I noticed someone revived a zombie thread on appendix carry in one of the S&W forums. I figured it might be a good time to post s thread here for the potential new to concealed carry folks, or folks considering concealed carry.
I’ve also noticed concealed carry has been sharply on the rise over the last couple years with many of the people deciding to conceal carry being new to handguns in general.
Hopefully we can cover some of the major issues and considerations here in the initial post and in subsequent discussion.
As a disclaimer I am not claiming to be a expert and I don’t run a tacti-cool school and have no vested interest in making money or promoting sponsored products. I
What I am presenting are my thoughts and observations based on 35 years of concealed carry beginning with off duty carry while in law enforcement. I’ve carried a variety of pistols and revolvers from 1911s to Hi Powers to various SA/DA CZ and S&W pistols, as well as smaller DA/SA pistols like the PP series and a few Berettas. I’ve also carried a couple striker fired pistols with all all the safety mechanisms tied to the trigger.
So with that in mind…
1) Regardless of what you carry, the holster is the first line safety.
Ideally you want a holster that fully covers the trigger in order to protect the trigger from any object intruding and activating the trigger while it is being carried.
You’ll encounter members of the “My booger hook is my safety” club from time to time who insist handguns only fired when a finger pulls the trigger. There is ample evidence that this in not in fact the case.
There’s a video floating around of a police chief shooting him self in the leg when he reholstered a pistol in a manner where the cord lock for the cord at the bottom of his jacket intruded into the trigger guard of the pistol as it was being inserted into the holster. There are several failures in that event that will get mentioned in discussion of specific issues below.
2) A good holster improves safety, and a bad one can increase risk.
Back in 2008 or so Versa Carry sent me one of their new “holsters” to review.
I used it briefly with a DA/SA pistol (a PPK/S) suited to the size of the device. The device was basically a rod that was inserted into the muzzle that was attached to a clip that went over the belt. It was minimalist and low profile, but it left the entire pistol and its trigger exposed to whatever was inside the waist band. Even with the PP series long and heavy DA trigger, and exposed hammer, I felt there was a risk of a wad of shirt tail, etc, intruding into the trigger guard and causing an AD if the shooter continued to to holster it. With a striker fired pistol, where all the safety devices are on the trigger, the trigger pull is much shorter, and in most cases much lighter, the risk is excessive.
Versa Carry did add a shield to cover one side of the trigger as a result of feed back from me (and no doubt many others). That made it a step better than those farm animal stupid clips that attach to the side of a pistol, but it’s still firmly on my “1 star, do not recommend” list.
Not far behind that device are the soft suede leather or nylon holsters that clip inside your waist band. The concern with these holsters as well as with leather holsters that are constructed from leather that the material is too thin and or too soft and flexible to prevent the mouth of the holster from curling over. When that happens, the mouth can flex or curl enough to put material inside the trigger guard and in front of the trigger, potentially causing the trigger to be depressed as the pistol is holstered. These holsters also won’t stay open inside a waistband which makes re-holster in more difficult.
Below area couple examples of IWB holsters that work well, through different means.
This one is a 1911 in an IWB holster with an offset clip, and a double thickness mouth with a polymer strip between the layers of leather:
The dual thickness leather a polymer or metal strip in between the layers ensures the holster mouth keeps its shape and does not collapse even when the holster is in the waistband with the gun removed. The construction of the mouth also ensures it won’t curl and enter the trigger guard.
This holster below with a 686+ in it has two clips to spread the weight and add stability while still keeping the profile low. The mouth is single thickness, but the leather is thick enough, stiff enough and shaped in a manner so that it also stays open in the waist band and won’t curl into the trigger guard.
I’m not a Kydex fan for a few different reasons but Kydex also works well to prevent the mouth from curling over. The caveat however is that if it cracks it loses the rigidity on at least one axis and the cracked portion could enter the trigger guard. Also, if you heat it enough it softens and can curl. Either way periodically inspecting the holster for serviceable condition is important.
3) How you reholster matters.
As noted in the example of the police chief who shot himself in the leg mentioned above, even a well designed holster isn’t idiot proof. With a Glock style pistol with no manual safety and a short, light trigger pull, you need to either be able to fully observe the reholstering process to check for any intrusions into the trigger guard, or you need to remove the holster from the waist band to reholster the pistol. In the latter case clips to attach the holster to the belt are far more useful than loops, or holes that the belt threads through.
