Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Milt Sparks Criterion Initial Impressions

A Milt Sparks Criterion for my Glock 30SF arrived this afternoon after a 13 week wait. It is the typical Sparks work of art and addresses my major concern about the Nexus, the lack of reinforcement, while retaining the cant that allows me to hide the gun better than with a VMII.

Here is how it looks:





A while back I posted a comparison of the Nexus against the VMII and the Crossbreed Supertuck here. Suffice it to say that the Supertuck no longer is going to be in any comparisons of Sparks holsters. Here are the prior pictures of the VMII and Nexus followed by the Criterion.

VMII (for a G20/21)



Nexus



Criterion



I also overlaid the Nexus over the Criterion for comparison.



The Criterion has a bit more leather, and it is all cow rather than the horse/cow mix of the Nexus.

Initial Comments

The Criterion comes with the neodymium magnet snaps, just like the Nexus. I really like those. In fact, I switched the set off the Nexus with the traditional set from the VMII. Sparks says they will eventually sell these as separate items, and that they will put them on VMII’s upon request.

Because of the reinforcement, the Criterion is thicker than the Nexus, and I gave up another belt hole to fit it in. I will have to see how this works out over the long run, but I think it will be fine. The payback is that I get the great cant that hides the gun well and I also get the reinforcement that allows me to unholster the gun for an extended period without worrying about being able to reholster.

I have not figured out what to do with the Nexus. My initial thought was to sell it. But, it seems to work well with the G19 I got last week. The extra room in the holster seems to be what it needs to deal with the lack of reinforcement.

I will follow up in due course.