The Practical Guide to Gun Holsters for Concealed Carry: Practical Guides, #2

By Tom McHale

New 3rd Edition! Over 160 holsters and accessories covered!

Let's face it. Choosing the best way to carry a gun can be a daunting task. Whether you're new to guns or have been shooting since you were a wee tot, this book can help you understand concealed carry methods, how to carry a gun safely, and the relative pros and cons of over 160 specific holster models. We'll even teach you several ways to carry a gun in your underwear.

This book will help you make the right choice - saving you time and money - while offering a dose of humor while you learn.

Why do you need a book to choose and buy a holster? A few reasons really.

- At last count, there are 4,187,237 different holsters on the market. Well, that might be an estimate, but there are a lot. If you had a dollar for each of those holsters, you could almost cover the Kardashians' weekly clothing budget. So how do you choose the right holster with all those choices?

- Hardly any stores carry a wide selection of holsters. Sure they might carry a couple of brands, but will they have a brand right for you and the model specific to your gun? It's kind of like trying to find just the right shade of Morning Tropical Ocean Breeze Sunrise interior house paint at your local convenience store. It's just not likely to happen. And that leaves you the option of having to search and buy from… the internet. And we all know that you can't always believe everything you read on the internet. Well, except Youtube comments. Those are almost always true and insightful.

- You can't really try holsters out before you buy. Especially those underwear holsters. Gun store sales staff tend to get a little cranky when you start shedding clothes next to the ammunition aisle.

- There are many different styles of concealed carry. Every day, innovative gun folks are inventing new ways to safely and discreetly carry guns. The variety of options is great, but how do you know which style of carry is right for you?

The editors at MyGunCulture.com have painstakingly documented all the holsters we've tried over the years and provided helpful commentary about pros and cons of different holster styles. In other words, we've tried just about everything. We've had great successes. We've experienced colossal failures. We've listened to so many gun show huckster sales pitches that the late Billy Mays would be impressed. And the result? The Practical Guide to Gun Holsters for Concealed Carry.

Topics Include:

- A brief and entertaining history of holsters.
- Weighing concealment versus accessibility
- Open or concealed carry? How to start an enthusiastic argument.
- Ladies only holster solutions.
- Belt carry holsters - inside, outside and underneath?
- Body carry solutions. Undershirts, belly bands, and harnesses.
- Ankle holsters. You think your ankles were swollen before?
- Pocket holsters. Why some work and others don't.
- You too can carry a gun in your underwear!
- Stashing guns in your clothing. Pants, shirts, and jackets.
- Off premises parking. Ways to carry a gun not attached to your body.
- Home, office and car holster options.
- Magazine carriers and pouches. Ways to easily carry spare ammunition.

Loaded with pictures and the occasional comedic illustration, this book will tell you just about everything you need to know regarding styles of carry and the pros and cons of dozens and dozens of holsters from numerous manufacturers.

Holsters are expensive. And important! This book will help you make the right choice for your needs and lifestyle without breaking the bank.

Enjoy!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tom McHale
• Release date: Sep 15, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370703838

Tom McHale

Tom McHale is a committed learning junkie always seeking a new subject victim. As a lifelong student of whatever grabs his attention on any particular day, he thrives on beating rabbit trails into submission. In between his time as a high-tech marketing executive, restaurant owner, and hamster cosmetology practitioner, he's published seven books and nearly 1,500 articles. For Tom, learning is only half the fun - the other half is sharing his experiences with readers using his trademark "half-cocked but right on target" style.

Book preview

Introduction

But First, A Serious Note

Proper handling and carrying of firearms is serious business. While we at MyGunCulture.com aim (Ha! Pun intended!) to make the shooting world more accessible and understandable with a little humor now and then, we firmly believe that nothing takes the place of face-to-face, real-time training. So, use this guide as an educational tool to help you understand some of the basics, but never rely solely on book knowledge. Always seek face-to-face training and the expert advice of a skilled and experienced firearms and personal defense trainer.

Now back to business.

In true MyGunCulture.com style, this book is written in literary assault format for your enjoyment — half-cocked but right on target. I hope that doesn’t offend your sense of decency and decorum — too much.

