Carrygun/handgun thread.

[luke213]

So guys I noticed we don't have a real handgun thread. Since I'm a CPL guy and carry all the time along with making carry gear for a living. I figured this was as good of time as any to remedy that problem;)

So I'll start it off with my gun I'm carrying today, my old 1911. This is an Argentine Colt, made around 1948ish from memory. It's seen allot of carry since I've owned it, and before that as well. But overall most of it's wear and tear are from my normal carry. This gun was a gift from my dad, and one of the few that has a sentimental attachment to it because of that. I changed a few things to work with my hands, they've gotten very thick from holster making daily. So the original grip safety had to be modified so I wouldn't get hammer bite. Swapped to a commander hammer for the same reason. Changed the trigger to a longer adjustable version and added three dot sights. Since I noticed shooting indoors the old school bladed sight was very difficult for my getting older eye's to pick up in low light. Other than that I also slapped on an ugly set of Hogue grips. I like them and run them on all my 1911's despite being ugly, they are super functional and fit my hands well. Other than that it's original and functions great, nice and worn in. It's a tool, but a great tool;)



So let's see your carry gun, or just your handgun if you don't have a CPL.

Take care!

Luke

[Dr Black]

My first ever handgun, will also be my carry whenever I can get a day off and free up $115. I color filled the trades on both sides with some white nail polish. I really liked how it turned out, I had a few people ask how they can do it to their own. I got it for a great price new and am loving it so far. 

[luke213]

Nice I've been a fan of the M&P series, ergonomically I think they are a much better option than Glock or XD at least in my hands. I will say though Springfield has done an excellent job in their new Mod2 stuff which is also quite good. But S&W has been making comfortable poly guns now for a while and hasn't needed to completely change the grip design either;)

I own quite a few poly lower guns but I always seem to find myself carrying a 1911 more often than not. I like the action, and there is something about them that just works well for me;)

Luke

[Dr Black]

Nice I've been a fan of the M&P series, ergonomically I think they are a much better option than Glock or XD at least in my hands. I will say though Springfield has done an excellent job in their new Mod2 stuff which is also quite good. But S&W has been making comfortable poly guns now for a while and hasn't needed to completely change the grip design either;)

I own quite a few poly lower guns but I always seem to find myself carrying a 1911 more often than not. I like the action, and there is something about them that just works well for me;)

Luke

I held a XD a few years back and really disliked the grip on it.  It felt almost aggressive in my hands.  I really wanted a 1911 but I could only afford a Rock Island Amory one.  My friend told me he found a deal on CDNN for these for around 370 with two magazines. I paid  just shy of $400 after the transfer fees and whatnot.

[luke213]

Well I'd say on the XD the original XD and XDm were not my favorite grip. I prefer them to the Glock honestly but I prefer the M&P to either of the others. But the new mod2, not sure when it came out I'm just starting to get orders for them now so fairly recently. I handled one the other day and the closest comparison I can make is the HK P30 grip which in my opinion is one of the very best comfort grips on a handgun;) So I'd say they made strides in the right direction.

On the 1911 front generally speaking it's hard to go wrong with a Rock Island 1911, they are really good guns especially for the dollar amount. Actually the Officers 1911 on my hip right now is a Charles Daily, but that is basically a Rock Island since during the time frame this was made(may still be the case currently) it was made by Rock for Charles Daily. I got it in trade and got an excellent deal on it. It's been dead reliable, and a great gun for the price. I've handled and shot allot of them, I've got a neighbor I shoot steel with, he sells RIA guns at gunshows and whatnot and is an FFL. So I've shot allot of his RIA guns over there, and never had a single issue with them. He actually had an excellent one at the last show I had to talk myself out of;) I saw it checked over the action and man it was one of the best fit fame/slide 1911's I've handled. Must have been just the right parts that went into that particular gun. Not that normal Rock guns are bad, they aren't fit is plenty serviceable but it's a long way from say a Dan Wesson or higher end 1911's. This one however I'd put up on that level or higher even, just a great gun. But I don't really need yet another 1911 right now I've got plenty and it was another 45acp, had it been 38 super or something else I don't already own I might have traded him out of it;)

Luke

[BoredKender]

My carry is an M&P Shield in .45 and my "Jeep carry" is an M&P mid (also in .45). Slide/barrel of a compact but frame/mag of a full size. Love the thing!

