drive. There were several instances of me getting in/out of the car, walking around, visiting the men’s room, and pumping gas.
It wears a LOT better than without the foam.
I will probably still try the Certum as another great appendix option (that one should carry just as well and also offer far more adjustability in ride height and cant, while also giving the option of strong side carry.
Oh, and my wife bought me 200 rounds of 9mm Inceptor ARX self defense ammo – my mother bought me 50 rounds of the same ammo, too!
Note: I don’t entertain the notion that Inceptor ARX is gimmick ammo. I’m aware that some folks think that this ammo performs poorly in gel tests, but I’ve also seen great gel test results. There’s also this.
I’d been looking for 9mm Inceptor ARX for a while but could never find it in stock. I found a stash at Midway, and it was on sale too – I added it to my Elfster Christmas wishlist. Between my wife and my mother, they must’ve bought the whole supply I found, because Midway is now out of stock.