OK, if you’re in your car, your carrying options are more limited. I’d never carry a gun pointing like this, but I can see how someone else might. Maybe. But I don’t care how comforTING the 3 Speed Holster is. With all the options available to you in a normal concealed carry situation (OWB, IWB, chest rig, belly band), why in the wide world of sports would you potentially jeopardize your testicular integrity by carrying this way?
I can’t speak to the device in the video, but carrying your pistol at 1 O’clock, known as Appendix Carry (or Appendix IWB) offers significant advantages and is my favorite carry position, by far. Todd Green at pistol-training.com is the leading advocate of it as a carry method, but I’ll quickly sum up his points. AIWB:
– Comfortable. The weapon stays in your pelvic crease so sitting/driving is extremely comfortable. I can drive all day with my HK45c and not know it is there.
– Secure. People brush against traditional IWB locations routinely while the crotch area is socially a high NO-GO zone.
– Fast. The pistol is close to your hands and you can better engage your off hand in clearing your cover garment. You also don’t start a fight reaching behind yourself.
– Concealed. Traditional IWB locations have the weapon resting against your body’s hip curve, sticking out. Against your flat (or flat-ish) stomach, the weapon disappears far more easily.
Downsides to AIWB are sort of obvious:
– No Fat Chicks. Or guys. It just won’t work if you’ve got any sort of beer gut. Sorry. Go low carb and take a walk.
– You can’t be a dumbass. AIWB is only for folks who have years of holstering trigger discipline for obvious reasons.
The biggest, most obvious negative is the last point. I’ve trained to ritualize the process so it is all very slow and very deliberate and I only carry this way with a hammer fired weapon (I ride the hammer with my thumb). It literally takes me 5 seconds to re-holster because I verbally count out each re-holster step, every time I do it. Having said that, reholstering is something you can always take your time with.
In the end, AIWB is a big boy carry method. It offers serious and distinct advantages, but must be handled with a lot of conscious responsibility.
“why in the wide world of sports would you intentionally jeopardize your testicular integrity”
I just wanted to appreciate the “Blazing Saddles” reference! 🙂
Still trying to work in “somebody’s gotta go back and get a $hitload of dimes” somewhere. I’ll get it, you just watch.
LOL! One of my favorite lines!
I know I’m among good people, when I see Blazing Saddles quotes. 😉
This is a take off from ThunderWear. I have 2 rigs, one from 2005, and a newer one from a year ago. I have the Federal model with two pouches-less formed than the holster shape on this rig, and w/o all the backing. It lets you point more where you want the muzzle goes. My muzzle points towards where I am missing one of my boys from the military. Kind of a tactical advantage, huh? I also use it for double action only and weapons with a safety. I’ve carried Glocks there, but for obvious reasons, I don’t like to take that chance. With the ThunderWear I can even carry my Beretta 90-Two. Actually, with the Federal model I could carry two of them. It is not for everyone-it is deep concealment carry. This 3 Speed holster looks like it’d make you sweat your b@@ls off.
I could see this with a particularly slim pistol as a useful option for someone working in a business casual enviroment. Pocket and ankle holsters are really the only other options when you have to dress like that for work.
I notice they don’t show reholstering. I suspect you need to remove this holster to safely reholster.
PT-one holster. Comfortable, doesn’t bobble when you run, and a relatively quick draw. $35 shipped.
http://www.pistolwear.com/holsters.htm
Like Cujo, I too have the ThunderWear holster that easily conceals my HK .40 C or Glock 19. It took a little while to get used to (particularly in the bathroom) but it’s a great way to carry!
And you didn’t even have to lose a ball to use your ThunderWear! Good deal, the surgery hurts-a lot.
Well, I guess an AD in a 3 Speed would cheaper and faster than a conventional bris. Y’know, there are so many oldsters out there who want to defend themselves. Maybe an enterprising company can kill two birds with one stone and invent carry-specific Depends.
The video didn’t show what cards, exactly, the gentleman stored in the “convenient extra pocket”, but I’m thinking keeping your carry permit there, for instance, might be kinda a bad idea. Imagine the cop asking to see your permit, so you have to pull out your gun, essentially, to get it…
I thought the exact same thing.
Appendix carry scares the crap out of me. As Lee Harvey Oswald found out, a contact shot in the abdomen is nearly 100% fatal.
These kinds of holsters do allow extremely deep, tuckable concealment of very slender handguns at the 3 or 4 o’clock positions, however.
MMmmm… no thanks. I’ll stick with the more traditional IWB options.
Shout out to the Kahr CW he was messin’ around with…
Subconsciously, people carrying concealed will periodically touch their handgun to verify it is seated in the holster correctly. Until you consciously learn not to, carrying this way looks like you’re just adjusting your johnson.
no thanks…that’s way too much material to be wearing in 110 degree heat…doesn’t look like it would be comfortable when driving…I ‘ll stick to my cbst.
I get e-mails every now and then with this very same question. A loaded firearm pointed at a vulnerable area of the body. If you’re new to CCW, I couldn’t think of a more logical concern. It’s really just a case of “fear of the unknown”. As the creator and everyday user of this holster, I can assure you, the trigger is more than adequately protected. Any holster manufacturer that can’t make that claim, should be ashamed of themselves. When the firearm is holstered…the gun is extremely safe.
Think of the Undercover Officer, sitting in a restaurant with his shoulder holster on. A Glock 19, with one in the chamber, no manual safety…and the barrel is pointing right at the nice woman in the booth behind him. It may seem like a dangerous situation…but understanding the mechanics of modern firearms, and knowing the holster that officer is wearing…has “more than adequate trigger protection”…you realize the woman sitting behind him is not in a dangerous situation at all…she can stay where she’s sitting, and finish her lunch with no worries 🙂
Drawing your weapon with your finger “off the trigger” is as important to do with this holster as any other. If you can’t do that “every time”, then you shouldn’t be carrying firearm (in any holster) until you’ve had proper training.
It’s just one of those things…the more you carry (with one in the chamber), the less you’ll worry about that. No matter where you carry. After years and years of having a gun in a side holster…and it never goes off…the more you trust the concept 🙂
Carrying in the appendix position has so many benefits, tactical and social…it’s worth facing the fear 🙂
Cheers,
Joe
http://www.3speedholster.com
Call me crazy but I carry IWB crossdraw at about10 o’clock. I have monkey length arms with a short torso so drawing from the belt on my strong side feels like trying to pull my 1911 out of my armpit. Crossdraw with the barrel and grip splitting the top of my left thigh works very well seated (I drive a lot) or standing.
Insert flames about how dumb I am below. ↓
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