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I recently received a call from my friend Jim Martin. Jim is an even older guy than I am, an expert in fast draw and gun spinning, a top-notch tunesmith when it comes to Colt Single Actions. He is also the man who rebuilt the Great Western .45s, which appeared on the cover of the first issue of GUNS in January 1955, so I could shoot them for the 50th Anniversary issue. Jim had recently tuned and tightened a 3rd Generation 7-1/2″ New Frontier .44 Special and informed me the owner said it wouldn’t shoot. “He will sell it for $600…” and that’s where I immediately interrupted him and said, “I will take it!”
I had a pretty good idea why it wouldn’t shoot and made arrangements for it to be shipped to my FFL dealer, Buckhorn Gun & Pawn. It arrived the next morning and within an hour, I had it shooting 1-hole groups. Martin had done a magnificent job tuning it to perfection and tightening up the cylinder by installing an oversized bolt. When I received it the first thing I noticed was the rear sight was cranked high enough it was obvious the previous owner had been shooting 200-grain bullets, which were probably intended for the .44-40 and also probably sized at .427″. The latter is precisely why it probably wouldn’t shoot.
Using plug gauges I found the cylinder throats of the New Frontier to be a uniform .433″. Shooting .427″ bullets through such a cylinder is a guarantee of mediocre accuracy. The largest bullets I had loaded in .44 Special cases measured .431″, and over 7.5 grains of Universal they shot superbly in the new New Frontier. The reason this sixgun couldn’t shoot was easily traced to the ammunition.
Match the bullet to the sixgun’s chambers. Here, .431″ bullets grouped
this well in a Smith & Wesson Model 1950 Target .44 Special.
In my early sixgunnin’ years, I religiously measured the groove diameter of sixgun barrels by tapping a pure lead slug down the barrel with a wooden dowel and then trying to measure the diameter of the bullet. Enlightenment came when I finally realized the barrel diameter was not the most critical measurement. The chamber throats of the cylinder matter the most, as cast bullets pass through these tunnels long before they arrive at the barrel rifling. The less distortion when they get there the better. When this became apparent to me, I stopped measuring barrels and with .44 and .45 sixguns, gathered sizing dies from .428″ to .432″ for the .44, and .451″ to .454″ for the .45 and simply used the largest bullet which could be pushed through the cylinder throats.
Several years ago, I received a phone call from a distressed local reader who related he had been on the phone practically every day the last week with Smith & Wesson complaining about his three Model 629s. He had all three barrel lengths, 4″, 6″ and 8-3/8″. None of them would shoot. Now right away I knew something had to definitely be wrong. You might get a new revolver that would not shoot, but three of them at the same time?
He asked if I would be chronographing anytime in the near future and if so, if he could chronograph his Smith & Wessons. Now I didn’t have the slightest idea what chronographing would prove, however, I did set up an appointment. I already had a pretty good idea of why his sixguns wouldn’t shoot. I surmised it had to be either poor ammunition or poor shooting on his part. So just to be sure, I took along some of my own .44 Magnum reloads.
Break The Rule
We rendezvoused, he shot his three revolvers and he was right, they certainly did not shoot very well. “Well, let me try them.” I did and they still did not shoot very well. Since we were in such a dire situation, I broke an almost unbreakable rule of mine, which is: never shoot my reloads in someone else’s guns. However, I had noticed something about his ammunition. Without saying a thing to him about his loads, I tried some of my own, which were loaded with the same Keith bullets.
With the short-barreled .44 Magnum using my loads the groups were not spectacular, but certainly passable. They tightened up with the 6″ sixgun and then the group from the 8-3/8″ was as good as it gets with all holes touching. I turned around, looked at him and said: “I think you better call Smith & Wesson and apologize.” The problem was not the sixguns, nor even his shooting, rather his loads. I had noticed the lack of a good crimp on his loads. Every time one of those loads was fired, the remaining rounds in the cylinder would allow the bullets to move forward which played havoc with accuracy. He was, of course embarrassed, but at least the problem was solved. Once again, the problem was ammunition.
