Concealed Carry Holsters.

 CCW holsters. What I recommend and what I don’t recommend. I’ve been carrying a CCW since late 2019. I’ve carried 5 different types of handguns. Full size, compacts, sub compacts and micro compacts. So let's talk about it. 

Fuck man, where to start. Buying a holster can be complicated. So many different things to think about like the following: 

1. What kind of gun do you have?

2. Where are you going to carry it?

3. What kind of clothes do you wear?

4. What kind of holster are you going to have?

5. How long do you plan on wearing it per day?

6. What size person are you? 

All these things matter!!! 

1st point, What kind of gun do you have? This one is pretty obvious. If you carry a big gun, you’ll need to have a big holster. How do you choose what gun to carry? Honestly find something you can comfortably shoot, then find a way to comfortably carry it. I can’t hold your hand the entire way, absorb what I say and make your decision based on that. 

2nd point. Where to carry your gun. Inside the wasteband, outside the wasteband, appendix carry, shoulder carry, fuck even ankle carry! So many options. I’ve always carried IWB “inside the waistband” I started carrying at the 5 o’clock position. When talking about position on a belt, your belly button is 12 o’clock and your butthole is 6 o’clock, fill in the blanks on the other spots. The reason I carried 5 o’clock was because it was the most comfortable and easiest to stay concealed. Once I lost a little bit of weight I started carrying appendix (the 1 o’clock position) . I find it easiest to carry at the 11,12 & 1 o’clock position.  How come I never tried shoulder or ankle carry? That will set us up for the next topic. 

3rd point. Clothing. If you like to wear really tight clothing then CCW might not work out for you. Loose and baggy clothing is your friend. My pants size is 34 but I wear a 36 due to my holster. ALSO! SUPER IMPORTANT! Wear a good fucking belt. You can have the best holster out there but if you have a shitty $4 walmart belt that holster is going to flop and sag. 

My belt of choice is Blue Alpha Gear. I also have a Magpul belt for when I need to be fancy. Both of these belts have this in common, they are stiff and rigid all the way around. The Blue Alpha belts use cobra buckles that are super strong yet really easy to take on and off. 

Ankle carry, this isn’t the 1970s, most of you are not cops with a backup gun. Shorts are out of the question. However, having a gun is better than not having a gun. Ankle carry can be an ok way to carry a gun, if you were going to do this I would recommend something reputable like the Alien gear ankle carry holster. And for fuck sakes pratice drawing that thing. 

Shoulder carry, I haven't carried this way but it seems like a decent way to carry. But you need to wear a button up shirt or jacket. This isn’t something I have experience in or have looked into. 

4th point, what kind of holster you have. WARNING WARNING WARNING!!!! I’m going show a graphic picture.

FUCK LEATHER! I have heard too many stories about leather holsters causing Accidental Discharges. If you want a leather holster, get one that has a plastic insert so the bullshit I'm about to show you doesn’t happen. 

This is a worn out leather holster that pinched the trigger and accidentally fired a round into this guy’s ass. I’ve heard of this happening with both leather and cloth holsters. I will never Recommend a cloth or leather holster for a firearm. I don’t trust them. Only exception is if they have a plastic or kydex insert. Or Maybe if you carry a DA/SA with the hammer decocked and with a manual safety on you can use leather. But I don’t recommend carrying the gun in that state either, The more bullshit you have to prevent your gun from firing the more potential you have to fumble to fire it in a high stress situation. 

5th point. How long are you going to wear a holster per day? I currently Use a G-code holster because it's quick to take on/off and keeps the gun very secure in my waistband. I got this because I used to be a roof inspector and wanted something that I could comfortably climb ladders with and not worry about the gun. Why did I need a gun on a roof? That's irrelevant to this article, moving on. That G-code holster is great but after wearing it for 8 hours or more it starts to get annoying. I have alien gear holsters that I can wear all day, But they are bigger holsters that are harder to conceal. My all time favorite holster for ccw is the Raven Concealment Vanguard holster. 

