concealed carry

Top Ten Concealed Carry Holsters – Peep The Best

Concealed carry allows the everyday Joe and Jane the means to pack a firearm for self-defense. One of the most important considerations to concealed carry in your holster. Your holster selection plays a bigger role than you might know. Holsters are responsible for helping keep the firearm concealed, keeping it safe, and ensuring you can fill your hand when need be. With that in mind, you might be asking yourself, which holster should I use? Well, I got good news for you, I have ten of the very best concealed carry holsters on the market.

Phlster Spotlight Concealed Carry Holster

Phlster makes some of the best holsters on the planet, and they provide an unbeatable holster option in the form of the Spotlight. The Spotlight allows shooters to conceal any compact or full-sized medium frame Glock pistol, with a TLR 1 weapon light, a red dot sight, a muzzle device, and suppressor height sights.

If you carry a Gucci Glock, you might as well carry a Gucci holster to accommodate it. Phlster holsters are superbly comfortable, well made, safe, and easy to draw and reholster from. It’s tough to beat the best, and Phlster takes the number one spot for a reason.

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Compatible with – Glock 17/22/31/19/23/32/34/35

Raven Concealment Systems Perun OWB Holster

Raven Concealment are masters of discreet carry, and when you pack a big piece for concealed carry, you need a good holster, especially when you want to carry OWB. The Raven Concealment Systems Perun OWB holster gives you an ultra-thin but ultra well-made OWB option.

It clings tight to the body and makes it possible to conceal a Glock 19 with nothing more than a T-shirt over the top. Users have adjustable retention, and the holster can be reversed for either left or right-handed carry. It’s a downright dirty trick of a holster that disappears and carries with absolute ease.

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Compatible With – Glock 19/19x/23/26/32/44/45

Galco Miami Classic

Shoulder carry comes in and out of fashion, but regardless of the current fad, the quality of Miami Classic remains pristine. This is the flag bearer of shoulder holsters and combines comfort with retention but allows for easy access and excellent concealment. The Miami Classic gains its name from its starring role on the television show Miami Vice.

Opposite the holster is a double mag pouch for a reload or two. The rear of the holsters features a spider harness that allows the four points to pivot independently. This ensures complete and total maneuverability and total comfort. The Miami Classic makes concealed carry simple and comfortable.

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Compatible With – Numerous Glock, SIG, Beretta, and S&W handguns

Concealment Express OWB Concealed Carry Holster

If your budget is tight and you want a rock-solid concealed carry holster, then it’s tough to beat the Concealment Express OWB rig. It provides the comfort and speed of access that OWB offers with a tight fit and easy concealment you need for a stress-free carry experience.

This rig allows users to have complete ambidexterity, as well as room for all the modern doo-dads. This includes suppressor height sights, threaded barrels, and red dot sights. This simplistic polymer holster delivers excellent retention, easy concealment, and a relatively low price point.

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Compatible with – Too Many To List.

Bravo Concealment Torsion 3.0

Life is all about options. With the Bravo Concealment Torsion 3.0, you get two options for carry. You can run the Torsion 3.0 as a traditional strong side concealed carry holster or as an appendix carry rig. Users can remove or adjust one belt clip to add cant or reduce bulk.

This polymer holster delivers outstanding performance in all conditions and a near impossible to break design. This thin rig disappears under a t-shirt and allows you to carry guns both big and small with near invisibility. The Bravo Concealment Torsion 3.0 rig gives users a minimalist rig that provides exceptional comfort and instant access when your concealed carry firearm is needed.

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Compatible with S&W M&P series, Most Glocks, HK VP9, SIG P320 series

Desantis Mini Scabbard

Polymer-based holsters are without a doubt the superior option for duty holsters, but leather can still produce an amazing concealed carry holster. The Desantis Mini Scabbard is the perfect example of an outstanding leather holster. This custom-molded holster accommodates specific firearms and allows for a sure fit and excellent retention.

The Mini Scabbard encloses the firearm completely and provides a fixed, non-collapsing design for the utmost safety. This holster comes from Desantis, masters of leatherwork, and they produce outstanding holsters for concealed carry. The Mini Scabbard clings tight to the body and makes it easy to dedicate yourself to concealed carry. You’ll forget you’re even wearing a gun on your hip with a holster this comfortable.

