Packing Heat

Packing Heat

It only seems appropriate that my first blog article be about what I talk to 99 percent of my customers about. Packing heat or carrying a gun! Carry basically falls into two categories, concealed and open. Concealed carry’s purpose is almost exclusively for self defense. Open carry can have several purposes like shooting at the range, going hunting, and self defense. Through my experience of 11 years as a holster maker, 11 years carrying concealed, almost 18 years in military and civilian law enforcement, and a lifetime recreating outdoors I’ve learned a lot of lessons in carrying a gun. Safe and appropriate carry is complex. I’m going to discuss several considerations where decisions need to be made before just walking out the door with a gun. Ultimately, how you carry is your personal preference and what works for you. Hopefully after reading this article, if you just got your permit or you’re experienced, you’ll learn something to help you in the future. 

First, you have to decide what gun to carry. I’m not going to dive too deep into this one, as to fall into the 1911 vs. Glock debate. There are so many options out there that it really comes down to personal preference. The best point I can make is that you shouldn’t try to conceal carry your Ruger Super Blackhawk .44 Magnum with a 10.5 inch barrel into Bass Pro. Nor should you take your Keltec PT3AT on a bear hunt. Most guns are designed with an intended purpose, you shouldn’t try to make a gun something its not. Is a .44 Magnum an excellent caliber capable of of taking down most animals in the world? Hell yes, but its conceal-ability, shoot-ability, and practicality as a combat handgun are somewhat limited. On the other end, is a .380 ACP in its modern loadings a capable caliber to stop a threat? Yes it is, I wouldn’t stand in front of one at any range! While shot placement is more important than foot pounds of energy, with some assessed risks it’s better to bump up the FPE in sacrifice of perfect shot placement. Luckily for hunting and predator defense we are in the outdoors and not worried about concealing the gun so size is not a huge factor. 

Gun size for discreet concealed carry is a critical factor. Usually the bigger the gun, the easier it is to shoot accurately compared to the smaller guns on the market. I know I’m going back and forth between the extremes here, but bear with me and maybe it will help you find out where to draw the line in your decision. Ultimately, you should carry the gun you shoot the best. I can shoot a full size Glock like my life depends on it, but a Glock 22/35 doesn’t hide too well under my T-shirt while suffering in the Texas heat. That’s when I know I have to make a sacrifice. Sacrificing gun size for the ability to discreetly and comfortably carry a gun is a far better choice than leaving your gun at home. When I carry my Ruger LCP2 .380, I know I’m not as prepared for a threat as I would be carrying my Glock 19. At the same time, I’m darn glad to be just wearing gym shorts. 

Wardrobe choice is a constant battle when carrying concealed but its a battle worth fighting. Realistically, anyone who carries a gun will not have a gun with them at many times in their life. By choosing the right clothing to cater to your gun and holster choice, you can minimize the time you have to forego not having a gun on your person. One part of your wardrobe that is mandatory for carrying on you waist line is a sturdy belt. The belt should be pulled tight too! A holster flopping around, no matter how secure is a failure. For obvious reasons, winter is the most fun time to carry concealed. Its easy to carry under a vest or a coat just about any handgun you want, or even better multiple guns and reloads. When it warms up outside the game changes considerably. At this time in the year, I find it helpful to go up a size in clothing and down in size of the gun. This makes carry more discreet by increasing the room in your clothes for a gun and reducing the chance of the gun printing through clothing. I’ve heard several people over the years say “I don’t care if my gun shows through clothing as long as its covered”. Having the gun being covered may be all that’s required by law, but we can do better than that. When your gun prints, you become a target. We owe it to ourselves, our family, and the public not to stick out like a sore thumb and be the first person shot by the bad guy because we didn’t care enough to blend in. 

Camouflage is a great way to blend in. Camouflage patterns break up the outline of a gun under your shirt and if you live in the Midwest or South it may even be fashionable to wear camo in public! If you live where camo isn’t in style, or its not your style then there is still hope. Just about any shirt with a pattern on it is pretty good at breaking up the pattern of the gun under your shirt. Just as long as it has some looseness to it. If the outer shirt is too tight you aren’t hiding much. The same goes for jeans, shorts, or pants. Tight pants with big bulges in the places there shouldn’t be bulges is weird. I recommend going up a pant size when carrying inside the waist band and getting a looser cut of pants when carrying in the pocket. Use of a barrier shirt underneath the outer shirt can aid in comfort to keep the gun off of your skin. Having different outfit options may sound girly if you’re a guy, but carrying a gun and looking fly is far better than looking like a goober. Not only do you need different outfits but you need different holsters to go along. 