1

A Brief History of Holsters

half cocked cavemen inventing holsters

Holsters have been around longer than you might think — almost as long as Cher has been parading around wearing doilies. In fact, holsters actually pre-date guns. Do you really think bands of wooly mammoth hunters carried spears and rocks in their hands? After all, they couldn’t invent important things like fire and Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop Tarts with their hands all full of weapons.

While we don’t have the space to cover all of the many interesting and important developments in the history of holsters, we can touch on some of the highlights.

11th Century BC - Future King of Israel, David, popularizes the concept of holsters by toting around large round stones with which he kills big bullies. This earliest form of holster was known, from careful study and translation of ancient texts, to be called a ‘sack.’

1297 - William Wallace, otherwise known as Braveheart, popularizes the SmartCarry holster design — then known as a sporran. Sporrans were, and continue to be, worn on most fashionable kilts. As guns were not yet invented, historians believe that Wallace carried spare breath mints and a copy of his film rights agreement in his sporran. Wallace’s aggressive attitude prompts officials to ban sporrans in New York City.

1770 - Europeans discover that kangaroos have been designed with natural inside-the-waistband carry holsters when James Cooks’ ship Endeavor runs aground off Queensland, Australia. Kangaroos are immediately banned in New York City.

1800 - Pommel bags serve as carry devices for multiple large handguns. They quickly fall out of fashion when Clint Eastwood refers to them as ‘man purses.’

1805 - Historians believe that French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte invents the FlashBang Bra Holster, as evidenced by many portraits showing him fondling a derringer underneath his blouse.

1840’s - From careful frame-by-frame analysis of period documentaries like Blazing Saddles, historians have learned that belt holsters became fashionable for single shot pistols and early revolvers.

1966 - Leather six gun holsters became popular when a series of low budget spaghetti western films are produced like The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Early design ideas are scrapped when it is determined that spaghetti does not ride well in leather holsters. And it makes many holsters soggy.

1969 - Richard Gallagher founds The Original Jackass Leather Company in Chicago, IL. When he discovers that few Jackasses carry guns, the company is renamed Galco Gunleather and relocates to Phoenix, AZ. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg immediately bans the state of Arizona.

1986 - Man purses become fashionable, primarily in Europe. Otherwise known as man bags or murses, they are still just purses. Some men, concerned about their metro-masculine image, encouraged folks to call these bags ‘satchels’, but let’s face it — if it looks like a purse, and acts like a purse, it’s a purse. While seemingly a great concealed carry holster innovation, the fad rapidly lost popularity when European men realized that handguns are banned in most of their countries.

1993 - Inspired, and probably scared witless, by his pack failing and dumping a ton of gear into the middle of an Iraqi minefield, Navy SEAL Mike Noell founds BLACKHAWK!

EDITORS NOTE: We do not recommend or condone dumping your gear into an enemy minefield. Always hurl your gear into enemy minefields from a safe distance. For example, from central Idaho.

One of Blackhawk!’s successes is the Serpa retention holster designed to secure a handgun against accidental release or removal by evil dudes. In a launch publicity stunt, illusionist David Copperfield attempts to escape from a 23x scale Serpa Holster. After gently heating the holster with a large hair dryer, Copperfield is freed.

1995 - The Kydex revolution begins when Blade-Tech founder Tim Wegner melts several toaster ovens in his kitchen in early attempts to make Kydex knife sheaths. Wegner’s wife gently and lovingly encourages him to move the budding business to the garage — where companies are normally started. When associates point out to Wegner that one shouldn’t bring knives to gun fights, the Blade-Tech team begins to focus on Kydex holsters for guns.

gun words explained

Holster Terminology Alert: Kydex is a thermoplastic acrylic-polyvinyl chloride composite. This is a fancy description for plastic. You have to admit that Kydex sounds a lot more impressive than plastic, right? Most scholars believe that this versatile plastic is called Kydex because the company that invented it is Kydex LLC. According to Wikipedia, Kydex features a modulus of elasticity in flexure of 330,000 pounds per square inch. Just in case you were wondering. And by the way, we’re not going to attempt to define modulus of elasticity in flexure here. Just pretend you know what it means when you repeat this at cocktail parties. No one will question you.

On the development of holsters marches on. Every year we see new ideas developed by people like you and me who are looking for a better way to carry.