Compatible with S&W M&P Shield, SIG P365, and S&W J frames

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Blackhawk T Series L2C

Do you live a life of blood and danger? Full of adventure? Or maybe you move furniture for a living, climb ladders, or swing a hammer? If so, you likely find yourself in situations where concealed carry is challenging. You need active retention, and not many concealed carry holsters offer it. That’s where the Blackhawk T Series L2C comes into play.

The L2C sports a thumb-activated retention device that ensures the gun stays in place until you need it most. The thumb activation falls where your grip naturally falls, so defeating it is far from an obstacle. The L2C allows you to have a concealed carry, minimalist OWB rig with the retention of a duty holster. Adventure away and do so knowing your firearm is safely tucked away.

Compatible With S&W M&P 2.0, S&W Shield, Glock 17/19/22/23, SIG P320, SIG P365

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Safariland 7378 ALS

Safariland made their bones making duty holsters, and their adventure into concealed carry gave us the 7378 series of OWB concealed carry holsters. They took all the features of their famed duty holster designs and shrunk them a bit, made them easier to hide and ultimately easier to conceal. The 7378 uses the ALS system to retain the weapon.

The retention is outstanding, but all it takes to draw the gun is a straight upwards tug. The 7378 series provides excellent security, a very easy draw, and awesome concealment. Safariland even gave these rigs an excellent price point that makes them perfect for nearly any budget-conscious shooter. It’s an outstanding concealment rig that makes your weapon disappear with ease.

Compatible With- Almost Everything Made after 1911

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Phalanx Defense Stealth Operator OWB/IWB Package

I’ve been using the Phalanx Defense Stealth Operator for years now, and it’s my favorite ‘universal’ holster. The Stealth Operator provides polymer construction with compatibility with over 150 handguns designs. The IWB and OWB models offer an insane degree of concealability. Phalanx Defense has packaged both the IWB and OW holsters together for one very affordable price point.

This gives users two options for the price of one. Both encourage active concealment and allow you to keep your gun close at hand. This design provides you options not only near modern firearms but for a multitude of carry positions. You can’t beat it when it comes to versatility. It also provides you an exceptional amount of comfort, concealment, and it’s perfect for any concealed carry condition.

Compatible with Over 150 different firearms.

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Galco Underwraps Belly Band

Belly bands are tricky. Most are cheap crap you find for a few bucks, and believe me; you get what you pay for. With the Galco Underwraps, you get an outstanding belly band for a little more money. The investment is well worth the little extra cash. With the Underwraps, you can effectively conceal a handgun, as well as extra magazines, a flashlight, and more with little effort.

Your firearm will be secure, safe, but easy to access, and damn sure it’s concealed. The Galco belly band allows you to concealed carry regardless of the situation. You can carry comfortably in gym clothes, yoga pants, or if you decide to just Winnie The Pooh with a shirt and not pants. At least you got your gun. It’s a comfortable deep carry method to safely carry your firearm.

Compatible With – Most subcompact firearms.

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Boom, Bang, Pow

When you strap a holster on your body, you should have complete confidence in it. You shouldn’t worry about your gun flying out, your trigger being exposed, or your firearm being hard to draw. With a high-quality concealed carry holster, you’ll have none of those worries. When you choose one of the above holsters for concealed carry, you won’t have those worries.

The Outdoor Edge ParaClaw: A concealed stinger

If someone ever tells you nice watch at a urinal you may want that watch to be the ParaClaw CQD watch. I mean, it might be a compliment, but if its make creep than compliment at least you’ll have a knife on hand. Literally on hand, or well, on the wrist. The ParaClaw series from Outdoor Edge comes as both the original Paracord bracelet as well as the ParaClaw CQD watch. This design gained a lot of attention online, and also a lot of less than reputable rip-offs. Outdoor Edge is the original manufacturer and they are unsurprisingly the only quality option for the ParaClaw.

The core of the design is the Hawkbill blade that’s a mere 1.5 inches long, attached to both a bracelet or watch. Both are made from paracord and the blade hides in the clasp that secures the bracelet or watch around your wrist.

