Select a gun suitable for concealment and not because it has mega-magazines or cute names. Slim guns are usually the best choice and big guns with fat gun butts for double-stack magazines are the hardest to conceal. I have had people tell me, for example, that they carry a Glock 22 because the grip of the gun is more comfortable while shooting than the grip of their Glock 23 and that is why they carry a big, full size, Duty or Service weapon. Think about it. You are going to have to strive to conceal that full size gun every moment that you carry it but you're not going to be firing it a lot and; when you are in a crisis and do have to fire it; I doubt that comfort will be much of a concern. Accessory rails are often incompatible with concealment holsters and may relegate your railed beauty to a home defense role. Anytime you hang accessories from a rail, you are reducing any chance you had for finding a holster for a bare, railed gun. Check holster availability before buying a railed gun or accessories to hang on it. Typically, concealed carry guns are selected for their concealment characteristics and adding lights and lasers contributes to excess bulk and weight and may reduce concealability. Finding a good holster for a railed gun can, in some cases, be quite challenging. Finding a holster for a railed gun with attached devices is several generations more difficult. Holsters are not comfortable nor uncomfortable. They are just holsters. Comfort is more a product of the person carrying, the gun selected and the position the gun is worn than any issue with the holster. A holster doesn't hold a gun up, it is just a parking place for a gun. A belt holds the holster and the gun up and your old belt may not be up to the task. Select a belt made to carry a gun. Your comfort and your concealment will benefit from it. A good belt holster will work for 95% of the people 95% of the time. A good quality holster does not require a thumb-break for for secure retention. The key words here are "good quality". I have had people tell me about reading gun magazine articles that related cases where people bent over in a Super-Market and their gun fell out and that is why we need holsters with retention devices but I haven't seen that happen too often in the Super-Markets I shop at. Team Packin' Heat all carry full time and all use quality open top holsters (IE: Combat Master, Concealable, Royal Guard, Summer Comfort) and nobody here has tossed out a pistol in the Produce Department lately. If you like thumb-break holsters (IE: FLETCH, Silhouette), buy one. It's stll a free country but that's personal taste and not a requirement for good retention. Many people select a holster based upon the concept that all holsters are equally good and all will perform equally well and they want to spend as little money as possible. Patently untrue. I've had customers come to me with their new Wilson Combat pistols and want to buy a $20 holster made from recycled, black, nylon socks. Just so you know, I would never recommend that anyone spend money needlessly on anything but holsters are definitely one place where the money spent is an investment in comfort, longevity of the product and concealment. Keep the $20 black, nylon socks on your feet and invest in good gun leather. And, many want as little holster as possible because they don't understand holster design and, due to that, they may select a holster that does not perform as well as it could.Those folks that want to buy as little holster and leather as possible tend to gravitate to single-belt-loop holsters or holsters with closely spaced loops but you get far better carry stability and concealment with holsters having widely spaced belt loops. Just imaging supporting a loaded, large, heavy gun at one supporting point or how it will be much more stable and in control when supported at two widely spaced points. Most of Galco's best concealment holsters are designed this way. Check the Combat Master, Concealable, FLETCH, Silhouette to see what I mean. Most modern holsters "tilt" the gun forward and this is called "cant". I still meet people who think the FBI cant is some type of modern styling and they want a plain, straight vertical holster; like the Avenger. Well, this is still a free country; at least it is today; and you can select a vertical holster if you want but consider why so many holsters are canted. That forward "tilt", or cant, lifts the butt of the gun to conceal it better and makes for a faster, easier draw as you don't have to displace your elbow so far vertically to draw the gun. Canted holsters are not just an excercise in modern holster fashion and design. Inside-The-Waistband (IWB) holsters are often a good choice but are hard for many people to become accustomed to. If your pants are already too tight and your chosen gun is too big, it's probably not a good choice but, if you are accustomed to carrying and not at the point where your pants are to the limit, IWB can be a very good choice and many of us here carry IWB frequently. See: Summer Comfort, Royal Guard, Ultra Deep Cover, Sto-N-Go, Tuc-N-Go and several more. Paddle holsters are a favorite of many due to the convenience of putting them on and taking them off but paddle holsters trade off concealment for convenience and may not be the best choice