Usually, the first decision a holster shopper considers is price. This is a mistake! I’m not saying there aren’t decently priced holsters that are a great value, but there are plenty of dirt cheap holsters that are terrible. Maybe if you aren’t actually intending on carrying on your person and “just want something to stick it in to put it in the truck” an nylon cloth generic holster will do just fine. My view point of Off Body Carry is that if the gun isn’t on your person its simply too far away. I’m not saying I’ve never brought a gun with me and not worn it. I just feel much more confident and am better prepared with it on my body. For carrying on your person, you are going to get what you pay for in a holster like anything else in most cases. Cheaper nylon and leather generic holsters may fit the gun but usually too loosely as the manufactures err on the side of being too big to sell more holsters. The gun will wiggle plenty in these holsters and may easily fall out or create a negligent discharge in many situations. A loose holster will also cause more wear on the finish. Now I’m a firm believer that if you are worried about your guns finish then you should leave it in the box in the safe. The truth is though that every single holster will wear a gun’s finish. If your holster manufacturer tells you their holsters don’t wear on the gun they are a liar. What reduces wear is a tight specific fit for the intended gun and keeping the holster clean. Dirt in the holster is the leading abrasive and a loose fit only accentuates the sandpaper effect while you’re wearing the holster moving around all day. Since retention of the gun is the sole reason for a holster, I only consider two materials acceptable for carry. Leather and Kydex/molded plastic. 

Obviously, I’m a leather guy. I can appreciate that Kydex does have its place in the holster world. Recently, I have even been making hybrid holsters that take advantage of both materials. I want to quickly get into the pros and cons for each material, you can make your choice which suits you better. Leather is comfortable, aesthetically pleasing, long lasting, it protects the weapon but it’s also costly, requires care, and has generally less retention. Kydex is affordable, more rigid, low maintenance, customizable but also rough against the body, can wear the guns finish, and its noisy. Leather conforms to the body for custom fit, Kydex is stiff and can create uncomfortable “hot spots” on the body. Yet Kydex has a positive snap into place fit, and is impervious to water with its hard material. Leather can offer good retention with proper molding and a thumb break snap makes retention better. Unfortunately leather does absorb water. Special outer coatings can repel water, but the holster will still need to dry thoroughly after getting wet. I could go back and forth for days, but ultimately everyone is different and you will have to make your own decision. As long as you buy a quality holster you are making the right choice. 

Unfortunately there is no holster perfect for every situation and every clothing choice. I’ve seen some manufacturers try but the holsters are complex, and bulky. A holster designed to do two or more tasks usually under-performs in every task. There is also no perfectly comfortable holster that you can carry for an unlimited amount of time and not get sore. Carry is uncomfortable at some point in time for any holster. The weight on the body and pressure on the skin just becomes too much at some point. I have found there to be two important factors in holster selection, comfort and conceal-ability. Both these factors play against each other as if they were on a balancing beam scale. A sacrifice of one factor usually results in an increase of the other based on the design of the holster. Where on the scale you decide is an acceptable compromise for comfort and conceal-ability for your day to day operations is up to you. Comfort is great and I would pick it over conceal-ability any time I can. When I can’t pick comfort, I must favor conceal-ability. The pain of a gun digging into my side goes away much faster than the pain of a hot bullet wound or my death to my family. As I said, you don’t want to make yourself a target by broadcasting you are armed. An assailant is likely to try to take out the biggest threat first and you could get shot first before you have time to react. Give yourself the advantage! Don’t be cheap, have multiple holsters to fit the situation. 

On the far end of the comfort/conceal-ability balance beam scale are Inside the Waistband (IWB) holsters. They can carry a full size pistol while paired with the proper clothing. As the gun chosen gets smaller, you can even conceal underneath a plain, solid colored t-shirt with confidence. As stated earlier, its a good idea to go up a pant size to reduce pinching. A long day carrying IWB can be a beast on your hip, even with small guns. Going with a looser cut of pants or shorts can reduce “printing” that broadcasts that you’re carrying. I’ve seen some IWB holster designs that offer more comfort, unfortunately they seem to offer more bulk in the form of padding, therefore playing into the comfort/conceal-ability scale. I highly recommend IWB holsters with two clips. Single clip/loop IWB holsters have a tendency to change the cant angle and come unclipped. Two clips or belt loops are better than one and will keep your gun securely at desired position. Two clip/loop designs also keep the holster thickness down.  If you’re slim enough you can wear a IWB Appendix style holster, worn in the 12 o’clock position (directly in front). They are readily accessible and fast, but need to be practiced extensively due to the importance of what they are pointing at. An important note to make now and for every style of holster is that training with your holster is a must. Practice slowly while unloaded until proficiency and speed increase. Only advance to live fire training after going through exclusively dry fire training with your selected holster. Never fast draw from a holster you are untrained or unfamiliar using. 