2

What a Holster Should Not Do

To illustrate exactly what a holster should not do, let me tell you a holster fairy tale. Unlike most fairy tales, this one ended kind of badly.

I started carrying a gun on a daily basis about 10 years ago. And when I decide to do something, I obsess… Big time. For example, after season one of The Walking Dead, when it became clear that zombies, along with personal injury attorneys, would one day rule the earth, I got serious about post-apocalypse survival tips. And I proceeded to learn to grow alfalfa in the bathtub, obtain drinking water with used Snuggies and milk the neighbor’s cat - which can be used to make a fine and aromatic Gruyère cheese by the way.

Back to holsters. When I got the shooting bug, I subscribed to every gun magazine known to man. American Handgunner. Guns Magazine. Guns and Ammo. Combat Handguns. Shooting Times. American Rifleman. American Cop. Concealed Carry Magazine. Redbook. Ok, so maybe Redbook was for that great holiday cookie recipe, but all the others were for legitimate gun learning purposes. Anyway, I subscribed to hundreds, or maybe it was more like tens, of magazines per month. I bought books. And read them. Even the ones with hardly any pictures.

In short, I thought I was learning everything I needed to know about concealed carry methods and proper holster selection. And so far, I had not been mugged, carjacked or teased about my sideburns, so I figured I had achieved concealed carry expertise. My strategy was sound and proven by several days of success on the street.

For a variety of reasons, I settled on an undershirt holster carry method as my default. The brand is not important. Let’s just say it was a spandex-y model of shirt with holster pockets sewn into the shirt itself.

From my studies of many important books and magazines, I knew that torso carry using an undershirt was not the ideal way to carry a gun. Access is significantly more difficult than from a belt-mounted holster. Although, on the plus side, you do get to give yourself a cheap feel during the draw. However, at that time of my life, absolute deep concealment was more important than immediate access. Or so I thought. And undershirt holsters offer outstanding concealment. As an added benefit, those stretchy shirts can make you look far more buff than you actually are — in your own mind anyway.

To make a long story short, one day I was volunteering at a charity event and doing a fair bit of manual labor like setting up tents and chairs. As I quickly bent over to grab a tent peg, I had the disturbing sensation that all was not right in the world. But at that instant, I couldn’t quite put my finger on specifically how The Force was out of harmony. At first, I thought my spider sense was telling me that Justin Bieber had suddenly hit puberty, forcing a sudden end to his singing and hair mousse modeling career. Fortunately, that was not the case.

However, I did hear a small sonic boom resulting from the hypersonic velocity of my Glock 32 flying out of my shirt collar and landing in full view on the ground about five feet in front of me. I won’t go into details, but let’s just say the black Tenifer finish on a Glock creates an exothermic reaction when combined with sexy spandex, and the resulting forces are capable of launching a small object, like, oh, say a Glock, at a velocity of Pi times 10 to the 4th power. This is just shy of warp factor 3. Good work Scotty!

Being quick on my feet when it comes to avoiding major embarrassment, I immediately feigned a terrible case of irritable bunion syndrome and fell to the ground - conveniently covering up my now very exposed earth-dwelling pistol. Pointing towards the infirmary tent and yelling for bunion pads, I was able to draw attention away from myself long enough to re-holster my Glock in my suddenly untrustworthy shirt holster.

Did you catch that? Yes, it is in fact possible for a gun to launch out of an undershirt holster, through your regular shirt collar. At high speed. Complicated physics aside, the important thing is that it can actually happen. Prior to the event, this is not a scenario I would have dreamed possible.

Thanks to a genetic disposition to sudden bunion attacks and a little sleight of hand, I was able to avoid detection. This was somewhat of a miracle, as people tend to notice things like flying Glocks launching from beneath one’s chin folds.

The morals of the story?

Do lots of homework before settling on your personal carry strategy.

Keep reading. Even books without pictures.

When you choose a holster, think about practical matters. Like bending over.

Practice, practice, practice, and practice some more. Using a carefully unloaded gun, test the snot out of your carry method by replicating a wide variety of physical activity. You need to have absolute confidence that your gun will remain in your possession.

