How do you carry your accesories?

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DPSproles

New member
I am taking my CCW permit class this month and I am anxious to get some input on how you carry your gun AND also your accesories. The problem that I face is most likely the same one that many of you face when you carry.

It is hard enough to "covertly" carry your handgun in public, but to also carry an extra mag, a tactical light (Sure Fire E2 for me) and the other stuff you carry during the day. Hiding a gun on my belt is one challenge, but you are lucky if you can hide the gun...how do you hide the flashlight and mag? Pockets are not the most comfortable or the most hidden. Belt wear is definelty not hidden and not my favorite choice.

Any suggestions on how you carry yours (even if you wear them on belts or pocket wear.) Are ankle holsters available for these accesories? Please advise.

David
 
Hmmm, didn't know this was a problem. Get a good belt with a good holster. Holster and mag pouch hidden by suit jacket. Even in my yuppie scum gear (Territory Ahead catalogue) with a good IWB hoslter pistol is low profile enough or you can do the double T-shirt thing. Have carried a 1911, 2 mags, and back up gun like this for a long time.

E2 goes in off hand pocket.
 
Well, the flashlight (I now carry a Maglight Somitaire) goes in a pocket...

the gun goes in a Galco Jak-Slide (Jackass rig) holster, and the spare mag stays in the car...

TRUTHFULLY, if it takes more then the 1 in the pipe, and the 8 in the mag (Black Talon .40's) then I'm in way over my head, and shouldn't be there to begin with...

if you feel like you need more then what your gun holds, then you need to learn a little accuracy... (peopel carryinh 4 or 5 round mouseguns excepted)

I cover the gun with an untucked shirt...
 
I carry my accessories just like I carry my gun,....on my belt.

I carry my gun in a (inside the wasitband) belt holster, it is concealed by a covering garmet. ( a vest)

I carry my accessories in holster on the opposite side of my gun.....also mounted on my belt, also concealed by the same vest.

It helps balance out the load for all day carry and keeps the accessories as accessable as the gun.

My holsters of choice are made by Sidearmor and Blade-tech. They are made of kydex, which does not absorb water (sweat)

Blade-tech makes a holster that carrys an extra mag and a surefire flashlight all in one convienient unit....

Sidearmor makes mag pouches, but has yet to address the flashlight issue.

www.blade-tech.com
www.sidearmor.net

Hope this helps, SDnR ;)
 
Hemicuda,

Some points you tried to make in your post make me wonder if you have any idea what in the hell you are talking about. If I am way off base here, I do indeed apologize.

You state that you carry your gun in a Galco Jak slide and then you put jackass rig in parenthesis. Your statement infers that these two holsters are the same. They are two quite different and distinct holsters. The Jak slide is a unique belt slide that carries the gun outside the pants but underneath the belt. It is very abbreviated...the triggerguard is covered, but the barrel is exposed. The Jakass rig is a horizontal (actually diagonal) shoulder holster rig that carries the gun slightly muzzle up under the weak side arm pit and two spare mags under the strong side armpit.

You mention that you carry Black Talon .40s. Well unless you are law enforcement, that would be pretty impressive as the Black Talon wasn't available for civilian sale for long and has not been available in quite a while. Black Talon really wasn't all that impressive anyway, (no more so than any other quality hollowpoint), and was only pulled off the market because of bad press associated with it.

Also you mock carrying a reload. Sorry, but not bright. Anybody who doesn't carry a reload has obviously never heard of Murphy's law. I don't care if my gun holds 5 rounds or 20, I will carry at least one reload. What if you accidentally bump your mag release and the mag falls out, and you don't realize it until you pull the trigger once in self defense, and the slide locks back. What if the person you shoot in self defense has friends or family members that all of a sudden appear and decide that they are not really thrilled that you killed their buddy. What if the world is not a perfect place...oh yeah...it isn't.

Also you mock mouse guns that hold 5 rounds. I hope you are not calling my S&W 649 and 638 5 shot .38 Special Bodyguards mouse guns. You ought to see what can be accomplished with these by a man who knows how to use them.
 
My R.E.I. Explorer pants have a small stash pocket in the back pocket that I carry my Sure Fire 6P in and the gun and spare magazine rides on the belt. My blades ride clipped in my front pockets.
 