Porting
A gunsmith sent me a custom ported Smith & Wesson Model 29 complete with a scope in place. He wanted me to test the recoil reducing effect of his newly designed porting. I fired the first shot and it felt pretty good. After firing the second shot, my eyes started to cloud up a bit, as they will do when tired; at the third shot my first thought was I’m not feeling this tired! It was easy to discover the problem. The ports were perfectly designed to throw all the trash back on the front of the scope. By the third shot the light gathering qualities had been diminished significantly. I felt a little sorry for the gunsmith going to all the trouble and sending me a revolver with porting incompatible with a scope.
Porting also turned out to be a problem with a custom Contender barrel. The cast-bullets supplier sent a supply of his gas-checked 7mm bullets along with a scoped barrel. I called him and asked if he had thoroughly tested this barrel, as quite often, ported barrels will not work with cast bullets. He replied, “Oh yes, the maker of the barrel had completely tested it.” I fired several rounds and the bullets were everywhere! I called him back and related my results, he went back to the barrel maker, who went to his employee, who admitted he had not even fired a single load through the barrel.
Sometimes Colt New Frontier .45 Colts are encountered with oversized chamber throats.
Sizing bullets to .454″ improved the groups of this New Frontier tremendously.
Have I ever had factory guns which would not shoot? Smith & Wesson once sent me a .44 Magnum that would not shoot at all. This problem was an easy fix; they had sent a display gun from the SHOT Show and forgot to replace the firing pin. The same thing happened years ago with a Magnum Research Desert Eagle. When we tried to shoot it we discovered once again there was no firing pin. Someone had mistakenly shipped their photography sample to me. I once opened a Dan Wesson box to find no barrel included. It wasn’t hard to figure out it would not shoot!
Shortly after the 10mm arrived a company sent me a brand-new design, a radical departure from the standard semi-automatic. It came from Europe with a special barrel. I tried to shoot it on paper at 25 yards using an 18×24″ piece of poster board. I could not keep all the shots on paper. I used a black felt tip pen to make a small little target in one corner, stitched it with a magazine full from a Smith & Wesson 1006, folded the target to make a its own envelope, and sent it off to the president of the company. A few days later I received a phone call asking me to please send that gun back. The radical new design was never seen again.
Yes, there are guns out there that won’t shoot, but they are awfully difficult to find. If a gun won’t shoot the first thing to check is ammunition, which is most always the problem. The next step is to check the shooter and in fact, have several people of known ability shoot the same gun. If it still won’t shoot then it is time to look for a real problem. I love it when someone tells me “This gun won’t shoot!” as I know I may buy a really good sixgun for a small price. Did I ever tell you about the 7-1/2″ Ruger .44 Magnum Flat-Top I got at a ridiculously low price because it wouldn’t shoot?
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Have a GREAT Weekend! Grumpy
- Since 2017, US military service branches have been rolling out new M17 and M18 handguns.
- The new guns are only the latest in a history of sidearms that stretches back to the first Continental soldiers.
US soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines have quickly received the the military’s newest pistols in massive numbers.
The US Army awarded Sig Sauer the contract for the new Modular Handgun System in January 2017. By 2018, other service branches had placed their own orders for the M17 and M18 variants.
By November 2019, Sig Sauer had delivered well over 100,000 of the new sidearms. Deliveries reached 200,000 in November 2020 — the first month the pistols were sent to all military branches simultaneously.
The M17 and the compact M18 variant are the latest in a long line of sidearms that US troops have carried into battle since 1776.
The flintlocks
The American military’s early sidearms were often privately owned. Officers, able to afford more expensive weapons, usually had dueling pistols, while rank-and-file soldiers made due with whatever they could get from local gunsmiths. This led to an array of armaments with varying calibers and qualities.
The Continental Congress tried to get a standard sidearm to the Continental Army. The pistol it chose was a direct copy of the British Model 1760 flintlock pistol. The Congress bought 2,000 of the pistols, dubbed the Model 1775, which were made by the Rappahannock Forge in Virginia.
The .62-caliber smoothbore single-shot flintlock, which included an iron or ash ramrod under the barrel, is considered the first US Army-issued handgun.
The pistol was well received during the Revolution. After the war, a new version, known as the Model 1805, was made at Harper’s Ferry. This flintlock saw service in the War of 1812 and remained the US Army’s standard-issue pistol for over 50 years.