Generally speaking the smaller the holster and the the more it collapses when empty, the better it becomes to just remove it to reholster the handgun with the holster out in front of you where you can see it (and with the handgun pointing in a safe direction).
Different pistol designs also allow for different methods to ensure the trigger isn’t being activated or mitigate the effects of that happening.
For example, with a 1911 you always verify the manual safety is applied before reholstering. However, it also has a grip safety that will hold the sear in place even if the trigger is pulled, as long as the grip safety is not depressed while you reholster the pistol.
If the grip safety has a beaver tail, you can press forward on the back of the beaver tail with your thumb to ensure the grip safety is positively engaged.
Similar single action pistols like the Hi Power lack a grip safety. However you can place your thumb over the top of the hammer so that if the hammer does fall you will block it or at least slow it enough to make a discharge unlikely.
Similarly, when reholstering a revolver, you can place your thumb behind the hammer and feel the hammer coming back if the trigger is obstructed during the reholstering process.
There are also a few striker fired pistols that allow the tumble to be placed on the back of the slide during the reholstering process to either prevent it from firing.
It is important to practice reholstering to the point that it becomes an automatic response. It’s not all that uncommon for police officers to have an AD after a real world shoot when they reholster their pistol while they still their finger on the trigger. That’s very much a training issue, but it’s also an artifact of having far too little practice reholstering. Under stress you will devolve to your lowest level of full mastered training. If you lack the muscle memory to reindex your finger on the side of the slide, after you are done firing and when you are reholstering, a post shoot stress induced AD is much more likely.
4) OWB, IWB, small of the back, AIWB, shoulder, ankle, or something else?
That’s a whole thread unto itself as there are lots of pros and cons. But here are the basics:
a) OWB is fairly simple and easy and has fewer risks of intrusion into the trigger guard. But it is also usually less concealed due to a usually higher profile and the holster being exposed below the belt line. OWB holster are also often better suited to larger handguns. However as noted above a well made IWB holster works fine with things like Commander sized 1911s and 3” 686 revolvers even at 36-40 oz in weight.
b) IWB is generally more concealable but all day comfort will depend on a well designed holster and a well made double thickness belt (and a polymer insert between the layers is a plus). It also places handgun closer to you, and exposes it to more intrusion risk. It also exposes the pistol to more sweat. That can make a big difference in the daily maintenance required if you carry a blued steel handgun.
IWB holsters can also be found in a tuckable format where the short can be tucked over the handgun. That allows for jacket off dress shirt wear, or a tucked polo shirt, etc. But it comes at the expense of more time needed to draw.
Carrying on your strong side of the waist also imposes some limits in drawing the handgun while seated, and in particular with a seat belt. But with pistols of reasonable size (ie no 6” revolvers, etc) sitting is comfortable with a 3 o’ clock to 4:30 carry position.
c) Appendix IWB carry has many of the same pros and cons as regular IWB with the added risk of shooting yourself in more vital parts of body if you have an AD. Surviving a self inflicted wound to the outside of your leg, your butt or your foot is much more likely then shooting yourself in the femoral artery.
AIWB can make it almost impossible to draw from a seated position, depending on the holster, how low it is carried and your body shape. It can also be very uncomfortable for many people.
d) Small of the back carry is one of those things that seems like a good idea but it just isn’t.
- At best you are sweeping yourself and half the room behind you when you draw the weapon.
- Sweeping yourself understand stress while drawing to defend yourself is a universally bad idea.
- Visually observing the reholster process just isn’t possible and most of them rely on the belt threading through the holster so removing it to reholster isn’t practical.
e) Shoulder holsters come in a few different variants but it comes down to vertical versus horizontal carry of the gun and that comes down to the length of the gun and what works best for you. Sweeping yourself isn’t as big an issue as small of the back carry, but sweeping the people behind you is.
It also requires a cover garment like a vest or jacket and when those choices are not seasonally appropriate, it just screams “l’m carrying a gun”. That largely defeats the whole idea of concealed carry. But in the proper season it can be quite comfortable with the plus of being much more accessible when sitting in a vehicle.
f) Off body carry is common for women but it has sharp downsides in terms of not having continuous control over your handgun. I’m personally really tired of reading about small children shooting themselves or someone else with the gun they found in mom’s purse. It also a bad idea tactically for self defense as an assailant who surprises the woman often takes the purse away first. At best the thief steals the gun. At worst the now defenseless woman is assaulted, raped, or killed.
e) Then there is everything else from ankle holsters and pocket holsters to under the bra holsters. Just be very careful to fully think through the basic concerns above and the other potential issues if you choose one of those methods.