What if you accidentally bump your mag release and the mag falls out, and you don't realize it until you pull the trigger once in self defense, and the slide locks back. What if the person you shoot in self defense has friends or family members that all of a sudden appear and decide that they are not really thrilled that you killed their buddy. What if the world is not a perfect place...oh yeah...it isn't.
Click to expand...
Oh yea.........And what if a meteor falls out the sky and knocks the gun out of your hand? And what if the ground you're standing on sucks you up and spits you out into downtown Hong Kong? And what if you meet a group of 3000 bandits? And what if you pull your gun and realize you forgot to clean it last time you used it? And what if the moon was made of green cheese? And what if........oh jeez......dude if everything you mentioned happens to one person at one time, there is only one explanation......YOU'VE GOT BAD LUCK!!!!!! :D Should I carry 9000 guns and 50000 rounds of ammo, just incase the buddies have buddies? You have to draw a line somewhere, or at least come up with decent reasons as to why you should carry more 2 or more full magazine with you.

I honestly thought your post was a good one until you mentioned the above. Then I thought you were a bit crazy. Whether you carry another mag or not is one thing, but trying to use your stated reasons as good reasons why you should.......that's a laugh. Exactly how many crime scenes have the good guy been shot at with a full magazine that "fell" out of his gun laying on the ground next to him? Dude......that's a lil' bit far out........

HINT: Practice your draw until you can draw reliably without dropping the magazine on your toes. :D

Friends or family that "all of a sudden appear?" Were they warped there from another planet? Did they climb out of the sewer drain? If you were alert you would be able to see something like that going down, and make yourself scarce long before it became a shootout. If you put yourself in that situation, it sounds as if you'd be looking for trouble. You're not carrying concealed so you can take out half the population of Tinyville, just to protect yourself from the once in a lifetime mugger. Most thugs don't work in packs, or at least packs that outnumber the number of rounds in my gun, and most thugs don't have thier family with them along for the ride. How many shots are fired in most of the self defense cases? Less than 3.

I do support the carrying of as many rounds as you can. The reason? Incase ya need 'em. Not incase your magazine falls out or Bubba's friends and family come out to greet you. I guess you had good intentions and I agree with you, but I think we as gun owners can come up with some good reasons, better than those inbetween those bars up there. ;)

All this is IMHO..............

Remember, this is all with a good laugh. No personal attacks implied. I just thought it was hilarious!! :D
 
Actually I agree with Sundance.Carrying an extra magazine for automatics is more for function problems than for extra ammo.Hitting the mag release is not an uncommon thing competing in IDPA has shown me that guns do malfunction and are almost always mag/ammo related.
 
Sundance...

Well, since Galco called it a "jackass" holster (printed on the back of the one I own) before they re-named it the Jak-Slide, that is where that came from...


as for the "Black Talon .40's" I do in fact carry them, and they can be bought LEGALLY (as the Ranger SXT) from Winchester... also available in the gear and accessories area of this site... (as the Black Talons) but mine came from a police officer... thankyou... impressive or not, they're a good defense load... (cops carry them!)

as for the reload... why?? if the gun jams, you have to clear it anyway... (unless you have a backup, which makes more sense than a reload, to me at last...)
 
Also, Sundance, "mouse gun" (in anyone reasonable's definition) is a .22 or .25 cal pocket pistol... Ala the Beretta Jetfire .25...

that wasn't a slam, as I own a Jetfire in .25... your .38's aren't "mouseguns" so I do not know why you are so defensive...

I can see the need for a reload in a gun with next to NO true stopping power... where the "death of the one being shot" is the only hope... (.22's and .25's don't posess alotta "knockdown"...)

but reloading a .40 in the middle of a self defense situation?

if there are more than about 4 perps, I shouldn't have drawn...

and my carry gun, a Beretta 8040F Mini-Cougar, has a fairly positive mag-release... I do not "accidentally" drop a mag...

if it jams, a fresh mag won't fix it... , I'll have to un-jam it...

Again, sorry forthe mixup on the jackass rig... but my OLD Galco jak-slide (new name according to their catalog) has "Jackass 916" branded into the back... so I thought that that was what they meant...
 
Here are some good rules to go by when trying to work on your wardrobe for CCL.

Thicker fabrics are better than thin for concealment
Darker colors are better than lighter colors (don't show print shadows as well)
Busy patterns are better than solids (for printing again).
Looser is better than tighter for the over garment (shirt, vest, jacket, etc.).

While many people do not adhere to this, it is much better if the slots or loops in your holster are the same size as your belt and that your belt is the same size as the belt loops on your pants. This will assure that the holster is secured as best as possible and preclude movement of the holster on the belt or belt to the pants. When belts are too small, the holster may slide or even worse, rock in place. A gun can go from comfortable to uncomfortable very easily.