Two Model 1805s are featured on the US Army Military Police Corps insignia, and a similar pistol can be seen on the US Navy SEAL emblem.
Colt revolvers
In 1836, inventor Samuel Colt revolutionized warfare when his first revolver design was patented.
The new weapon allowed a soldier to fire six bullets in as many seconds without pausing to reload. It also used percussion caps, which allowed soldiers to shoot reliably in wet weather.
Colt revolvers were important weapons in the US arsenal for much of the 19th century, with at least four designs — the Colt 1847, the Colt M1848 Dragoon, the Colt Army Model 1860, and the Colt Single Action Army — seeing service.
The Colt 1847, known as the “Walker” for the Texas Ranger who helped design it, was based on previous Colt designs in service with the Republic of Texas and became the first mass-produced revolver in US service.
The Walker and the Dragoon, another .44-caliber revolver adopted by US Army cavalry and mounted-infantry units, saw service in the Mexican-American War and on both sides of the US Civil War.
The most popular Colt design of the 19th century was the Colt Army Model 1860, a .44-caliber revolver adopted just before the Civil War. It was used in large numbers by the Union and the Confederacy — 130,000 were built for the Union alone, and over 200,000 had been made by the time production ceased in 1873.
The invention of metallic cartridges again revolutionized firearms, eliminating the need for percussion caps, a separate powder container, and ramrods. Colt’s most well-known model featuring this innovation was the Colt Single Action Army.
The new revolver fired a .45-caliber center-fire cartridge and was a huge success, becoming a standard sidearm for the US for more than 20 years. It saw action in every US war and military campaign until 1905 and was used extensively on the US Western frontier by bandits and government personnel alike, earning it nicknames like “the Peacemaker.”
Some soldiers, such as Gen. George S. Patton, carried their personal Colt SAAs with them as late as World War II.
The last revolver in US service was the M1917, a six-shot pistol made by Colt and Smith & Wesson and introduced for interim use. After World War I, M1917s were used mostly by support units, though they again saw frontline service with the Vietnam War’s tunnel rats.
M1911
In 1911, the US military adopted what would become one of the most iconic firearms in history — the M1911.
Designed by firearms legend John Browning, the .45 ACP pistol was a semiautomatic, single-action, recoil-operated pistol capable of firing seven rounds from a magazine held in the grip of the gun.
The M1911 was one of the most popular weapons in American history. It was the standard-issue sidearm, with few changes, for all branches of the US military for more than 70 years and saw action in almost every American conflict during that period, including both World Wars, Korea, Vietnam, and the US invasion of Grenada in 1983.
The M1911 was officially replaced in 1985, but a number of special-operations units carried them into 21st century. It was so popular that the Marine Corps brought it back into limited service in 2012 in the form of the M45A1 CQBP.
M9
In 1986, the military selected the Italian Beretta 92 as the new sidearm for all branches.
Lightweight and modern, the pistol used the smaller 9 x 19 mm round, enabling it to carry 15 rounds in the magazine, double that of the M1911, but at the cost of less penetration power.
In service as the M9, the pistol was used by US troops for 30 years and saw action in Yugoslavia, the Gulf Wars, Afghanistan, and other operations during the War on Terror.
The Pentagon bought more than 600,000 M9s, but they had reliability problems and had gained a bad reputation by the 2010s. In 2015, the US Army and Air Force began searching for a replacement.
M17/M18
In January 2017, Sig Sauer’s P320 was announced as the winner of the XM17 Modular Handgun System competition. The pistol has two variants: the full-length M17 and the compact M18.
The Army received its first M17s in June 2017. The Air Force began its procurement in June 2019, and the Marine Corps started officially fielding the M18 in September.
The pistols can be configured for different missions and have a rail on which accessories like lasers and optical sights can be mounted. Their standard capacity of 17 9-mm rounds can be increased to 21 with an extended magazine.
The Pentagon plans to buy 420,000 M17s and M18s for $580 million over a 10-year period.