Always be prepared with a ready-to-go medical emergency in the event you need to create a quick diversion. I’ve already claimed spontaneous irritable bunion syndrome attacks, so you have to find your own.

3

What a Holster Should Do

Not many choices you make on a routine basis carry life and death consequences. One that just might is the choice of how you're going to carry your concealed handgun. Outside of competition and recreational range time, the situation where your holster absolutely and flawlessly needs to perform is when you are forced to protect yourself.

We’re not talking about the specific make or brand of holsters per se, but rather the combination of your chosen carry method and the gear itself. To understand the ramifications of making the right choice for your unique situation, you have to consider what your holster and carry method must do. At the very highest level, the combination of concealed carry style and holster must keep your gun secure at all times while still allowing you to access your handgun safely, consistently and quickly.

Before we get into descriptions, pros, and cons of different methods of concealed carry, we need to set forth some criteria about what a good carry system needs to do. You might consider these three factors as you evaluate different methods.

Gun Security

Carrying a firearm in public is a big responsibility. You are ultimately responsible for anything that happens with your gun. You need to know, without doubt, that your handgun will stay secure throughout your daily activities. Whatever you do, whether it be sitting at a desk, getting in and out of vehicles, or vigorous physical activity, your carry method and holster need to ensure that your gun remains right where it should - on your person.

That’s the liability perspective. It goes without saying that your gun needs to be available at the moment you need it most. If it’s fallen out during your daily travels or shakes loose during a self-encounter, your firearm, training, and practice are all for naught. It’s kind of like training for years to compete in the Olympic Biathlon event only to show up on the big day without your skis.

Trigger Protection

Modern handguns are designed with lots of safety features, but there’s still one constant. Guns only fire when the trigger is pulled. It’s up to you to prevent that. When you’re handing the gun at home for maintenance or at the range, Gun Safety Rule Two applies. Keep your finger off the trigger until you’re ready to fire. However, when your gun is concealed, you also need to think about trigger safety.

If you carry your gun in a purse, briefcase, or pack without a holster, it’s entirely possible that some other object can work its way into the trigger guard and cause a discharge. This actually happens far too often. Just to be clear, that situation is not an accidental discharge. You created the conditions that allowed something to interfere with the trigger.

There are other common scenarios too. People who carry an unholstered gun in a pocket face the same risk. Car keys or other objects can and have caused negligent discharges leading to serious injury and even death. Carrying a gun in the waistband without a holster is another accident waiting to happen. There have been documented cases of people shooting themselves while frantically reaching into their pants trying to prevent a gun from slipping out of position.

The takeaway is simple. No matter what carry method you choose, make sure that the applicable holster has trigger protection features. Traditional waistband holsters completely cover the trigger. Pocket holsters do the same as do purse holsters. Even quality concealed carry clothing uses heavy fabric and sometimes Kydex inserts to protect the trigger. The bottom line? Make sure that nothing can reach the trigger until after you draw your gun.

Accessibility

We’ve saved accessibility for last because it’s the factor that most new concealed carriers take for granted. If you ever need to draw your gun in self-defense, there’s no such thing as getting to it too quickly. You need it, and you need it now. You might need to access your gun while actively fighting off an attacker. You might need to be able to access it from an awkward position, perhaps rolling around on the ground. You might need to access it with just one hand or while running.

While every holster system needs to address the first two factors we discussed, accessibility is the one that you need to think about most concerning your daily life and circumstances. Perhaps the best way to illustrate this point is to consider possible scenarios where you might need to access your gun.

Maybe you’ve chosen to carry using an inside-the-waistband tuckable holster. Your gun is under your shirt and winter coat when you’re sitting in your car at a red light. The seat belt buckle is covering your jacket, shirt, and gun. Then you hear a tapping on the window and see a carjacker pointing a gun at you. Did the presence of your concealed handgun help protect you?

If you carry a gun in a dedicated pocket in a purse or backpack and are walking down the street when someone threatens you from behind are you able to access your gun quickly enough to make a difference?

Suppose you’re carrying using an ankle holster. While at an ATM you suddenly feel something pressed against your neck while an attacker demands your money. Did the presence of your handgun help you?

There is an infinite number of possible, and thankfully unlikely, scenarios to consider and no carry method is going to protect you from