I’ve also noticed concealed carry has been sharply on the rise over the last couple years with many of the people deciding to conceal carry being new to handguns in general.
Hopefully we can cover some of the major issues and considerations here in the initial post and in subsequent discussion.
As a disclaimer I am not claiming to be a expert and I don’t run a tacti-cool school and have no vested interest in making money or promoting sponsored products. I
What I am presenting are my thoughts and observations based on 35 years of concealed carry beginning with off duty carry while in law enforcement. I’ve carried a variety of pistols and revolvers from 1911s to Hi Powers to various SA/DA CZ and S&W pistols, as well as smaller DA/SA pistols like the PP series and a few Berettas. I’ve also carried a couple striker fired pistols with all all the safety mechanisms tied to the trigger.
So with that in mind…
1) Regardless of what you carry, the holster is the first line safety.
Ideally you want a holster that fully covers the trigger in order to protect the trigger from any object intruding and activating the trigger while it is being carried.
You’ll encounter members of the “My booger hook is my safety” club from time to time who insist handguns only fired when a finger pulls the trigger. There is ample evidence that this in not in fact the case.
There’s a video floating around of a police chief shooting him self in the leg when he reholstered a pistol in a manner where the cord lock for the cord at the bottom of his jacket intruded into the trigger guard of the pistol as it was being inserted into the holster. There are several failures in that event that will get mentioned in discussion of specific issues below.
2) A good holster improves safety, and a bad one can increase risk.
Back in 2008 or so Versa Carry sent me one of their new “holsters” to review.
I used it briefly with a DA/SA pistol (a PPK/S) suited to the size of the device. The device was basically a rod that was inserted into the muzzle that was attached to a clip that went over the belt. It was minimalist and low profile, but it left the entire pistol and its trigger exposed to whatever was inside the waist band. Even with the PP series long and heavy DA trigger, and exposed hammer, I felt there was a risk of a wad of shirt tail, etc, intruding into the trigger guard and causing an AD if the shooter continued to to holster it. With a striker fired pistol, where all the safety devices are on the trigger, the trigger pull is much shorter, and in most cases much lighter, the risk is excessive.
Versa Carry did add a shield to cover one side of the trigger as a result of feed back from me (and no doubt many others). That made it a step better than those farm animal stupid clips that attach to the side of a pistol, but it’s still firmly on my “1 star, do not recommend” list.
Not far behind that device are the soft suede leather or nylon holsters that clip inside your waist band. The concern with these holsters as well as with leather holsters that are constructed from leather that the material is too thin and or too soft and flexible to prevent the mouth of the holster from curling over. When that happens, the mouth can flex or curl enough to put material inside the trigger guard and in front of the trigger, potentially causing the trigger to be depressed as the pistol is holstered. These holsters also won’t stay open inside a waistband which makes re-holster in more difficult.
Below area couple examples of IWB holsters that work well, through different means.
This one is a 1911 in an IWB holster with an offset clip, and a double thickness mouth with a polymer strip between the layers of leather:
The dual thickness leather a polymer or metal strip in between the layers ensures the holster mouth keeps its shape and does not collapse even when the holster is in the waistband with the gun removed. The construction of the mouth also ensures it won’t curl and enter the trigger guard.
This holster below with a 686+ in it has two clips to spread the weight and add stability while still keeping the profile low. The mouth is single thickness, but the leather is thick enough, stiff enough and shaped in a manner so that it also stays open in the waist band and won’t curl into the trigger guard.
I’m not a Kydex fan for a few different reasons but Kydex also works well to prevent the mouth from curling over. The caveat however is that if it cracks it loses the rigidity on at least one axis and the cracked portion could enter the trigger guard. Also, if you heat it enough it softens and can curl. Either way periodically inspecting the holster for serviceable condition is important.
3) How you reholster matters.
As noted in the example of the police chief who shot himself in the leg mentioned above, even a well designed holster isn’t idiot proof. With a Glock style pistol with no manual safety and a short, light trigger pull, you need to either be able to fully observe the reholstering process to check for any intrusions into the trigger guard, or you need to remove the holster from the waist band to reholster the pistol. In the latter case clips to attach the holster to the belt are far more useful than loops, or holes that the belt threads through.
Generally speaking the smaller the holster and the the more it collapses when empty, the better it becomes to just remove it to reholster the handgun with the holster out in front of you where you can see it (and with the handgun pointing in a safe direction).
