Concealment holsters

[ttousi]

Magill's offers a complete line of concealment holsters

Several of my lady students that carry Kel-tec P3AT's or Ruger LCP's have found that the belly band holster works very well.

http://magills.com/pgroup_descrip/39_Co ... olsters%2F

They also carry various other types of holsters. They do run sales so it pays to check back.

Home page http://magills.com/index.php?

[phorvick]

Consider here also: http://falgal.com

[RobD]

My wife and I had been shopping and we could not fine a reasonably priced holser purse that she liked.

If you are crafty enough, like my wife is, you can take just about any purse that you like, sew in a ballistic nylon holster, and maybe replace a seam or 2 with velcro for quick access, and you'll be all set.

[plblark]

I've heard but not tried ... the "necessities bag" idea: take a hard sided makeup bag big enough to hold your pistol. Use the kids' glove keepers (short straps with clamps at both ends. Put your gun in the necessities bag in your purse. clip the bag to the inside of the purse ... turns any purse into a potential carry purse. not elegant but it solves problem of ONLY the pistol in that pocket AND covering the trigger guard.

[Seismic Sam]

Pistol concealment is TOTALLY different for women and men, and holsters that work well for men can be pretty much unusable for women, so be aware of this and do NOT just try to copy what your male significant other may be doing.

In addition, there is one VERY substantial drawback to carrying your gun in your purse instead of a holster, and that is that is that there are low life vermin out there who grab ladie's purses and run. Now in general, these types are cowardly, bottom feeders who literally want to take the money and run, but if one of these low-life cowards snags your purse and looks inside for the money and finds the gun, they may well decide they can come back at you and try looking behind door #2. So, unless all other options are exhausted, do NOT carry the gun in your purse.

To illustrate the difference between good holsters for men and women, men can very comfortably carry a full sized 45 Auto in an IWB (inside the waistband) holster all day long. For women, this can be quite uncomfortable because of the slant of their hips at the waistline, the top of the holstered gun tends to cant into the body and poke you in the waist or the short ribs. On the other side of the coin, shoulder holsters tend not to be good for men with wide chests, and I am one of those who can simply NOT draw a gun from a shoulder holster without doing all sorts of contortions. I have a 48" chest, and my arms are simply not long enough to reach all the way across to my left side to grab the gun. Women, on the other hand, have relatively narrow shoulders, so a shoulder holster can work quite well for them, and they can grab the gun quickly.

Now, there are a couple of things about concealing a gun that have NOTHING to do with how well it's hidden, and that is ATTITUDE and EXPERIENCE. The first time you carry you feel self conscious as all hell, and it takes a few weeks to get comfortable with the whole feeling. From there you can progress forward to becoming more and more used to it, and after a while you do NOT feel right unless you have a gun on you. You should also be aware that in general people are INCREDIBLY unobservant, and 90% of the time you can OPEN CARRY and if you have the right attitude practically no one will notice. As an example, I am missing the ends of three fingers from my left hand, and I can hold my hand up and ask people how many fingers? MOST of them will say FIVE, because they are not expecting to see less, so they ACTUALLY SEE FINGERS that aren't there. With a gun, it's the opposite, and if they don't expect to see it, it can be sticking out in plain sight and their eyes will NOT pick it up. If you want to test this out, go into the Gopher Bar on a quiet day and try it out, and it normally takes people 5 to 10 minutes of looking at you before they wise up to the fact that you have a full size 45 Auto on your hip (or elsewhere...)

Another trick is misdirection, and I deliberately carry my gun at 3 o'clock on my waist and my bulky old fashioned cell phone on my waist at 9 o'clock, and under a shirt the phone sticks out way more obviously than the gun. And that brings up a rather delicate subject which HAS to be discussed as far as pistol concealment for women, and that's the fact that any mature woman knows how to make men stare at some parts of her if she wants to. I mean, really, men are SO easily manipulated in this area that it's really embarassing, but that's the way it is. As a result, with the proper choice of bra and an attractive blouse with a just the right amount of exposure, you can have a humongous 50 caliber Desert Eagle pistol on you in a shoulder holster that is bulging out of your jacket three ways from Sunday, and NO guy will EVER see it. EVER!! I'm not joking or trying to be cute here, I'm just telling it like it is.

So, typical guy holsters are not likely to work for you, and you will have to work out on your own depending on your clothes style how to carry a gun, and remember, for you it does NOT have to be invisible, it just has to be not noticable, and that is a HUGE difference.

[tt3]

My wife and I have been toying with holster ideas for her. She is very handy with the sewing end of things and I can make leather and kydex holsters. We've considered having other ladies over to discuss unique holster options and try to come up with a design that will work.

Somewhere else on the site here was some links to a skirt with a built in holster, that is another idea.

[Seismic Sam]

There are a couple of images that I scanned out of the current American Rifleman, because they illustrate so well what I was trying to talk about.

Image 1 shows why shoulder holsters work well for women, because with women the rib cage tapers down from the shoulders a lot more than it does for men, and if you look at the length of the woman's right arm, you can see it's plenty long enough to be able to reach over and yank the gun out of the holster.



Image 2 shows a typical carry for guys, and this holster is OWB, which means Outside the waistband. If you want even more concealment, you put the holster IWB, which is Inside the waistband. Also notice the length of the left arm of the guy, and as you can see, reacing all the way across his chest to his right armpit would be difficult. One other thing that is counter-intuitive with either IWB or OWB is that you need baggy or loose fitting clothes to conceal a gun, which in some cases is false. I carry a 1911 in an IWB holster, and typically wear regular fit jeans, so the jeans hold the holster tight to my body and make it more secure. In addition, the pressure of the jeans tend to push the grip of the gun into my "finely chiseled abs of lead" , so the grip is partially submerged in the lard above my waist, and it makes the gun practically invisible. Once my wife tried to find my gun on me under a sweater, and after getting suckered in by the bulge of my cellphone on my left hip, it took her 6 tries to find this full size gun very low on my right hip.

[DanM]

http://www.corneredcat.com has some articles about holsters written from a woman's perspective/experience.

[Srigs]

My experience with woman's holsters are they fall into a couple of catagories.

1. Always have a good belt: The skys the limit on what options are out there from OWB to IWB to appendix.
2. Never wear a belt or thin cool belt: Belt holsters are out so IWB is mandatory. Clip on IWB rules the day. Appendix carry or strong side carry.
3. Can carry in a jacket: Pocket carry in a jacket or a Minimal Clip works well especially 6-7 months out of the year.

Note: High ride holsters generally don't work for most women because shorter torsos.

In general, the easiest place for my customers to carry is where on their body it is vertically the most consistent and smooth.
Appendix carry with my Minimal Clip or Quick Clip is very popular.
Strong side with Minimal Clip or Quick Clip or Double Clip or The Slide works well for less hippy gals because vertically it is smoother so less jabbing in the ribs
Behind the hip with OWB holsters or Double Clip type holsters work well if that is the smoothest part of the body.

I hope this helps.

[Jenster]

http://www.corneredcat.com has some articles about holsters written from a woman's perspective/experience.

I browsed through some of the articles on that site in the mindset and social considerations sections. Those are the things I am stuck on at this point. Very interesting! Thanks for sharing the link.