Holsters for Hot Weather

Here's another important video from the Personal Defense Network. Let's talk about how we're gonna carry firearm and other equipment when we're in a hot weather environment. And of course the way we train should be the way that we're gonna carry in the real world. The way we need to carry in the real world, will dictate the way we carry when we're out here on the training range. So let's take a look at some options. You know, the first thing, the thumb break, big leather with a standard duty full-size type firearm, heavy, bulky probably not the kind of choice that we're gonna make when we're truly dressing for a hot weather environment. Certainly not to be carrying around all day for personal defense, not a real practical option. Even today, wearing shorts that are designed to carry a lot of gear, have a lot of pockets, a good rigid belt. And this light, summer weight polo, carrying this, concealing this really isn't a viable option. And one thing that's almost always an option regardless of the way you're dressed, and this is hot or cold weather, but especially in hot weather, when you might not have the pockets, you might not have the heavy belt, you might not have a place to hide, you might not have a place to conceal, is something like this Fanny pack. Now this particular Fanny pack I really like because it's very low profile. Now the Fanny pack has got good and bad reputations depending on who you ask inside of the firearms community. The fact is one of the things that's often said about the Fanny pack is that if you wear it, everybody's gonna know you're carrying a gun. And I think some of that is really just for our community. I think that yes, we may know that a certain big black bulky boxy Fanny pack means that guys carrying a gun, especially if they're wearing the tactical pants and the boots and the cool guy sunglasses and the I just went to gun camp T-shirt the Fanny pack is gonna be a dead giveaway. And certainly law enforcement officers, security officers may be tuned into that. Although the good guys. I'm not necessarily that worried about it. The fact is, if you are concerned about having the Fanny pack and standing out and making it look like you're carrying a firearm, this particular Fanny pack is one that blends in very nicely. It's available in a lot of different colors. It's not just black; blends in a little bit, Of course, if I was wearing tan pants or tan shorts, this would be even harder to see, especially from far off but that's what this was. And if you're worried about the keys jingle jangling here, that's fine. You gotta little pocket here you can tuck them into. The reason the keys are here, is the keys are actually our handle. There's not an obvious draw string. There's not an obvious little flap sticking out here a tab that we're gonna rip open. We simply grab the keys or whatever else Caribbean or we happen to have hanging off here rip this down and open. And then we're gonna have an easy presentation of our firearm up through the ready position and up into a shooting position if we need to. The fact is that this type of Fanny pack is gonna work even when you are wearing those swim trunks it's good for off body carry. You can pull the snaps here, release this put it inside of your car and put it around the passenger seat, secure it to something else. And you wouldn't wanna just leave this on your beach towel and go off and take a swim and hope that your firearms there when you come back. But if you do have a secure area, if you have people watching, if people keeping an eye on your gear, something like that that might be an option depending on your environment. The Fanny pack is certainly a viable option in hot weather. If you're gonna use a Fanny pack in hot weather, you also need to use that Fanny pack when you come out here to train, Make sure that you're practicing that draw stroke. Generally it's a two handed draw stroke, although it's certainly possible to do it one handed. The next thing I wanna take a look at is inside the waistband. Inside the waistband is a great way to carry an incredibly easy way to conceal a relatively large firearm. And particularly this firearm, which although it's advertised as a subcompact is truly pretty thick, pretty full-size and for our practical purposes. And it's a full size nine millimeter round, which is great for a defensive option. Because it's gotta a relatively short, small grip, we aren't worried about this part. when we carry inside the waistband, it's gonna be relatively easy to conceal. We can take this holster, we can stick it down inside at the four of the five o'clock position, untuck our shirt and most people, as long as there's some difference between your upper body size and your waist size, you're gonna be able to conceal a firearm of this size. Now this particular holster is actually about 10 to 15 years old. I've worn it extensively. I've used it quite a bit, and it's made for a medium sized Glock firearm. Now this of course is the subcompact firearm, which means it does fit securely but it's actually extra material down here that we wouldn't necessarily need. So this is even a little larger than what you would need as far as concealing this firearm inside the waistband. What's nice about this codex holster is that it's not gonna be bothered by sweat, it's not gonna be bothered by maybe getting a little water, if you happen to be, you know doing some kind of a water sport activity, you're fishing maybe you're out on a canoe trip, whatever it may be. Camping environment, maybe a little bit of rain. This holster is gonna be really durable for those hot weather summer environments. You're not going to worry about