From this
to UGH this! Grumpy
I was sitting at the shooting bench in Lander, Wyo., to check my rifle’s zero before the next morning’s hunt. I was there for the One Shot Antelope Hunt—a prestigious event with a dignified provenance—with teammates Larry Weishuhn and Chris Sells (of HeymUSA) when Chris and I began comparing notes. He was shooting the Heym SR30 in 7mm Remington Magnum, while I had the Savage Impulse Mountain Hunter in Hornady’s new 7mm PRC, so the inevitable comparisons were made in short order. Our conversation convinced me this would make a good topic for our “Head to Head” series, as the 7mm bore diameter is one of the most popular all-around choices for North American hunting, and the magnum cartridges are surely a favorite as well.
One is a newbie, and one ranks among the most popular hunting cartridges sold to this day, but both have appreciable characteristics. Both have the ability to launch even the heaviest 7mm bullets at very respectable velocities, and both are perfectly suited to take the vast majority of the world’s game animals, save the biggest and most dangerous species.
Starting with the older design, the 7mm Remington Magnum reared its head in 1962, and quickly gained a foothold among the hunting community. Following the concept of the shortened Holland & Holland belted case, the 7mm Remington Magnum was designed to fit in a standard long-action receiver, and bears a strong resemblance to the .275 H&H Magnum which preceded it by a half-century, albeit at higher velocities. Following the successes of Winchester’s .264 Magnum, .338 Magnum and .458 Magnum released in the latter-half of the 1950s, Remington’s 7mm cartridge showed the major shortcoming of the .264 Winchester Magnum: bullet weight.
Shortening the H&H case to a length of 2.500 inches, and using a 25-degree shoulder, the 7mm Remington Magnum has an overall cartridge length of 3.290 inches. Though it is designed to headspace off the belt of brass, handloaders can improve concentricity by using the shoulder for headspacing. Driving a 140-grain bullet to a velocity of 3150 fps, and the heavy 175-grain bullet to 2800 to 2850 fps, the 7mm Remington Magnum offers a wide selection of bullet types and weights, all at recoil levels which are tolerable for a magnum cartridge in a standard-weight rifle.
There are those who feel the 7mm Rem. is a bit overbore, and that the bore diameter is better served by the .280 Remington case, or perhaps the .280 Ackley Improved variant, but there are also thousands of hunters who sling a 7mm Rem. Mag. rifle over their shoulder each season and get to work. It can be a wonderfully accurate cartridge, often delivering sub-MOA groups, and the energy figures generated by the cartridge make it suitable to almost all game on the North American continent.
While it has been used to take the huge coastal brown bears, I feel comfortable saying that there might be better tools for that job, and by that I mean a bigger bore diameter and heavier bullets. However, the 7mm Remington Magnum is right there near the top of the list as an all-around choice for the hunter who wants a cartridge for pronghorn antelope, distant Coues deer and Dall sheep, as well as whitetail bucks, bull elk and moose.
Fast forward 60 years and you’ll find Hornady releasing their new 7mm PRC, part of the Precision Rifle Cartridge line. Where the earlier 6.5mm PRC was designed to fit in a short-action receiver, and the beefy .300 PRC needs a magnum-length receiver (though some may argue a long-action will work with some modification), the 7mm PRC sits right in the middle, being completely at home in a long-action receiver. Using the same case-head diameter as the H&H case (0.532 inches), the PRC family has dropped the belt, instead relying on the 30-degree shoulder for headspacing. The case measures 2.280 inches, leaving plenty of room to seat the long, sleek bullets, while maintain that 3.290-inch cartridge overall length.
The concept of the shorter case/longer bullet is certainly gaining ground—consider the popularity of the 6.5 Creedmoor over the .260 Remington—and has been applied to the 7mm PRC. Some accuracy hounds insist that the best performance comes from a cartridge which can have its bullet seated so that the base of the projectile does not extend below the junction of the case neck and shoulder; while I cannot refute that, I have seen the 7mm Remington Magnum and .300 Winchester Magnum print some seriously tight groups and consistent velocities, despite their bullets extending was down into to the case.
