diff --git a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/engine/robin/RobinEngine.java b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/engine/robin/RobinEngine.java
index b7a0bf6a899..a2a5bb423ff 100644
--- a/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/engine/robin/RobinEngine.java
+++ b/modules/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/index/engine/robin/RobinEngine.java
@@ -79,7 +79,6 @@ import java.util.concurrent.CopyOnWriteArrayList;
 import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
 import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicBoolean;
 import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicLong;
-import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicReference;
 import java.util.concurrent.locks.ReadWriteLock;
 import java.util.concurrent.locks.ReentrantReadWriteLock;
 
@@ -146,8 +145,6 @@ public class RobinEngine extends AbstractIndexShardComponent implements Engine {
     private volatile int disableFlushCounter = 0;
 
     // indexing searcher is initialized
-    private final AtomicReference<Searcher> indexingSearcher = new AtomicReference<Searcher>();
-
     private final AtomicBoolean flushing = new AtomicBoolean();
 
     private final ConcurrentMap<String, VersionValue> versionMap;
@@ -266,10 +263,6 @@ public class RobinEngine extends AbstractIndexShardComponent implements Engine {
                 }
                 translog.newTranslog(translogIdGenerator.get());
                 this.nrtResource = buildNrtResource(indexWriter);
-                if (indexingSearcher.get() != null) {
-                    indexingSearcher.set(null);
-                    indexingSearcher.get().release();
-                }
                 SegmentInfos infos = new SegmentInfos();
                 infos.read(store.directory());
                 lastCommittedSegmentInfos = infos;
@@ -871,10 +864,6 @@ public class RobinEngine extends AbstractIndexShardComponent implements Engine {
     private void refreshVersioningTable(long time) {
         // we need to refresh in order to clear older version values
         refresh(new Refresh(true).force(true));
-        Searcher searcher = indexingSearcher.get();
-        if (searcher != null) {
-            indexingSearcher.set(null);
-        }
         for (Map.Entry<String, VersionValue> entry : versionMap.entrySet()) {
             String id = entry.getKey();
             synchronized (dirtyLock(id)) { // can we do it without this lock on each value? maybe batch to a set and get the lock once per set?
@@ -894,9 +883,6 @@ public class RobinEngine extends AbstractIndexShardComponent implements Engine {
                 }
             }
         }
-        if (searcher != null) {
-            searcher.release();
-        }
     }
 
     @Override public void maybeMerge() throws EngineException {
@@ -1157,10 +1143,6 @@ public class RobinEngine extends AbstractIndexShardComponent implements Engine {
         this.versionMap.clear();
         this.failedEngineListeners.clear();
         try {
-            if (indexingSearcher.get() != null) {
-                indexingSearcher.get().release();
-                indexingSearcher.set(null);
-            }
             if (nrtResource != null) {
                 this.nrtResource.forceClose();
             }
@@ -1194,31 +1176,24 @@ public class RobinEngine extends AbstractIndexShardComponent implements Engine {
 
     private long loadCurrentVersionFromIndex(Term uid) {
         UnicodeUtil.UTF8Result utf8 = Unicode.fromStringAsUtf8(uid.text());
-        // no version, get the version from the index
-        Searcher searcher = indexingSearcher.get();
-        if (searcher == null) {
-            Searcher tmpSearcher = searcher();
-            if (!indexingSearcher.compareAndSet(null, tmpSearcher)) {
-                // someone beat us to it, release the one we got
-                tmpSearcher.release();
+        Searcher searcher = searcher();
+        try {
+            for (IndexReader reader : searcher.searcher().subReaders()) {
+                BloomFilter filter = bloomCache.filter(reader, UidFieldMapper.NAME, asyncLoadBloomFilter);
+                // we know that its not there...
+                if (!filter.isPresent(utf8.result, 0, utf8.length)) {
+                    continue;
+                }
+                long version = UidField.loadVersion(reader, uid);
+                // either -2 (its there, but no version associated), or an actual version
+                if (version != -1) {
+                    return version;
+                }
             }
-            // it must have a value, since someone set it already, and this code gets called
-            // under a readLock, while the indexSearcher gets nullified on a writeLock
-            searcher = indexingSearcher.get();
+            return -1;
+        } finally {
+            searcher.release();
         }
-        for (IndexReader reader : searcher.searcher().subReaders()) {
-            BloomFilter filter = bloomCache.filter(reader, UidFieldMapper.NAME, asyncLoadBloomFilter);
-            // we know that its not there...
-            if (!filter.isPresent(utf8.result, 0, utf8.length)) {
-                continue;
-            }
-            long version = UidField.loadVersion(reader, uid);
-            // either -2 (its there, but no version associated), or an actual version
-            if (version != -1) {
-                return version;
-            }
-        }
-        return -1;
     }
 
     private IndexWriter createWriter() throws IOException {