Outside the Waistband holsters are my favorite type of holsters. They come in many different styles that have differing compromises of comfort and conceal-ability. They can be worn in a professional setting, are good for the shooting range, or hunting. A pancake style with a belt loop on each side of the gun will pull the gun the closest to the body. With a high enough ride on the holster and proper shirt, full size guns are easily concealed. The pancake style can put more pressure on your body and eventually become uncomfortable. A half-slide style has a belt loop behind and a hidden one on the back of the holster. It takes up less room on the belt but doesn’t pull as tight to the body. The half-slide is very comfortable but may be better for carry under bulky clothing. Then there are western or hunting style holsters. These are the most comfortable for hiking over rough terrain with a large gun. Luckily in most hunting settings, concealment is not a consideration. 

Shoulder holsters are one of the most comfortable and bad ass looking style of holsters. Who doesn’t like a good cop flick with detectives running around wearing a shoulder rig? In the real world, they do come with limitations. While they are comfortable for driving or hiking and keep weight off your waistline, it can be difficult to control the muzzle of your gun. Whether a horizontal or vertical carry shoulder holster, they are still cross draw holsters in nature. Requiring the muzzle to be flagged/pointed at what is behind you, beside you, and even yourself at some point in drawing of the gun. I don’t have any experience carrying in a bra for natural reasons, but if your are blessed enough to carry a gun in there it could be as practical as a shoulder holsters. A derivative of the shoulder holster that I find very functional is the chest holster. The chest holster is practical for just about any activity and naturally holds the gun in a nearly “Sul” or “South” position. The “Sul” is worth a Google and practicing. In this position you can carry the gun in a way that is very safe and very fast to shoot from. Unfortunately shoulder and chest holsters require bulky clothing to conceal. 

Pocket holsters are a great tool for concealing small guns. They are versatile and light like the pistols they carry. Unfortunately, they are limited to guns that fit in pockets like micro .380 autos and 9mm’s. Maybe you can get away with a Glock 26/27 or XD45 in a vest or coat pocket. Watch it though if you take your coat off inside somewhere, you are responsible for who may find your gun. Your wardrobe options are only limited by the size of the pockets and the holster breaks up the outline of the gun in the pocket. Again a proper fit is a must with pocket holsters. Most all pocket holsters on the market are a generic fit. I find a specific fit limits the introduction of pocket lint and other objects to interfere with the gun. When carrying with pocket carry, you should dedicate the pocket with the gun in it to only the gun. Carrying other things can cause obstructions in drawing and accidental discharges. A pocket gun can be a great backup to your primary gun.

Ankle holsters are also a great way to carry a backup gun. I do not recommend ankle holsters for primary carry. With a gun of any size they are not readily accessible. The bad guy is not going to wait while you take a knee, pull up your pant leg and draw your gun. Ankle carry can also be awkward. Similar to ankle holsters are other specialty concealment holsters that carry the gun on obscure places of the body, like on the thigh or below the waistband. After a certain amount of time any amount of weight or pressure on one leg and not the other while walking will become painful or cumbersome. The size of the gun only exacerbates this issue. I would reserve ankle carry for secondary backup guns on days you aren’t walking long distances.

Then there are duty holsters. They offer excellent levels of gun retention, often with quick but complex actions required to draw the gun. These holsters are rarely compact and concealable. Commonly used by uniformed military and law enforcement, duty holsters could find suitable use at the range or hunting. These holsters often have an amount of drop down from the waistline. I find there is a happy medium in the level of drop and it’s usually not too far down. Drop leg’s have the appearance of being cool, kind of like western cowboy holsters that droop down, but rarely are tactical with the added weight on the leg while moving. 

This covers most of the considerations I discuss about carry with most of my customers when they are shopping for a holster. In no way am I trying to avoid this conversation with future customers. I would have this conversation with anyone, customer or not, that’s how important knowing how to carry a gun is to me. I know many of you likely have differing amounts of training and experience than I do. Just as likely, our opinions of carry methods may differ. I don’t want to demean your carry method but if you could take one consideration or piece of advice I said to make things better in your life it would bring me great satisfaction. I am open for discussion in the comments below.

If you are looking for a new holster after reading this or are unfamiliar with the holsters I discussed please visit my store at www.munclesleatherworks.com/custom-leather-shop.Thank you for your time and I look forward to future education and discussion with you. 

Eric Wilmarth AKA “Muncle”