The other day I decided to belt on one of my G26's, using a Rosen Express Line Premier holster a close friend gave me as a gift several years ago. I've liked it for its nice quality, and its high & tight fit. Snug on the weapon. Easy to put an & take off a belt, and the holster loops allow for some adjustment of positioning around belt loops of pants.
Unfortunately, sitting in the car and in a rounded-back, wooden framed leather chair (at my cigar club) for many hours aggravated the "hot spots" resulting from so many years of IWB, duty leather gun belts and plainclothes gun belts.
The next day I switched to an older Blade-tech plastic paddle holster (made for the older, shorter J-frame cylinder/frame window length and non-sleeved barrels), and pulled my older 649 Bodyguard .38 Spl from the safe. That thin, wide curved paddle put no pressure on my hip and I was able to again forget I was wearing a belt gun. I might have to order a new one that will fit my M&P's.
While I can slip one of my Airweights or M&P 340's into a large inside breast pocket, pocket holstered, in some of my jackets, the extra ounces of weight of the all-steel 649 causes too much droop to suit me, so I usually break out a belt holster (or my camera/gun case) when an all-steel J is going to be carried. Ditto my SP101DAO, which is noticeably larger and heavier.
As I mentioned earlier, now that I'm no longer being paid to go out and actively try to find trouble and intervene, trouble is going to have to come and try to find me, so a smaller 5-shot snub doesn't cause me undue indigestion when carried as a retirement CCW.
That doesn't mean I might not carry a secondary weapon, then, when a J-frame is in a short belt scabbard or paddle and not in my jeans/slacks pocket. Not having the J-frame in a front pocket leaves room for one of my little LCP's, or maybe a NAA .22 LR or MAG.
Sure, it's likely a remote possibility I'd ever require a having an Onion Field-type "hideout" gun ... but unless I need that pocket for something else, it's often not a problem to slip one of those really diminutive .380's or .22's, in their pocket holsters, in that pocket.
Now, for work, it would require complying with any existing policies about approved weapons & calibers, and while I'd not mind once again carrying a 6-shot revolver for plainclothes (or a 7 or 8-shot model
), the 5-shot snubs would be relegated to more secondary/backup roles, than "primary" roles.
This was a guy fully familiar with the necessity to aim revolver shots, too.