leather, you know, wicking in that sweat and maybe becoming even a little corroded by that or a little, you know stinky or whatever you're worried about. Not a problem when it comes to the codex. Again, this holster has been worn extensively, used hard and it's been used for over a decade and it's still holding up quite well. And next option we wanna look at is something maybe made more for these true subcompact guns something like this, Walther PPK, it's thinner, it's gonna be easier to carry, it's gonna be easier to conceal this type of holster can work outside the belt but it really is designed to be inside the waistband also. So you can imagine on a hot day especially if you're being active, what's gonna happen to this leather when it's rubbing up against your body and you're sweaty and you're hot. This isn't gonna last very long. It's not gonna be the kind of thing you wanna wear for very long. It's not the kind of thing you wanna keep very long. Now I've had this holster for a long time but I don't use it in hot weather. The fact is I don't use it very much at all. It's not the most supported. It's not easy to go back into the holster with, but it is an option. It's a relatively inexpensive option, is convenient option. One of the nice things about this is even though it's a relatively unsupported and flimsy holster, it is supported on the thumb break and it's something you really wanna look forward to. It's very important that when the firearm is in the holster and you've got it inside your waistband and you've got it, of course snapped in securely, like it's supposed to be as designed that you wanna have that reinforced thumb break so that when you go down to reach into your concealment garment, you get under that T-shirt, you get into that polo shirt and your thumb hits that thumb break, You want it to pop off reliably every time. And that's what that metal band is for, that metal band is to make sure that that thumb break is gonna pop out of there. Also notice that this clip is very secure. There's a really nice J hook here, that J hook of course is gonna to make sure that the holster stays where it's supposed to inside your pants and the defier arm comes out cleanly. So even with an inexpensive, relatively, lightweight holster made of leather, you wanna make sure that you have the right features to make it a viable option. Now, you may notice that I've got my beloved J frame inside of this cargo pocket, where I would normally carry that J frame. If I were wearing a regular full-sized pair of pants with cargo pockets very common place for me to carry a firearm. It doesn't show as much as it does when it's up here in the upper pocket. It's inside of a pocket holster, but it's just not gonna work with these summer length pants, these shorts that just aren't gonna support the way I would normally carry this firearm for self-defense. Now, the fact is, we've talked about subcompact firearms in this series. And if you're familiar with subcompact firearms, you know that they're generally much smaller in size, and they're also going to unfortunately carry a bullet and around that is much smaller in size, much smaller in power, much less energy being transferred to our threat in order to try to significantly affect their ability to hurt us or others. That's a compromise. In this situation, If I wanna carry in a consistent way just like I would if i were wearing long pants. Then what I'm gonna need to do is compromise to a subcompact gun, but not compromise so much that I'm changing anything dramatically about the way I would go about responding to that threat during a dynamic critical incident by placing this pocket holster, which is very similar to the one that I keep my J frame in, keep that in the pocket, close the pocket just like I normally would with that full-size set of pants, and my pocket holster J frame down there. Now, if I respond to a threat, I'm gonna reach down, I'm gonna to use the same muscle memory as I'm moving offline, lateral motion get my grip, come up, orient, extend, touch press. And of course my body knows it's an extension of proprioception. While I hold this gun, I've had enough training, enough practice, enough repetition that when I grabbed this gun I'm not gonna yank down and pull on a 12 pound trigger just because I practiced more often with my J frame. Okay? So that's just a matter of muscle memory or that rut in the road that we talk about when your hand gets on this gun, the overwhelming majority of people who train in practice frequently recognize the gun that's in their hand. An important consideration here of course is that this is a single action gun. So when it's cocked and locked I need to come up, take that safety off. As I extend out through the ready position because it is single action. And as a defensive gun, this may not be the best choice, but it is a great compromise, if I wanna be able to carry concealed in a consistent way even though I'm dressed for hot weather. Regardless of how you dress, what you choose to carry, make sure that the two things go together make sure that they make sense, make sure that you're able to carry that firearm throughout your daily activities. Carry that firearm in a way that is going to keep it concealed but it's going to keep it accessible. That's always a compromise. It's always a balance. Understanding that the way you dress is gonna dictate what you can carry is important. It may influence the choices you make. When you put the clothes on first put the holster on second, of course, the firearms in the holster, and that's what you're gonna need in that worst case scenario, Check out more videos just like this one at the Personal Defense Network.