The Endless Carry Argument: which gun? what caliber? what self defense round? which holster?

Uncle George's Wallet Holster

From my experience on a couple of decent firearms forums which primarily serve citizens interested in pistols for both shooting and self defense, this argument seems never to die. I think it is important to address because of the increasing numbers of people who are new to handguns and new to legal carry for self defense. These long-running discussions, which can unfortunately turn dictatorial and nasty when the so-called experts get involved, do more to confuse the issue than offer clarity. So, I'm attempting to interject a bit of basic information, and, hopefully, clarity into the topic of handguns meant for self defense carry.

I've illustrated this post with a photo of one of Uncle George's wallet holsters made for the Ruger LCP because carrying a handgun for self defense is a simple and basic act, and this is about as simple as it gets. Anyone - male, female, big, tiny, it doesn't matter - can carry one of these setups almost anywhere without being noticed or uncomfortable. The Ruger LCP weighs 9.4 ounces, 10.0 with a Crimson Trace laser sight installed (as above). It's a little over five inches long and less than an inch wide. It is built for concealment and for carrying. It, and other similar 'pocket pistols' usually are chambered for the .380 caliber round (also called the 9mm short). With a good factory load, designed for self-defense, such as the Hornady CD or perhaps the Speer Gold Dot (and similar ammunition), it is an effective self defense weapon.

So, what we have here is a lightweight (Light), small (Compact) Pistol designed to be carried for self defense by practically anyone. This, evidently, drives some self-styled 'gun experts' crazy.

They can't so much complain about the polymer frame, since many of the handguns they prefer incorporate that in their builds, but seemingly everything else is fair game to them: caliber (too small), bullets (not heavy enough, not designed right), sights (poor iron sights that aren't adjustable), small capacity (seven rounds is not enough), not durable enough (will suffer problems if it's shot too much), and so on. To further disparage these kinds of self defense weapons, they have labeled them "mouse guns". Must mean that they are only good for plinking mice, or that mousy people use them. Not sure on that. And, they probably aren't either.

A few examples of the "experts" recommendations for self defense carry:

• If the caliber of your pistol doesn't start with a "4" it isn't big enough.
• Double-stack magazines are required so you can carry enough ammo without having to frequently reload.
• Your self defense gun must be 100% reliable under all conditions.

There are more, but those will do for illustration purposes.

In my opinion, basically all of those arguments are bogus when it comes to self defense. The two critical factors are, 1. carry a gun. All of the time. It is a true statement that you better have one when you need one.

2. hit only what you intend to hit when you have to shoot.

If the caliber of your pistol doesn't start with a "4" it isn't big enough.

It is obvious that if you pull a gun and fire off a round (or twelve, even) and don't hit the threat, you've done yourself no good and possibly have injured, or worse, an innocent person. No matter what the caliber of the gun, velocity or impact of the bullet, your self defense gun is useless unless you can hit something with it. Reliably, accurately and repeatedly if necessary.

Unless one is a practiced, experienced shooter, shooting a large caliber handgun is harder than shooting a handgun of smaller caliber and power. Most people who carry for self defense are not practiced, experienced shooters and are not going to become one either. They, hopefully, practice enough to be comfortable with their weapon and to be accurate enough for the ranges and target sizes that would be appropriate for most self defense situations. Most of these people shoot a reasonably sized handgun - .38 special, 9mm, .380 calibers. They are big enough to do the job, but not so heavy, noisy and recoil producing to be hard to shoot.

Double-stack magazines are required so you can carry enough ammo without having to frequently reload.

Double stack magazine handguns are bigger and heavier than single stack guns. As a consequence, they are more uncomfortable and heavy to carry and more difficult to conceal. Hence, they tend to not get carried as a regular thing. Your double-stack .40 caliber pistol is doing you no good as a self defense weapon while it's in your car or home in the safe. Besides, when are you going to really need a fifteen, sixteen or seventeen round capacity in the self defense world? I supposed if you were attacked by a gang and were forted up behind a car, then, maybe. You'd likely be outgunned anyway so things wouldn't be turning out well for you.

I think the notion of being in an extended shoot out is common because that is what TV and the movies show us. But, that's really the rare exception when citizens are forced into self defense shooting. Read up on it. Most scenarios involve one or two rounds being fired. It's rare that more than five or six are expended in these situations. They start quickly and end quickly with people running away or stopping their aggressive behavior because they are suddenly dealing with a bullet wound or two.