However, am looking for some feedback from fellow slender folks. How do you carry? I usually do a 5:00-5:30 since it seems to be the closest I can get to a happy medium on conceal/comfort/range of movement but it's still not terribly practical

[luke213]

I can't say I'm as skinny as  I once was;) But I remember that still, I'm not fat but I'm 6'2 and around 200-220lbs depending on what the wife is feeding me and how much stress I'm under;)

Anyhow this is right in my neck of the woods, I don't often talk about my "shop" and actually these days that could be considered plural. So I'm a holster maker, been building leather rigs for the last 10 years as my only profession. Last year I expanded into kydex(with another name).

So www.adamsholsters.com is all my leather gear, and www.kymeraholsters.com is my kydex stuff, both sites are setup to crosslink but some guys don't realize they are both me. I kept them apart because of lead times, the leather being much slower to produce runs 12-18 weeks on average, where the kydex is sub a week.

Anyhow back to topic at hand. Position will depend on your mode of dress as much as anything else. Appendix is very popular these days, but it's not my favorite. Personally for concealment I'll run my AH Texas rig strong side around 4 o'clock typically with a 1911 either a 5in. or 3.5in. depending on the day. Normally though since I'm open carrying in and around the shop/house I carry in my Overpass holster closer to 3 o'clock with my 5in. 1911. Mags don't change for either, I run them in a Texas mag carrier weak side around 8 o'clock and typically it's a double mag carrier with a mag and the front pouch is my Gerber MP400 multi tool that I'm lost without;)

That setup/position lets me pretty much do whatever I want with it comfortable and staying out of my way. I can go lay under the truck and turn a wrench or I can sit in the shop and stitch leather. I've driven cross country with the same setup in the Jeep as well as the motorhome without any issues at all. So that's my goto no BS solution for all day everyday carry;)

Luke

[BoredKender]

Palm in or palm out? Have been using a generic universal holster (holsterking) for the last couple years so that could be half my problem but there doesn't seem to be a market for the shield 45 at all. It's a bit too snug in the 9mm/40 stuff

[luke213]

Palm in always(bar maybe some oddball circumstance). The reason is many fold, but the primary reason stated is safety as it's dang near impossible to draw palm out without muzzling yourself at some point during the draw and doing it under stress almost makes that a guarantee.

On the holster front that is absolutely critical to being able to carry comfortably, and I don't say that trying to sell gear. If I'm honest had I found a comfortable holster back in 2009 I probably would have never started making holsters(and not that they didn't exist I just hadn't worn one or experienced it). But now 10 years later I've spent just tens of thousands of hours developing different designs and figuring out the engineering required to make a functional holster. Enough so that these days I'm actually building most of my tooling to mold my holsters myself in CAD in house then 3d printing them, finishing them out then using that "mold" of sorts to build the finished holsters. Craziness, but that's life;)

None the less on the Shield 45 I believe tooling is available, so if you do want a rig it shouldn't be a problem to buy and build for it. But if it's not and you're willing to get me enough pictures with calipers in place on the gun so I can dimension it all out I can just build the gun in CAD then build the tooling to make a holster for it;) So options do certainly exist.

This is pretty close to my "concealment setup"



This is closer in size to the shield this is for a KAHR P40 series which is around that same size point:


That's also a bit less fancy of a rig since the first one is Caiman hide along with ostrich leg trim;)

Luke

[BoredKender]

I seem to recall a similar discussion way back when you first started dabbling with leather and I was looking for oddball AS holster rig configurations...

I keep wanting to try palm in but it feels so awkward initially. Part of why I am looking for a GBB close-enough so I can practice around the house before committing to a formed-and-fit holster.

But I did just bookmark 2 pages

[luke213]

I do seem to recall that now, if my memory is correct we were trying to figure out where to carry something and you were thinking on your back with a draw over the head or something. But I could be thinking of someone else;)

Luke

[BoredKender]

Had a few different lame video game inspired ideas at the time. That one was for a double on-the-back harness inspired by DMC/MGS for dual-wield pistols. Decided cost of materials alone was a bit much for a niche AS build

[luke213]

Well sometimes or actually really most times what works in the movies and games doesn't work worth a damn in real life;)

I still blame Magnum PI for the resurgence of Small of the Back carry over the years;)

Luke