What is your preferred carry method?

SnowTrekker

New member
I am curious to know how you are carrying your handgun. Are you carrying strong side hip? Behind the hip? Appendix carry? Small of back? Ankle? Shoulder holster? Do you change how you carry depending on clothing, which gun, etc? Which have you found to be most comfortable while sitting, driving, etc?
 
Pocket holster. I take it out of my pocket in the car. If I'm working outside (we live in a rural area), I have a rifle or shotgun - mainly for pigs and poisonous snakes.
 
I always have my LCP in my back pocket, and usualy my S&W Model 37 in my front pocket, or my LC9 in a IWB holster.I rotate my other handguns on occasion.
 
There is a lot to be said for consistency in how you carry, in that in an emergency you want to be able to react almost instinctively for the sake of speed. But at the same time, there are necessary variations in how one dresses for different occasions.

I use an IWB holster at about 3:30 or 4:00 with a cover garment about 95% of the time. I do have some other holsters for occasional use:

A tuckable holster worn in the same position when a cover garment isn't possible. In my own particular case, I frequently remove my jacket to don a robe before going to the piano at church on Sudays.

A pocket holster gets occasional use for walking the dog, getting the mail, or rarely a quick trip to the market - times when it just doesn't feel worth the trouble to put on a belt and IWB holster just for a couple of minutes.

A fanny pack holster, used primarily for long car trips, but occasionally when I am running around in shorts or a bathing suit. Yeah, I know it doesn't fool anybody who is looking for it, but not many people are looking for it. And in the car, there is hardly a better place for your pistol than right in your lap, and I don't really feel a need to impress people at rest stops with my sartorial elegance. So I find it a handy thing to own.

You mentioned small of back carry, and I have to add that having tried it out I am not a fan at all. In addition to taking a lot of concentrated practice to avoid sweeping yourself or others on the draw, it is also very easy to have your cover garment ride up without you knowing it, leaving the handgun to be freely observed and perhaps even grabbed. There is also some concern about falling on the firearm and severely injuring your back, although reports of that actually happening aren't prevalent.
 
Appendix IWB at either 1:00 or 11:00, I'm a lefty. Just depends on my pants/shorts since some have their belt loops in different spots that get in the way of my preferred 11:00

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Spring/Summer - Pocket .380 OWB Strong side between 3 & 4 o' clock

Fall/Winter - Full size Beretta 92FS, 3" GP100, or Bersa 45 Compact all carried same position, but IWB - though the Bersa tends to ride SOB when it's carried
 
I'm migrating my ccw's to Remora holsters for IWB carry. Requires no belt and holds whatever desired cant. I find them to be really easy to just place and go and it is comfortable all day.
 
.38BG in a front pocket holster. 225 or 239 OWB around back 4:00.
225 is 9mm. 239 is .357 Sig. I'm using them interchangeably. 239 has five mags, while 225 has three. This might seem bass-ackwards, but a pocket .38 is quick, quick quick! Which is how things go down around here.
 
I cut the back pocket out of my old pairs of jeans and sew it into my pants or shorts at the 4-5 o'clock position. I absolutely hate the extra thickness of holsters and every holster I have ever bought rides WAAAYYYY too high for my liking. I don't need half the gun sticking above my waistband like 90% of the holsters out there. I carry my S&W 640 or my Ruger SR9C like this everyday.
 
I either carry OWB at 7 o'clock (I'm left handed) or I pocket carry in my left front pocket.

My OWB carry is typically a Springfield 1911 TRP or a Walther PPS. My pocket carry is. Ruger LCP.
 
One more for pocket carry. One beauty of this is that by simply sliding your hand into the pocket, you can have a firm grip on your gun without appearing threatening or giving yourself away. Be sure to have the gun in a sturdy pocket holster, both to protect the gun and keep 'stuff' out, but to keep the gun properly positioned. An unholstered gun in a pocket will rotate around so that the grip is at the bottom of your pocket and the muzzle is, of course, pointed straight up! Hardly conducive to a solid grip or a quick draw and unsafe to boot!

Different carry methods may be necessary, but I keep remembering a video of a Special Forces soldier in Afganistan, who, when he grabbed for his pistol carried in a thigh holster, reflexively reached to his waist and got a handful of air!
 
Left or weak hand side butt forward. Started doing that in the military back about 1969 give or take a year and its just habit.
 
I am still experimenting. I usually carry my pps or pm9 IWB right above my back pocket so I can give the illusion of going for my wallet then " surprise".. I hope it never comes to that though.
 
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