So what about accessories? At least here in Texas, accessories are not illegal if they get seen, but personally I don't want my spare mags showing. The same cover garment that covers my gun will usually handle covering a double mag pouch as well.

I usually carry a cell phone, knife, and flashlight as well. I also have kids. One of the greatest things I have found to help out with carrying stuff is cargo pants. Find yourself a good set of heavy duty cargo pants and you can carry a lot of accessory gear and not look bad doing it.

If you are into more formal dress, you can pin one of the interior wallet pockets in a sports coat to specifically hold a spare magazine. I have done this before. The magazine is counterweighted by the wallet on the other side. By pinning the pocket, the magazine stays upright in the position you left it in. Or, you can often get away with a mag in one of the outside pockets at waist level on one side and a flashlight like yours on the other side.

As for whether or not you should be in a given location versus carrying a spare magazine, remember that the choice of where you are is not always completely up to you. A spare magazine is a very good thing to have, if not for the ammo, then to have the spare mag and rounds in case something happens to the magazine in your gun. Or, you may need the spare rounds after all. Keep in mind that people complain about running out of ammo in gun fights but never complain about having had too much ammo at their disposal during a gun fight. Are you likely to need it? No, but then again you are not likely to ever need your gun to be fired either. If likelihood of use was the deciding criterion, then you wouldn't carry a gun either.

Sundance, Hemicuda carries "Black Talons" in his gun because the name is cool even though the box says Ranger SXTs.
 
I bought two boxes of .40 Black Talons when I bought my Glock 23 years ago (just before the Brady Bill took effect). I sold the Glock and never shot the Black Talons, so I do indeed have some.

p.s. Is it a sign of gun addiction to have ammo for calibers in which you don't even have a gun any more?

As far as carrying gear, I only take the flashlight if it's going to be dark out before I get home. Otherwise the little microlight on my key chain will have to do. I usually put either a strip of rounds for the snubbie or a spare mag for the Glock 26 in my left front pocket, and a knife in my right front pocket. Sometimes I put a pepper pen in my shirt pocket. That's all I carry, it's plenty for me. No cell phone, no large light, at most one spare mag. In the summer in Oklahoma carrying that much is a challenge.
 
Hemicuda...

you said...

if there are more than about 4 perps, I shouldn't have drawn...
Click to expand...

So if you are attacked by 4 homosexual rapists you are going to defend yourself, but if you are attacked by 5 homosexual rapists you are just going to bend over and take it up the a$$?

Better you than me!!!

Also your holster is stamped with the word jackass because that was the original name of galco...the jackass leather company.

And I believe the Black Talon was the biggest joke to hit the firearms industry in history. The Speer Gold Dot and the Federal Hydra Shock both outperform it. And Winchester voluntarily took it off the market because of bad press. The press had some doctor saying that the point of one of the petals of the expanded jacket could puncture a surgical glove. At one time the press was saying that it was armor piercing. I wouldn't carry it if it were free.

And to say that there is no way that your magazine could unintentinally fall out of your gun is just plain stupid and naive. I know of a law enforcement officer who got out on a traffic stop and then returned to his car a few minutes later to find the floorplate, spring, follower, and ammo of the magazine in the gun (a Glock) were in the driver's seat. Only the empty mag tube remained in the gun. The plastic on the magazine had broken allowing the floorplate to pop off. I know of another law enforcement officer who got out on a traffic stop and then returned to his car a few minutes later to find the mag of his S&W 5906 in the drivers seat of his car. The mag release had been bumped accidentally as he drove around on patrol. And this gun has a mag disconnect safety so he couldn't have even fired the one in the chamber.

And anybody who doesn't think you will get swarmed immediately after a shooting has never stepped foot in a bad neighborhood.

I am not saying that these things are likely...but they are possible. To say that they are impossible is asking for them to happen.
 
winter and fall are easy times to CCW, but if weather gets in the 100' plus and humidity high, then all you can carry is the slim small
auto, a .25 acp is nice on hot days, could pack 2 mags in each front pocket.
 
zot, I carry the same weaponry no matter the weather--a 1911 and, now, a Kahr P9 with 2 extra mags for the 1911 and a flashlight. When it gets hot and humid here high along the banks of the raging Wabash, I just wear a linen suit or, if so inclined, you can wear 2 t-shirts. However, I like to look sharp for the ladies.:D
 
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