You can easily carry a spare single-stack magazine along with your smaller self defense weapon so you'll have a reload in the unlikely event you will need one.

Your self defense gun must be 100% reliable under all conditions.

That would be nice, but face it, no machine is 100% reliable even under good conditions. It's the nature of the beast. It's the world of Murphy's Law. I know shooters who have fired thousands of rounds from their handguns and think this is a guarantee of reliability, that the gun is going to go bang the next time they pull the trigger. Think about it. Just because the machine has not experienced a failure before does not mean it's never going to fail.

Check your self defense gun by shooting regularly, but don't burn through hundreds and hundreds of rounds. Shoot it enough to be sure it's running well, like it should, then carry it. Maybe go out and practice once a month to keep your proficiency and to exercise the gun. You will soon know if it has an endemic or recurring problem. Send it back to the maker and have them fix it. Use another self defense gun in the interim.

The reliability factor is one of two that mitigate for carrying a backup gun. In the unlikely event that your pistol malfunctions at exactly the wrong time, you may have the opportunity to go to your backup. Odds are that the two guns won't fail at the same time. The second reason is that you may not be able to get to your primary weapon due to being injured, having the gun taken away, dropped, or perhaps your assailant in on top of you wrestling with your gun, or preventing you from getting to it. You may have the option of going for the backup.

In the real world, it is impossible to prepare for all contingencies, just as it is impossible to carry a gun that is 100% reliable. You can narrow the odds and put survival more in your favor by understanding that a reasonable and rational level of preparedness is attainable and sustainable if you only do a few things.

1. Find a handgun that suits you and which you will carry at all times where legally allowed.

2. Keep that gun in good condition.

3. Practice regularly so that you can access it and shoot it accurately under self defense conditions. Practice at short ranges, say, the distance between two walls in a regular room in your house. Become good at hitting an area the size of the human torso.

That's it. Shooting an assailant a number of times in the torso will definitely put the odds of survival in your favor. Of course there are true stories of men being shot multiple times with decent caliber handguns, mostly by law enforcement officers, who still fight back and don't seem to know they are shot. This is the exception however. And, when you think about it, if you should encounter one of those people, it doesn't much matter if you are toting a Model 1911 .45 automatic or a .380 LCP. But one thing for sure, I'd rather reach for and use my .380 in a circumstance like that and hope my accuracy was enough to stop the threat, than to be throwing rocks, glasses or chairs as my self defense weapons.

If you think the circumstances may demand it, you can always carry a larger gun along with your primary self defense weapon, but you don't have to make it a regular thing.

Realistic self defense carry will keep your armed and prepared in all situations. You probably won't be ready for the zombie apocalypse, but you will be ready to deal more effectively if you are seriously threatened. 

Concealed Carry and Driving

From sales and the models of holsters advertised by the main makers it appears that most people who carry concealed do so in holsters worn on their strong side. Exceptions being pocket holsters, most of which are carried in the front pocket, not the back. Pocket carry puts one at a serious disadvantage while seated, and most especially when driving. You just can't access your weapon quickly enough in an emergency situation. Think about getting to your self defense weapon in your front pocket while you are sitting, belted into your car. If one is going to carry this way, it pays to have a second pistol that is readily available while in a car.

In my opinion, carrying a pistol at the small of the back is the worst thing one can do with the possible exception of carrying without a holster at all. Very difficult access - practically none if you are seated - and if you should fall or get knocked on your back, you'll have trouble getting to your gun even if you aren't paralyzed by landing on it in the first place.

For the purposes of this discussion, forget about pocket carry except as a backup. While driving, or seated either in a car or in a chair, the most accessible position for a holstered self defense handgun is in the cross draw position. Easy and unobtrusive access. No leaning forward or twisting around to get to that pistol at your 3 - 5 o'clock position (for right hand shooters). No worries about your elbow being blocked by your seat back or other obstruction like the wall behind you.

If you are committed to strong side carry, and still want quick and easy access to your handgun, my advice is to put it, or another handgun, in a Concealed Caddy by Bear Creek Holsters where it rides close to hand, concealed, protected and quickly accessed. Or, put your main, or second, handgun in a Remora clipless holster and carry it in the IWB cross draw position while driving.