Sneaky Stinger

The ParaClaw is a sneaky little stinger that allows you to carry what has to be the most disguised knife in the world. If the key to proper concealed carry is concealment you don’t get much more concealed than the ParaClaw. These handy knives are designed to be for last-ditch self-defense or even weapon retention tool.

If you get in a pinch and are wrestling over your firearm the position of the Paraclaw on your wrist is convenient. It’s easy to grab, deploy and get into action. It’s not something your opponent would see coming and would allow you to inflict instant damage, and hopefully free your gun up to end the threat. The hawkbill blade is perfect for cutting into the wrist, shoulders, or neck of your opponent.

Outside of just getting your weapon back the ParaClaw acts what’s best described as a concealed carry SOC-P dagger. It creates distances, causes pain, and ends fights. The blade allows you to get the advantage in a ground fight and to change an attackers mind or allow you to gain an advantageous position.

The Blade

The blade is made from Cr13MoV stainless steel so sweat from the wrist won’t cause corrosion. To tag onto that the knife has a very nice Blackstone finish that I really like. The steel itself durable, plenty sharp, but isn’t made for heavy everyday use. It’s not a tool, this is a weapon. You want it to be sharp and ready should the need arise for some close quarters bloodletting. The back of the knife has a thumb rest and jimping to allow you to use your thumb to drive the blade through a target. Its hawkbill design allows it to excel for slashing.

Slashing is certainly how this knife is supposed to be used. It’s a bit short for stabbing, but for well suited for opening up an opponent. Below the edge of the blade is a slight guard to tuck your trigger finger under. This will allow you to exercise the utmost control of the knife, and lower your risk of hurting yourself. You can untangle and unbraid the bracelet and use the blade and sheath in other roles. I’m working them into a sling for my 80 lower receiver AR pistol.

The Handle

The handle is, of course, the weaved paracord that makes up the bracelet or the watch band. Outdoor Edge has the bands hand weaved from paracord. With a weapon like this, you have to keep things into perspective. This isn’t a Ka-Bar, they are both fighting knives but serve different purposes.

The Outdoor Edge Paraclaw is for quick and brutal engagements. It’s not a working knife, but with that in mind, the Paracord handle is actually very comfortable. It’s soft, fills the hand, and is comfortable enough for its intended use.

The Watch

Obviously, the main difference between the watch and the bracelet is one tells time. The CQD watch head is a precisely crafted timepiece with a Japanese quartz movement.

A quartz movement is a very accurate means to tell time, and the use of a battery means no winding. Quartz timepieces are also very durable due to their fewer moving parts. The watch comes in both large and medium bands and the choice between Zinc alloy and stainless steel. The Zinc Alloy model is a bit cheaper, and a very adequate timepiece.

It’s a watch designed for EDC indoors and out. It’s water resistant up to 170 feet for the stainless steel model and a 100 feet for the zinc alloy model. Both have titanium PVD coatings, mineral glass and a glow in the dark lume indexed display.

Complaints?

My only complaint would likely ultimately create a function issue. It doesn’t match my sexy offensive shirt. From a purely looks perspective, I’d like a thinner handle. The bracelet and watch band seem to be a little on the large side and I prefer smaller bands overall. However, a smaller band means a smaller handle and that could compromise the tool as a weapon.

The Paraclaw

The ParaClaw is a unique weapon that will provide you with a hidden blade for those close encounters of the violent kind. The ParaClaw isn’t a main fighting knife, but a way to create distance to escape, reformulate and attack, or to get to a better weapon.

Bravo Concealment Torsion 3.0 Holster: Makin’ it disappear

Bravo Concealment is a company that has risen from just another polymer holster manufacturer to one of the leaders in concealment holsters. In a short period of time, they have dominated the market. They are like 5 Guys Burgers and Fries in a lot of ways. Bravo Concealment doesn’t make a million different holsters. They keep to a core group of holsters and magazine pouches and focus on making them the best they can be. When they release a new holster the industry takes notice. The new Torsion 3.0 is their newest holster. I recently received one for my SIG p365 and have been rocking and rolling with the holster as my EDC for quite some time.