What I can say based upon my experiences with the 7mm PRC is that it has shown wonderful accuracy. At the time of this writing, there are three loads available from Hornady—the 180-grain ELD Match at 2975 fps, the 175-grain ELD-X at 3000 fps and the 160-grain CX monometal at just over 3000 fps. I took my Wyoming pronghorn twenty minutes after legal light, at 330 yards without issue, and the following week took a black bear boar in British Columbia with the same ELD-X load at 75 yards. The cartridge makes a great choice for the hunter, especially if you like the concept of using your hunting cartridge as a long-range target choice.
Pitting the two against one another, quite obviously you will find a huge range of ammo selections for the older 7mm Remington Magnum, while the brand-spanking-new 7mm PRC is, for the time being, proprietary. The difference in recoil between the two is negligible, and in a proper fitting rifle is manageable without the need for a muzzle brake or mercury recoil reducer. The 7mm PRC does offer higher velocity figures—running at a higher pressure—though many feel that the 7mm Remington Magnum has plenty of velocity. The PRC is most certainly a better choice as a long-range target cartridge; I had the opportunity to use the cartridge in a Remington Model 700 at the FTW Ranch in Barksdale, Texas, punching steel out to 1,400 yards with repeatable results.
I actually like the 7mm PRC better than I do the 7mm Remington Magnum, for the slightly shorter case, and for the tighter twist rate used in the two rifles I’ve shot (1:8” for the 7mm PRC versus 1:9” or 1:10” for the belted Remington Magnum). Looking at factory ammunition, the PRC should give better concentricity—headspacing off the shoulder rather than the belt—and therefore better accuracy, but those benefits might not be as apparent at common hunting distances.
The reloaders will appreciate the longer case life of the beltless PRC case. While only time will tell how the 7mm PRC will be received by the hunting community, and I also doubt many hunters will be selling their 7mm Remington Magnum to replace it with the 7mm PRC, I do feel that new shooters looking for an all-around cartridge in the 7mm bore diameter will take a long, hard look at Hornady’s new design. Of the PRC family, I like the 7mm variant best, and my experiences with it have been nothing but positive, whether I was hunting game animals or steel targets. Just as the .300 Winchester Magnum didn’t quite kill off the .30-06 Springfield, I feel confident saying that the 7mm PRC might not kill off the 7mm Remington Magnum, at least not anytime soon.
There have been a number of “revisionist” cartridges—as I mentioned in the comparison of the .260 Remington and 6.5 Creedmoor—which have offered a shorter case and/or tighter twist rate in order to optimize downrange ballistics, and I feel the 7mm PRC fits this category well. I’ve had some folks state that the belted cartridges of the 20th century are going the way of the dodo, but I don’t believe that to be the case either; few who have relied on the 7mm Remington Magnum, .300 Winchester Magnum or .375 H&H Magnum for decades are going to retire them just because of a belt of brass. However, I’m going to keep an eye on the PRC cartridges over the next few years, and I’ll make this prediction: if ammunition (in both quantity and selection) becomes and remains readily available, these cartridges will rise to the top.
The following will be a brief introduction into the art of concealed carry of a handgun. Ever since Florida introduced a Carrying Concealed Weapons (CCW) Permit, with the other 49 states following, more people are legally packing heat as they go about their daily business in this country, and you need to be one of them, too.
Concealed Carry vs. Open Carry
Concealed carry is when someone cannot observe that you are carrying a gun. This can vary from lightly concealed, with your shirttail flipped over a semi-noticeable bulge on your hip, to deep concealed under a tucked in shirt. If the outline of the gun is visible, this is called “printing” and may be illegal in some states, whereas if the gun becomes exposed for any period of time, and that is illegal in some states, too.
Open carry is when you are not attempting to conceal a weapon. Some states allow open carry; some don’t. As an example, a policeman in uniform open carries; a detective in a suit carries concealed. Open carry is a personal choice that cannot be taken lightly, as I’ll explain later. Here, we will be discussing mostly the mechanics of concealing a handgun on your person.
Open Carry, properly done. (Dress nicely, and be discreet.)
You’ll note that I have said “legal in some states” a few times. Folks, you MUST know the laws of all states you intend to carry in. Cops can and will be ignorant of the laws they are supposed to enforce, and you could well end up dead if you don’t know them. Please do your research on the laws, and I recommend handgunlaw.us as your first stop. It will tell you what you can and can’t do, what states do and don’t have reciprocity with your own, and where you can and cannot go with your gun.