The down side of this is that if you are using another handgun in addition to the one strapped to your strong side, you'll have to carry both or lock one away once you exit your car. Switching around guns when you get in and out of your vehicle is not a good idea for two reasons: one, you can be "made" more easily and end up explaining to a law enforcement officer that you are legal, and why you are doing that, and, two, you increase the chances of a negligent discharge and the possibility of shooting yourself, or far worse, and innocent person.

I think the safest course is to bite the bullet and carry strong side and hope that you won't have to get to your firearm in a hurry, or change your technique to cross draw carry (especially if you spend a great deal of time in a vehicle and or in a chair). I will often use the Concealed Caddy to keep my firearm off my person and accessible while driving, but I have to transfer it to another holster when I want to exit the car with my weapon on me. Not the best solution, but workable if you are careful.

Posted with Blogsy

The Trouble with Lasers

I have had the opportunity to live with a Crimson Trace laser sight for a few months now. It is the Laserguard model that fits my Ruger LCP. I can report that the sight works fine, exactly as advertised. It comes on easily when I grip the pistol. The light itself is bright and crisp, and so far, readily visible, especially at self-defense ranges. It's aligned.

It has been on and off of the gun a number of times. Now, it's back in the box.

At this point, I have two issues with the sight, one minor, one major.

The minor issue is a personal preference. I have found that I do not care for the "instinctive activation" feature - the button built into the grip section so that when you grip the gun for firing, the laser is activated. I've found that on many occasions, I don't want it on, and have to change my grip to make it go off, which plays hell with my shooting accuracy.

Some folks say, primarily on the gun forums, that they don't want to fool with turning on a laser when they are in a quick-response self-defense situation. This does not make much sense to me if the shooter has spent enough training time with his or her firearm and the laser. Most of us have the basic sequence down pretty well: access your gun, get a proper grip and draw, present and aim, define your target (don't shoot anything you aren't intending to shoot) and fire. Some shooters prefer to carry with a manual safety in the 'on' position, so swiping off the safety should become an integral part of their sequence. Putting in a simple button push, if desired, should be no big deal.

If a person is too hurried or panic driven to be able to push a button before shooting their gun, they probably shouldn't be carrying a gun in the first place.

The big problem for those people, and for those that are leery of a safety, is that they don't spend enough time training their motor reflexes to deal with those things. Drawing and swiping off a manual safety fifteen or thirty times isn't enough. You have to do it enough so that it becomes second nature - you don't think about it, it just happens. Every time. Same goes for actuating a laser sight button.

But the main reason my Crimson Trace is back in it's box has nothing to do with it's effectiveness or training to use it. It's because I am not going to duplicate my favorite holsters in order to carry my guns with laser sights attached. I have spent a great deal of time and considerable money on finding and getting oriented to a few good holsters. I carry different guns in different places, depending on conditions, weather and my mood for the day. I have IWB, OWB and pocket holsters - a number of each. Frankly, I can't afford to duplicate them. I'd rather spend the money on an SR1911 if I had it to spend in the first place.

A case in point - my favorite OWB holster for my Ruger LCP is my Bullard Bodyguard. It's one of the best holsters made, in my opinion, and it's not cheap. Dave Bullard has a current 20 week wait time if you want something not in stock. I'd do that, but I am not spending almost $100 on another Bodyguard that will accommodate my LCP with the Crimson Trace attached. Now, apply that to the other holsters I like, IWB and OWB for my other carry guns, and I could run up quite a tab in new holsters.

I had a conversation with a Crimson Trace representative a while back who admitted that their (and all makers of handgun laser sights, I'd say) biggest problem with sales was the holster question. Although many people like the laser sight concept, many don't want to, or can't afford to buy more holsters.

It does not have to be that way.

There is plenty of real estate exposed on a semi-auto handgun, like the Ruger LCP, when holstered. About one third of the slide area and all of the grip is exposed, leaving more than enough room for an innovative designer to create a laser sight system that can be user installed, easily actuated and would not interfere with a standard, existing holster. My belief is that the laser sight makers have so far taken the easy road, producing products that hang off the front of the pistol with enough bulk to easily accommodate the sight and battery. The attitude seems to be, buy a simple holster that will fit your gun with our without the laser, or buy a specially made one that will. Either way, you have to buy something else in order to carry the laser equipped handgun.