The Torsion 3.0 is an IWB holster designed to work with appendix and strongside carry. The holster is of course polymer in construction. The 3.0 can function with two clips or a single clip depending on how you are feeling that day. The Torsion 3.0 comes with two clips. The Torsion 3.0 is also designed for the Glock 19, 19X, 45, 23, and 32. The holster will not work with the 80% lower Glocks so be aware of that. That being said the SIG is the only non Glock model the Torsion 3.0 is molded for. However, I’m positive more and more guns will be added over time.

What’s New with the Torsion 3.0

One of the biggest changes from the older Torsion holsters is the addition of the ability to adjust the retention between two positions. This includes a heavy medium and a light medium retention. With a simple twist of a screwdriver, the tension is easily adjusted. Additionally, the holster uses a new injection molding. This gives the holster a much smoother design and more of a gloss appearance. The holster feels thinner and hides very well.

Carrying the Torsion 3.0

The Torsion 3.0 is a very deep concealment holster. It instantly makes the svelte and small P365 disappear under a t-shirt. I prefer a 5’clock carry for concealed IWB and this is the perfect holster for it. I ran two clips because I like the security of that design. What I fear most when carrying IWB is my shirt coming up over my gun.

The Torsion holds the gun at an angle that it’s not going to happen. The grip is presented for a right proper presentation and I can grab the gun and get into action, but at the same time, the gun stays concealed.

I’ve carried the P365 in the Torsion 3.0 holster over and over again, day after day and found it to be quite comfortable. The 5 o’clock position does make it prod a bit when sitting in a vehicle, but I have no other major complaints. The utter smoothness of the holster makes it extremely comfortable.

I love that the old seamlessly blends into my daily wear. The inward cant keeps the gun close you your body and less likely to create printing. The Torsion 3.0 is invisible when concealed.

Drawing and Firing

Hitting the range with the Torsion was a must. I experimented with varying positions beyond my normal IWB carry position. Drawing and firing from the Torsion 3.0 is easy to do. While the gun is held tight to the body you can still get your hand on the grip and draw the gun with.

In my normal carry position, I typically would rest my thumb on the rear of the slide until the gun was drawn. Then I could wrap my thumb around the gun and achieve a proper firing grip.

For appendix and strong side carry this wasn’t necessary. There was plenty of room to grip the gun fully in these positions. As long as I didn’t goof moving the cover garment I could easily draw and fire for any position. I tried both retention levels and never found the retention level to be so rough I had issues drawing.

In both the light and heavy settings the gun was natural to draw, with a noticeable difference between the two. I run the light-medium setting for daily carry. I could see great usefulness in a heavier form of retention for those most arduous days.

A long time ago I worked in a truck moving furniture in and out of homes and warehouses and all that climbing, moving, and lifting basically required me to have an active retention device on my gun. With passive retention, I’d feel the gun move way too much. I think in these kinds of situations the medium heavy setting would be perfect.

Crank It Down

The Torsion 3.0 IWB holster is a simple design, one that works, and will serve you for a very long time. It adds minimal weight and bulk and best of all it’s ready if you upgrade your gun. For example, this model is designed to function with my P365 if the barrel is extended and threaded as well as if it was wearing a red dot sight.

It’s perfect if you choose to adapt your weapon to your needs. The added ability to adjust retention is a nice touch, that doesn’t add bulk or much in terms of price. I think Bravo Concealment has made good on upgrading the already excellent Torsion series. Check them out here.

Klik Belts: Don’t just get a belt, get a belt you can keep for life

When it comes to duty belts, concealed carry belts, or gun belts in general, there are a number of manufacturers out there with products I can recommend whole-heartedly. I mean, let’s be honest, the things that make for a good quality pistol belt aren’t elusive: the material of the belt needs to be stiff enough to support the weight of your gear without bowing outward, the buckle needs to be strong enough to support the weight of what you’re carrying, and hopefully you can get both of those things in one decent looking package. So, if you’re looking for a good choice in belts (whether you’re a recreational shooter or a cop that relies on your belt every day), you certainly have some options. But if you’re looking for the best choice, it helps to consider some other things, like customer service.