Methods Of Carrying A Handgun
I’ll touch briefly on the four popular carry methods: on your belt, suspended from your shoulder, in your pocket, and on your ankle. There are also “belly bands” for under your shirt deep carry, and there is even “codpiece carry” devices like Thunderwear if you want your junk to be of a higher caliber.
Women sometimes use “bra carry” and “purse carry” and I suppose a man can use “bag carry,” but I hesitate to recommend depending on a gun you have in a bag as you ‘re going to put that thing down at some time.
Belt Carry
The most popular method is to belt carry, and what position you use will depend on your style and your body. “Strong hand” or “trigger hand” means what side is your dominant hand, and “off hand” or “support hand” is your other side.
Starting at your front and going around your trigger side, we have Appendix Carry, 3 o’clock, and 4 o’clock. These are all variations of carrying near your hip bone. Appendix is in front of your hip, 3 o’clock is on it, 4 o’clock is just behind. Appendix and 4 o’clock are easier to conceal than it being right on your hip, and allow you to sit in vehicles with a little more clearance, and 3 o’clock is a good one for large, open carry holsters.
The pistol can have varying degrees of cant, from forward to neutral to reverse.
Outside the waistband (OWB) holster at the 3 o’ clock position. Neutral cant.
Crossdraw is slightly ahead of appendix carry, but on the weak side, with the butt of the gun facing your belt buckle so you can draw it across you. This one is really good for sitting in a vehicle. Small of the back (SOB) carry is often the most concealable, but can be hard to draw fast. Sitting while wearing a gun like that can hurt, and, if you fall on your back with one there, the chance of back injury is higher.
Do not carry Mexican, which is not using a holster and tucking the barrel of the gun into your pants with the butt hanging out. Pretty much every thug out there carries without a holster, and the prevalence of Glocks and their clones means that piece can and will blow your dick off while you’re fumbling for it if you hit the trigger.
The Mexicans had a legitimate reason to not use a holster during their revolution; if they got caught with a gun, they went to prison, and a holster meant “gun.” Same thing with thugs today, and you find guns everywhere from their shoes, their hoodies, and some women have even done “vagina carry.” Criminals don’t use holsters, law abiding citizens do; use a holster.
Homes here might be doing us a favor by carrying this way and possibly shooting his balls off; don’t be like him.
Let’s discuss “Outside of Waistband” (OWB) and “Inside of Waistband” (IWB). OWB means the pistol holster is either hooked to your belt via loops, or is attached to a paddle shaped piece that hooks over your pants. OWB is more comfortable than IWB, most people find, but you have to cover the whole gun as opposed to what sticks out above your pants in IWB. That means a long shirt or a jacket. OWB holsters carry bigger guns, have drop leg variants, and sometimes have retention latches.
In Waistband (IWB) 4:30 position carry with a slight forward cant.
IWB holsters fit inside the belt, and usually use belt loops to attach to your belt. You can flip your shirt over the whole thing, or tuck in behind the gun for partial concealment and wear something on top of it. “Tuckable” IWB holsters are relatively new, use clips, and allow room for the shirt to be tucked in in front of the gun. IWB holsters are a lot easier to conceal, but they do take some room in the pants.
Shoulder Carry, Pocket Carry, And Ankle Carry
The most common alternative to belt carry is shoulder carry. Shoulder carry relieves a lot of the space and ergonomic problems of belt carry and is done via a harness you put on like a backpack which holds your gun in a crossdraw position, and your spare magazines on the opposite side.
Shoulder rigs are very comfortable, but they pretty much require a jacket or a heavy, unbuttoned shirt to be concealed. They can handle the biggest handguns out there; Clint Eastwood packed the S&W Model 29 in Dirty Harry in one.
Although the 70’s most powerful handgun is a bit much for anyone but Clint, you can carry it in a shoulder rig. Early Galco Jackass shoulder rig was used.
Pocket carry is for little pistols. They make holsters that basically occupy your pocket and have a rough surface and are a pouch for the pistol. Reach in, pull iron, and the pocket holster should stay put with the gun coming out. Be sure to practice this a lot, and do not carry other things in the pocket, or fail to use a holster (see above comments about getting dick-shot.)