This is particularly onerous since the laser sights are made for and heavily advertised for self defense. You really don't want to carry a self defense gun without a good holster.

My challenge to the laser sight makers is to design a good sight that I can easily attach to my Ruger LCP, or LC9 or SR9c that does not require me to buy another holster, or holsters, in order to carry it for self defense.

I know they can do it. I just don't know why they don't....

Elsie Pea; Block Training; Police Chief; Lasers again

My Moderator's Logo from the old Elsie Pea Forum

Not too long ago, last year, the old Elsie Pea Forum (LCP) was sold off to an organization that runs forums. Many of them. The Elsie Pea Forum had grown to over 10,000 members and it was all five of us could do to keep things in check. We prided ourselves in stopping spam before it got started, keeping the atmosphere polite, if not cordial, preventing flame wars and keeping posters to the topic: no religion, no politics, no hatred. I will admit that there were times when this was trying, but if truth be told, the members themselves were very good about policing the forum and keeping troublemakers in line. If the members couldn't reign them in, the moderators did.

I was a big fan of Have Gun, Will Travel when I was as kid. I still think it was a TV show ahead of it's time, so I picked the logo, above, as my moderator calling card. I still moderate, but a much smaller forum where many of the Elsie Pea refugees hang out. http://www.compactcarryforum.com

Have Gun. Will Carry

Of course, it is more than that as anyone who has carried a concealed handgun for any time will tell you. Lately, I've been around the block more than once over dealing with the extra baggage that comes along with concealed carry. Like many of you, I have a drawer full of holsters (and I only have three carry guns), extra magazines, laser sights, night sights, special springs and recoil rods, gun safes, various cleaning do-dads and storage and carry boxes.

Now, the entire picture is complicated by my use and evaluation of laser sighting devices. Saving the topic of the utility and usefulness of laser sights on a concealed carry handgun for another time, one big factor became apparent right away. When I received a Laserguard from Crimson Trace for my LCP I was faced right away with the fact that, other than a Versacarry rig, I had nothing to carry it in.

At this point, over the last two months with the CT, I have had it on and off the gun three or four times. I do now have a Jeff Hays cross draw OWB holster, which is very nice indeed and works better than any cross draw holster I've found so far, and I have acquired a Remora with attached mag pouch for it. However, my other holsters, carefully pared down from many I tried that fit right, work right and will last a long time do not work with the Laserguard. Hence, off with the laser and, like today around the house, on with the Bullard Bodyguard and LCP.

Having a laser on my gun is pretty nifty, although the jury is still out as to whether a Crimson Trace or LaserMax will find it's way on one of my carry guns permanently. But not being able to carry it as I wish, in the style and quality of holsters that I require, is a big stumbling block. But, I'll report more on this after the LaserMax units arrive for testing alongside the Crimson Trace.

Block Training

I got an email, and later a follow up phone conversation, with a small group nearby composed of experienced former LEO and NRA Firearms Trainers who have come up with a very good idea. I call it Block Training. It works like this. They have essentially taken a general two-day intensive handgun and self-defense training class and broken it down into 2 to 2 1/2 hour blocks. This way a person can afford to begin improving his or her real-world handgun self-defense skills without having to pony up a few hundred dollars for the course, lodging, meals and a thousand rounds of ammo all at once.

I hope to be able to attend one of the first class blocks and report on this concept in more detail here.

Police Chief

The Chief in one of the local towns nearby is leaving after a long military and police career. One of the more interesting things he had to say was that he, along with many other in law enforcement, support the 2nd Amendment right to keep and bear arms. To walk the talk, he is planning to set up and conduct concealed carry classes in our area. Now, if you want to take one, it is at least a two hour drive, and if you don't want to wait until they get around to holding a class within that range, you can drive another hour or two. I'm looking forward to that and it's got me thinking about getting my instructor qualifications and helping out.

Lasers Again

I've already whined about lasers and holsters, so I'll spare you that. The update is that I am waiting on what I have been assured by LaserMax is a package with at least one laser sight evaluation unit, plus other materials. If I don't see it this week, I'll be following up with them. Once that arrives, and the snow melts and the ground dries, I will be able to get some range time with both models and have some  personal experience that I can hopefully translate into useful information.