Klik Belts’ line of products certainly meet and exceed the baseline criteria required of a good quality belt. Their two-ply tactical belt offers very little give without becoming a nuisance and is just as at home as an EDC belt run through your belt loops as it is strapped over your hips as a quick release gun belt. And much to my surprise, even their single-ply belts (which Klik Belt don’t recommend for use with a holster) has served me extremely well with the Bravo Concealment IWB holster I’ve been wearing to review for the past month or so. It’s easy to see why: not only are Klik Belts made right here in America (Austin, Texas, to be exact) using the best materials they could get their hands on, but they also come equipped with Cobra Belt Buckles. These buckles are incredibly strong… how strong? One held up to 5 1/2 tons of pressure before letting go in one test… so yours ought to do fine even chalk full of gear and fighting back your gut after Taco Tuesday.

Klik Belts may make their belts on site, but they sourced these buckles from Austria for a reason. Here’s what they have to say about the Cobra Buckle:

Patented AustriAlpin COBRA® quick releases are, without equal, the safest, most finely crafted, and strongest load bearing buckles available anywhere. They are also the only stab-lock style fastener in the safety products market that will not open while under load. That makes them the best choice (we believe, the only choice) for ensuring the highest degree of safety for yourself or your customer. COBRA® quick releases are CNC machined, assembled, inspected, and packed (re: from alpha to omega) in our ISO quality assurance acredited facility. All COBRA® products are tested and certified by highly respected independent /3rd party test houses and exceed Mil Spec guidelines for dust / sand / salt water as well as all applicable CE, EN, CSA, ANSI, and NFPA standards for fall-protection and personal safety.

The belts and buckles are just as high quality as they’re touted, but what really sets these belts apart from other good quality belts is their lifetime warranty and the level of customer service you get when you order one. I spoke to Dona at Klik Belts who immediately set about making my new belts to order based on my (decidedly embarrassing) measurements. Even made to order, the belts arrived in no time and I immediately set about trying to ruin them so poor Donna would have to hunker back down at her sewing machine and send me some new ones. She was so nice when we spoke, I really didn’t think she’d mind… but after weeks of punishment, the best I could do was leave a bit of white gunk on the nylon portion of the belt (maybe a mix of bug spray and sunscreen). Beyond that, I just couldn’t manage to break, fray, or otherwise mess up these belts.

I haven’t given up yet though, and eventually, I’m sure I’ll manage to do some kind of damage that leaves my belts un-serviceable, and when I do, I won’t have to buy a new one. I can just send the buckle back in to Klik Belts with a crisp $20 bill and they’ll send it back to me good as new. They’ll even adjust the size if I’ve gotten fatter (or hopefully, thinner) by then.

I won’t pretend that there are no other good quality belt options on the market, but with prices starting under $65 for a double-ply tactical belt you can wear for the rest of your life, I honestly couldn’t recommend any option that isn’t from Klik Belt. You can get them in a variety of colors and despite the utility allotted by the Cobra Buckles, these belts look just as appropriate in a pair of khakis as they do on your jeans or hiking pants.

When you order a belt from Klik Belts, you’re not just getting a belt — you’re getting a lifetime commitment from the company itself. It’s tough to beat that.

Watch: Griffon Industries (and some models) give you a refresher in firearm safety

Here at The Loadout Room, we’ve presented the rules of firearm safety in a number of different ways: from think pieces to analysis, from training tips to horror stories, but throughout all of our efforts to help keep our fellow firearm enthusiasts honest and responsible, there’s one thing we never thought of trying: lingerie.

Fortunately for all of us, Griffon Industries got to it before we could.

In this video, released on Griffon’s Facebook profile, you can see the same old firearm safety rules we’ve all grown so accustomed to, but accompanied by underwear clad models holding assorted AR platforms and shotguns, instead of the traditionally grizzled firearms instructor we all remember being yelled at by. We would, of course, be remiss if we pretended we watched this video because we felt the burning need for a refresher on the fundamentals, but in a way, that’s part of the (potentially unintentional) genius of this marketing campaign.

In the United States, many people spend a lot of time championing the right to carry, without placing much focus on the responsibility we bear when carrying our favorite firearms.

When you spend a lot of time around firearms, it’s easy to grow complacent about the basics. We’ve all heard stories about people shooting themselves in the leg when exercising poor trigger discipline on the draw, or killing themselves when cleaning their firearms (despite unloading the weapon literally being the very first step in the cleaning process)… and as easy as it can be to dismiss these stories as nothing more than idiots being, well, idiots, the fact remains that all of us are capable of making mistakes when we start to give ourselves allowances in terms of things like safety.