as the paddle tends to make the holster stand further off the body. Don't try to remove a paddle holster by pulling straight up. It won't work as it is designed to stay in place. Try to put one hand on the paddle portion that is inside the pants and pull the muzzle end away from the body. Then, rotate the muzzle of the holster up and forward, so the that muzzle of the gun is pointing ahead of you and it should come right out but don't be surprised if it takes a little practice. Wear your holster in a manner that you can conceal it and go about your daily business without concern. Position your holster by relating to the "Body Clock". Think about being above someone standing in the middle of a big clock. Straight ahead is 12 o'clock, to the right is 3 o'clock and to the left is 9 o'clock. Other time descriptions would be in the logical place on the "Body Clock". Many Galco holsters are now coming with a small Body Clock graphic on the label of the package and it shows the recommended carry position. Everyone that I have seen relates to right handed people, so you left handed folks need to "reverse" that recommend position to the other side. Click on the graphic above on this page for an example. This specific recommendation is going to be true and accurate for almost all right handed shooters. Lefties would need to position their guns "between", not AT, 9 o'clock and 7 o'clock. Many folks want to wear their guns at about 1 o'clock (or 11 o'clock for lefties) and that is called the appendix position. It's common but not necessarily comfortable, particularly when bending over, while seated or while driving and there are many who disagree with holstering a loaded gun that has no selectable safety (Glock is a good example but there are many others) that is pointed right at your femoral artery. The most common place for people to hang their holster is at 3 o'clock (or 9 o'clock), smack dab on their hip. Your hip is already one of the widest places on the body and now you've just exaggerated that by hanging a gun where it is most obvious. Law Enforcement Officers typically wear their guns on their hips because they don't have to conceal them and, frequently, when I spot someone carrying concealed with their gun right on the hip, it's an off-duty LEO. Old habits die hard. I've heard a lot of people criticize their holsters because the butt of the gun protrudes under their shirts and jackets like a rooster tail but that isn't the holster. That's the person carrying that holster and they are not considering the geometry of carrying a gun. A gun carried on the hip is pointing the butt of the gun straight back but your body is curving away from the gun as it curves back to your spine and that's the fault of wearing a gun improperly and not the fault of the holster. And consider this, most people mount their gun on their belt between 2 convenient belt loops and they can't change where the gun is carried. Here's a good solution for most people carrying most guns and using most holsters under most conditions. Most mens pants, and I don't know if this true holds for women but the concept does, have a belt loop "just" behind the side seam of the pants and that motivates most people to mount their holster between that loop and the next one forward but it's not a good choice. Pull your belt out of the loop just behind the side seam, the put your belt through your holsters rear belt slot, then through that same belt loop and then through the holsters front belt slot. This allows you to move the holster through a small arc of your body and gives the advantage of a third supporting point. Mount your holster as described above and holster your gun before sitting down in a chair. Now, slide your gun/holster combination back until the butt of the gun "almost" touches the seat back. This does at least two things. It positions the gun slightly behind you when viewed from the front but it changes the geometry of the gun butt. While that big protruding mess of a gun butt stuck out like a giant rooster tail when you wore your gun right on your hip, It now rotates the gun butt just far enough that the butt will tuck right in to your kidney area and conceal beautifully. You should be able to go through your day standing, walking, sitting and driving without any discomfort and you can still draw your gun from any position. There is a lot of interest in carrying guns behind the back in the vertical and inside-the-pants MOB (Middle Of Back) position and the horizontal, on-the-belt SOB (Small Of Back) position as many feel this is the ultimate in concealment. Consider this. Your shirt may ride up and expose the gun while bending over or, shirts of clinging material may just stretch tight over your gun and blow your concealment plan out the window. Sitting and driving may be difficult but many people who carry this way take their gun out of their holster and put it somewhere else while driving and that presents it's own dangers. If you are deliberately cut off in traffic and brake heavily, the gun may disappear when you need it most and if you are forced out of your vehicle by an armed carjacker, you're gun is left behind. Or, you could inadvertently leave your gun in your car when you park it. Your gun should always be with you, always in the same place, all of the time. Always. |