Different pistol designs also allow for different methods to ensure the trigger isn’t being activated or mitigate the effects of that happening.
For example, with a 1911 you always verify the manual safety is applied before reholstering. However, it also has a grip safety that will hold the sear in place even if the trigger is pulled, as long as the grip safety is not depressed while you reholster the pistol.
If the grip safety has a beaver tail, you can press forward on the back of the beaver tail with your thumb to ensure the grip safety is positively engaged.
Similar single action pistols like the Hi Power lack a grip safety. However you can place your thumb over the top of the hammer so that if the hammer does fall you will block it or at least slow it enough to make a discharge unlikely.
Similarly, when reholstering a revolver, you can place your thumb behind the hammer and feel the hammer coming back if the trigger is obstructed during the reholstering process.
There are also a few striker fired pistols that allow the tumble to be placed on the back of the slide during the reholstering process to either prevent it from firing.
It is important to practice reholstering to the point that it becomes an automatic response. It’s not all that uncommon for police officers to have an AD after a real world shoot when they reholster their pistol while they still their finger on the trigger. That’s very much a training issue, but it’s also an artifact of having far too little practice reholstering. Under stress you will devolve to your lowest level of full mastered training. If you lack the muscle memory to reindex your finger on the side of the slide, after you are done firing and when you are reholstering, a post shoot stress induced AD is much more likely.
4) OWB, IWB, small of the back, AIWB, shoulder, ankle, or something else?
That’s a whole thread unto itself as there are lots of pros and cons. But here are the basics:
a) OWB is fairly simple and easy and has fewer risks of intrusion into the trigger guard. But it is also usually less concealed due to a usually higher profile and the holster being exposed below the belt line. OWB holster are also often better suited to larger handguns. However as noted above a well made IWB holster works fine with things like Commander sized 1911s and 3” 686 revolvers even at 36-40 oz in weight.
b) IWB is generally more concealable but all day comfort will depend on a well designed holster and a well made double thickness belt (and a polymer insert between the layers is a plus). It also places handgun closer to you, and exposes it to more intrusion risk. It also exposes the pistol to more sweat. That can make a big difference in the daily maintenance required if you carry a blued steel handgun.
IWB holsters can also be found in a tuckable format where the short can be tucked over the handgun. That allows for jacket off dress shirt wear, or a tucked polo shirt, etc. But it comes at the expense of more time needed to draw.
Carrying on your strong side of the waist also imposes some limits in drawing the handgun while seated, and in particular with a seat belt. But with pistols of reasonable size (ie no 6” revolvers, etc) sitting is comfortable with a 3 o’ clock to 4:30 carry position.
c) Appendix IWB carry has many of the same pros and cons as regular IWB with the added risk of shooting yourself in more vital parts of body if you have an AD. Surviving a self inflicted wound to the outside of your leg, your butt or your foot is much more likely then shooting yourself in the femoral artery.
AIWB can make it almost impossible to draw from a seated position, depending on the holster, how low it is carried and your body shape. It can also be very uncomfortable for many people.
d) Small of the back carry is one of those things that seems like a good idea but it just isn’t.
- At best you are sweeping yourself and half the room behind you when you draw the weapon.
- Sweeping yourself understand stress while drawing to defend yourself is a universally bad idea.
- Visually observing the reholster process just isn’t possible and most of them rely on the belt threading through the holster so removing it to reholster isn’t practical.
e) Shoulder holsters come in a few different variants but it comes down to vertical versus horizontal carry of the gun and that comes down to the length of the gun and what works best for you. Sweeping yourself isn’t as big an issue as small of the back carry, but sweeping the people behind you is.
It also requires a cover garment like a vest or jacket and when those choices are not seasonally appropriate, it just screams “l’m carrying a gun”. That largely defeats the whole idea of concealed carry. But in the proper season it can be quite comfortable with the plus of being much more accessible when sitting in a vehicle.
f) Off body carry is common for women but it has sharp downsides in terms of not having continuous control over your handgun. I’m personally really tired of reading about small children shooting themselves or someone else with the gun they found in mom’s purse. It also a bad idea tactically for self defense as an assailant who surprises the woman often takes the purse away first. At best the thief steals the gun. At worst the now defenseless woman is assaulted, raped, or killed.
e) Then there is everything else from ankle holsters and pocket holsters to under the bra holsters. Just be very careful to fully think through the basic concerns above and the other potential issues if you choose one of those methods.