You know you should wear your seat belt when you drive to work, but it’s easy to get away with forgoing that simple step on drive after drive, until the safety rule itself begins to feel like it wasn’t really meant for you in the first place. After all, you know how to drive, you have never been in a crash, you aren’t the guy or girl in those stories, right?

Until one day, you are, and just like that, you’re the subject of a safety brief, rather than the exception to the rule.

Firearm safety is the sort of thing we all can use frequent reminders about, but there are only so many different ways to dress up the same old information before the voice attached to the lesson starts to sound like the adults in Charlie Brown. If throwing some under-dressed models in the mix is enough to get you to re-certify your non-existent annual training requirements in firearm safety, it seems worth the production budget Griffon spent on this video.

Or maybe that’s just a whole bunch of justification to hit play one more time. We’ll leave that up to you.

Watch Griffon Industries new firearm safety video below:

Image courtesy of Griffon Industries/YouTube

Check out this Former Delta Force operator’s loadout for taking down human traffickers

I work in counter human traffic (CHT), running street operations in “the Q,” Albuquerque, New Mexico. Here, the season on traffickers is open all year long, and there is no bag limit. Just don’t step up to the line dry (1).

My current self-preservation posture is best described in my statement to my boss, words to the effect of, “Boss, I’m going to spend some money. I want to put as many things between my fists and my gat (2) as possible on the street.” I said that much to the delight of my boss and our task force founder, as shootouts could prove to be fatal to the longevity of his CHT task force.

My current carry loadout

Dagger: personal protection, Benchmade. This is used for close-in fighting when fisticuffs just won’t answer the mail. It is sharp, sturdy, easy to conceal, and very easy to hold on to. Not effective against crank tweakers (3).

A stun gun: 50,000 volts output, used to temporarily render an opponent incoherent and stupid, unless the opponent arrived already stupid, then he will simply remain stupid, the stun gun notwithstanding. Not effective against crank tweakers.

Stun gun seen here mounted upside down to the dash with Velcro strips

A telescoping combat baton: Formerly termed the “NBC stick,” I prefer my own variant, the BBC (Better Be Cool) stick. It provides just a little more standoff than the dagger or stun gun; it issues out a proper ass-whipping. Not effective against crank tweakers.

Telescoping BBC stick, partially deployed.

A whole can of whoop ass: The wicked ickiest pepper spray on the face of the planet. Aerosol spray, hatefully nasty. Provides ~15 feet of standoff. Not effective against crank tweakers.

Pepper spray with Velcro where it mounts to the dash and is close at hand.

Glock 17, chambered in 9 x 19mm Parabellum, and ~50 rounds. Pretty effective against crank tweakers.

Spikes Tactical ST-15 and ~120 rds of 5.56 x 45mm ammunition. Very effective
against crank tweakers.

Truck: Ford F-150 pickup moving at high speed on calculated collision course. Very, very effective against crank tweakers.
Screaming like a girl. Not really effective against anyone or anything. Mostly an
unintentional reactive irritant on my part. Most crank tweakers are already doing this when encountered.

Patience. I am in no hurry to escalate an altercation, and transition begrudgingly from one defense medium to the next. Except for pepper spray, my favorite. I blow through a can of wicked nasty in less than a day sometimes. It’s just way too handy and convenient. I’m actually pretty much an out-of-control ass when I carry it.

Them: “Yo, yo, yo…bro, why you be hangin’ ‘round here? You a cop?”

Me: “Not a cop, but I am doing this. PSHHHHHHHHHHT! (Sound of pepper spray
firing.)” They get a nose full right away.

Them: “I’m sorry, sir, you can’t park here.”

Me: “Yes I can. PSHHHHHHHHHHT!”

But then there is the ass part I can be with ye ol’ can-o-pepp:

Them: “Good afternoon, sir.”

Me: “PSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHT!”

Geo sends

Footnotes:

Meaning don’t come to the firing line at a shooting range without any ammunition. Don’t get caught underprepared.
Gat from Gatling gun: a pompous term of respect and admiration for a small arm
Crank tweaker: an unfortunate addict of methamphetamine in the throes of the high.

Feature image courtesy of the U.S. Army