Ankle carry has its pros and cons. It’s easy to carry pistols, doesn’t bother your hips, and is fairly concealable, but is hard to draw fast from and is fairly size limited. It’s a good spot for backup guns, or when you have to deep conceal.
Loadout
You need spare magazines (or speedloaders for revolvers). Whether or not you are a big firefight thinker, or just want to get back to your rifle you should have never left (both common arguments in the gun world), you AT LEAST want 12 rounds or so, which means a spare mag, and a mag holder for it.
Multiple mags are a good step up to aspire to, and you can generally put a two mag holder on your weak side opposite the gun. Be sure to practice mag changes.
Magazine pouch on belt. This one is angled.
What about a backup gun? Semi-derisively called the New York Reload, sometimes pulling more iron is faster than reloading, plus it covers mechanical failure of your primary gun. Backup guns are often smaller versions of your main carry gun of the same caliber, or a small revolver or semi-auto of a smaller caliber. Some modern semi-autos like Glocks will run their “duty size” pistol magazines in their compacts just fine, which cuts down on your mag count needed.
Holsters themselves come in a variety of compositions. Leather is traditional, Kydex is an alternative, and nylon is cheaper. Make sure, if the pistol HAS a safety, that the holster COVERS it. Another holster of somewhat minimalist thinking is a clip on the frame of the gun itself for your waistband. This works, but be sure to get a little kydex cover for the trigger guard with a loop to attach to your belt. You pull iron, the loop pulls the cover off as you draw, and you’re good to go, otherwise you might (say it with me) get shot in the dick.
A variety of holster materials: Kydex, carbon fiber applique over kydex, leather over plastic, and leather.
You’ll need some wardrobe changes. Definitely a strong, thick belt to hold the holster up, maybe some larger pants if you want to IWB carry. You may need to untuck that shirt, or wear a light jacket when you would normally forgo. Start small, and get into it slowly.
Legality And Mentality
Carrying a gun is your right, but it’s also a massive responsibility. The fifty shades of grey bullshit of passive aggressive society gets reduced to black and white in a real hurry. You will have the ability to kill damn near anyone you meet, but your ass will go to jail for at least manslaughter if not murder two if you are wrong in your actions.
The key words to remember here is “I was in fear for my life.” Someone jacking your car is not something for which you can blast them, except maybe in Texas. However, if you are fairly certain that you or someone in the area is about to get wrecked or killed, either by the fact that the soon-to-be perpetrators have weapons of their own, or there is something called “disparity of force” (five of them and one of you) going on, feel free to use that weapon.
I cannot, in this article, articulate what to do if you are involved in a shooting. Call the cops, file a complaint, remember to say “I was afraid for my life” or “he was going to kill me” and then shut up and lawyer up. Do not just run off and hope no one notices; calling in establishes you as the victim. I highly recommend ANYTHING Massad Ayoob writes on this; start with In the Gravest Extreme and go from there. I’m an engineer, not a lawyer, so do your homework.
Your carry piece is not a status symbol and is not for anyone to know about until you have to use it for defense of life. Never start stuff when carrying.
There are certain places you cannot go with a gun, and that varies from state to state. A good general guideline is no schools, no government buildings, no bars. Restaurants serving alcohol is ok, but you should really not be drinking while carrying.
Your place of employment is up to you and your corporate masters; I leave mine in the truck. If you open carry, be prepared for people to notice; bad guys will try to take it from you or shoot you first, and others might call the cops for a MWAG complaint (man with a gun.) Never be an asshole when you are carrying, and this goes double for open carry.
I’m not going to get too political here, but this country does not have a gun problem; it has a problem with a lack of respect for human life. I’m not a sociologist; I don’t know how to fix it, but we need more pro-gun good people out there who can stop bad shit as or before it happens. Carry legally and quietly, and don’t get into arguments and fights just because you “got yo piece wid choo.”
But, for the sake of the dwindling number of good citizens and the American Way, if you happen to be in the position to stop a terrorist, wait until he’s not paying attention to you, get a good shooting rest if you can, give him an “Aloha Snackbar,” and send him straight to hell.