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 909c9a4c89d..839203885f8 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
@@ -58,6 +58,7 @@ import java.io.IOException;
 import java.util.concurrent.ConcurrentHashMap;
 import java.util.concurrent.ConcurrentMap;
 import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicBoolean;
+import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicReference;
 import java.util.concurrent.locks.ReadWriteLock;
 import java.util.concurrent.locks.ReentrantReadWriteLock;
 
@@ -114,7 +115,8 @@ public class RobinEngine extends AbstractIndexShardComponent implements Engine,
 
     private volatile int disableFlushCounter = 0;
 
-    private volatile Searcher postFlushSearcher;
+    // indexing searcher is initialized
+    private final AtomicReference<Searcher> indexingSearcher = new AtomicReference<Searcher>();
 
     private final AtomicBoolean flushing = new AtomicBoolean();
 
@@ -190,10 +192,10 @@ public class RobinEngine extends AbstractIndexShardComponent implements Engine,
             try {
                 translog.newTranslog(newTransactionLogId());
                 this.nrtResource = buildNrtResource(indexWriter);
-                if (postFlushSearcher != null) {
-                    postFlushSearcher.release();
+                if (indexingSearcher.get() != null) {
+                    indexingSearcher.get().release();
+                    indexingSearcher.set(null);
                 }
-                postFlushSearcher = searcher();
             } catch (IOException e) {
                 try {
                     indexWriter.rollback();
@@ -697,12 +699,10 @@ public class RobinEngine extends AbstractIndexShardComponent implements Engine,
             dirty = true; // force a refresh
             // we need to do a refresh here so we sync versioning support
             refresh(new Refresh(true));
-            if (postFlushSearcher != null) {
-                postFlushSearcher.release();
+            if (indexingSearcher.get() != null) {
+                indexingSearcher.get().release();
+                indexingSearcher.set(null);
             }
-            // only need to load for this flush version searcher, since we keep a map for all
-            // the changes since the previous flush in memory
-            postFlushSearcher = searcher();
         } finally {
             rwl.writeLock().unlock();
             flushing.set(false);
@@ -854,9 +854,9 @@ public class RobinEngine extends AbstractIndexShardComponent implements Engine,
         rwl.writeLock().lock();
         this.versionMap.clear();
         try {
-            if (postFlushSearcher != null) {
-                postFlushSearcher.release();
-                postFlushSearcher = null;
+            if (indexingSearcher.get() != null) {
+                indexingSearcher.get().release();
+                indexingSearcher.set(null);
             }
             if (nrtResource != null) {
                 this.nrtResource.forceClose();
@@ -884,7 +884,17 @@ 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 = postFlushSearcher;
+        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();
+            }
+            // 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();
+        }
         for (IndexReader reader : searcher.searcher().subReaders()) {
             BloomFilter filter = bloomCache.filter(reader, UidFieldMapper.NAME, asyncLoadBloomFilter);
             // we know that its not there...