This is a very very minimalist holster, covers the trigger and has a clip on it, that's it. The gun is surprisingly secure as long as you're not doing a lot of extreme movements. I’ve worn this holster during a 12 hour retail store shift with lots of walking and small ladder climbing and felt safe about the gun. However I have also gotten caught in a rainstorm walking my dog, and while running back to my apartment I felt the gun moving more than I wanted, held my crotch the enrite run home. I will be doing a dedicated review on the Vanguard holster soon. On this day I switch between the g-code and vanguard holster depending on what I'm doing that day. 

6th and last point. How big or small are you? This is going to affect the way you carry. Believe it or not, big people have an easier time with concealed carry. Super skinny people can sometimes hide guns well too. Your average or slightly above average folks have it the hardest imo. 

By the way, Didn’t really touch on this, but if you want a light, laser or red dot sight on your CCW, everything I just mentioned above just got harder. 

So here are some final thoughts and some gear I recommend. Choosing a holster for CCW can be hard. I currently have 6 holsters for 4 guns for CCW. My main CCW choice right now is my Sig P365 XL with a small frame and Romeo Zero red dot sight. 

Let’s briefly talk about “Off body carrying” This is when you carry a CCW in a backpack, purse, jacket pocket, This is any type of carry method that is something that you can easily remove from your body. I am not a fan of off carry methods. I’ll give you an example.

Let's say I have one of those concealed carry jackets with built in pockets for a handgun. I walk into a restaurant to eat breakfast. After being inside for more than 5 minutes I start to get hot and take off my jacket and hang it on the back of my chair. Waiter comes and pours me a cup of coffee and takes my order. About 20 mins goes by and my morning coffee does what coffee does and now I need to run to the bathroom. I walk to the bathroom and proceed to take a shit. It is a quick shit though, in and out in less than 5 mins. I get back to my table and hey, my food is here. So i eat my waffles and my hash browns that I dumped an entire bottle of Cholula hot sauce on (this is the correct way to eat hash browns btw) food is great, I leave a $20 on the table and walk out the door, but the second I get outside i realize i forgot my jacket. Run back in, grab it and leave. 

So what went wrong? A few things, did you catch them all? Let's break it down. 

1. I’m using a shitty method to carry my gun, these gimmicky jackets that do not provide proper protection over the trigger of the gun. The trigger can be pulled through the fabric. A plastic holster wont have this problem. 

2. I took the jacket off and had it behind my back. What if some crook thought it was a nice jacket and grabbed it and ran off, double whammy for them because now they have a pistol too. 

3. I left my jacket at the table because I had to use the bathroom. I left my jacket unattended at a table with a pistol in the pocket, this jacket/gun is free for the taking. 

4. And to top it all off, my dumbass almost walked completely away without the jacket/gun...how embarrassing. 

Now I get it, this is a pretty irresponsible breakfast. This is doing everything wrong. But what happens if I only fucked up once? How many times have you forgotten a jacket somewhere? Sure, I could have kept my jacket on the entire time and sweat by balls off, I could have gotten a different table with my back against the wall or a booth. I could have taken my jacket into the bathroom. OR…...I could have fucking had a IWB holster and not given a fuck about my jacket. Ladies, how often do you leave your purse lying around? For everyday carry, I don’t like off-body carrying. Yes, it can be done safely but It's not my cup of tea. 

There are some cool things out there that help carry a weapon. I like to wear sweatpants or gym shorts when I walk my dog. Sometimes I use a belly band. This is from alien gear, it's a piece of neoprene that wraps and velcros around itself. Works best with alien gear cloak holsters. Pretty cool but I wouldn’t recommend it for long periods of time. 

There are some pretty cool options for women to carry a gun. Such have garter holsters & holsters that attach to a bra. I have zero experiences with these for obvious reasons. But Flashbang Holsters cater to the Female CCW market. 

https://www.instagram.com/flashbangholster/?hl=en

I hope this helped, I hoped this can steer you in a direction to make the best decision for yourself. I probably just made shit harder for you. This is only a little bit of it too by the way.