concealed

Purse Carry: Best Option for Ladies’ Concealed Carry?

One concealed carry option available to women is carrying in one’s purse (I suppose it’s also an option for those trendy “man purses,” if you’re fashion forward enough to sport one…). For ladies like my mother, who can’t imagine going anywhere without one of their helpful handbags glued to their side, purse carry could be an attractive solution. However, there are drawbacks associated to this style of carry that aren’t an issue for on-the-body carry methods.

Pros:

Ladies' Concealed Carry: Purse Carry - TheArmsGuide.com — If you have a spare $4k, you can [almost] buy this bag (shown with Beretta Nano). Image courtesy of designerconcealedcarry.com

The myriad of different options can comfortably facilitate carrying a range of pistol sizes – even full size double stacks. There are already several companies that produce concealed carry handbags ranging from affordable unassuming shoulder bags to designer genuine exotic animal skin purses (with matching “exotic” price tags). These kinds of purses feature holster pouches that are separate from the rest of the purse, both as an additional measure of concealment, and as a measure of protection from negligent discharge. Concealed carrying with a purse provides an inconspicuous carry option for ladies regardless of style of dress.

Cons:

Thieves with an interest in purloining your [potentially expensive] handbag would not only find themselves with whatever belongings and money you were toting, but also a several hundred dollar bonus item: your gun. However, there are some concealed carry bags that attempt to mitigate that risk by utilizing a strap that fits around the body (instead of just on the shoulder). Although, there is still an argument that drawing from a purse is not as speedy as the draw from an on-body holster, such as an in-the-waistband (IWB) or over-the-waistband (OWB) holster.

Final Thoughts

Personally, although I am a female, I do not prefer the purse concealed carry method. For one thing, I don’t always have a handbag on my person. And, when I do, it’s either a backpack-style purse or a minuscule wallet-sized option (less than ideal choices for CCW). However, I know women who seem to be surgically attached to their purses, and who fit about half their worldly possessions within them. If these ladies don’t feel comfortable carrying in any other fashion, or it isn’t feasible to carry in any other manner (e.g., work wardrobe makes on-person carry unfeasible), perhaps purse carry is a reasonable option. What are your thoughts on the purse carry method?

Check out these deals on holster purses

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This article was written by Destinee

Destinee is also a vlogger. She publishes videos on weapons, gear, and fitness on her YouTube channel

Featured image courtesy of designerconcealedcarry.com

How Guns Work: Striker Fired Pistols

Due to their lack of protruding hammer, many striker fired pistol designs have flooded the concealed carry market. Manufacturers such as Glock, Smith & Wesson, Springfield Armory all have popular models of striker fired pistols. But, how does striker fire actually work?

To propel a bullet from its cartridge, the gun powder within the casing must be ignited. Centerfire and rimfire rounds have two slightly different means to accomplish this. Both feature primers on the back end of the casing. Centerfire ammo features primer only in the center of the back of the cartridge, whereas the primer covers the entire base of the casing of rimfire rounds.
With either type of ammunition, the rear of the casing must be struck with enough force to ignite the primer, which catalyzes the gunpowder explosion that ultimately propels the bullet from the cartridge through the gun barrel.

How Guns Work: Striker Fired Pistols - TheArmsGuide.com — Lightning Strike’s titanium [captured] Glock striker. Image courtesy of lspi.com

In striker fired pistols, the striker is the component that strikes the casing, dimpling it and igniting the primer within. Glock calls their striker fired system “safe action.” As the trigger is pulled, the three inline safety mechanisms are disengaged, and the striker is moved rearward within the pistol. This increases the tension on the firing pin spring. When the trigger bar releases the firing pin lug, the striker moves forward as the firing pin spring relaxes. This motion causes the striker to impact the base of the round in the chamber, which fires the round.

Manufacturers such as Kahr Arms, Beretta, and Springfield Armory all utilize similar variations of this function. For example, Springfield’s XD series fully tensions the firing pin spring upon chambering a round, compared to Glock’s partial tension until the trigger pulls and increases the spring tension.

Striker firing seems somewhat complex, but, in fact, it involves fewer parts than the older hammer fired system (which will be the subject of future posts). There are a couple of benefits to striker fired pistols in the area of concealed carry. Firstly, there is no external hammer, allowing for a more snag-free design. It also ensures that each trigger pull, from the first through the final round of the magazine, has the same weight of pull. Some consider the lack of external safety on striker fired guns to be an advantage in self defense situations because it allows the operator to fire upon their assailant(s) with fewer steps (no need to disengage a manual safety before firing). But, there are others who feel that it presents a safety risk to carry a pistol without external safeties. The preference for the more traditional hammer fired or the more efficient striker fired systems is still a subject of much debate. What is your opinion of striker fired guns?

by Destinee

In addition to writing her personal blog, Destinee is also a vlogger. She publishes videos on weapons, gear, and fitness on her YouTube channel every Tuesday and Thursday.

Photo by Heath Layman

Selecting a Handgun for Everyday: Double Action?

How do you pick a carry gun? A double action model is the choice of many CCW shooters. Former Marine infantryman, Don Adams, has some informed opinions about selecting carry guns.

See more of Don Adams’ videos here on the Do it rite channel

The danger inherent to appendix carrying a pistol

I appendix carry daily and have no intention of changing that anytime soon. Recently, a video has been making the rounds on social media of a man holstering his firearm into an appendix carry holster and discharging into his lower body as he bends over. The man appears to be standing in the back office of a gun store or shooting range when the incident occurs.

He picks up the pistol and chambers a round before inserting the pistol into a holster located in his waistband at the 1 o’clock position. He then walks over to pick up something on the floor, plausibly a bag. As he bends over to reach for the object, the gun discharges loudly and the man has clearly been struck by the round given his reaction. The pistol was supposedly a 9mm Glock 43 and the holster was a G-Code Incog, both known for being quality products. The video is below.

First off, I’d like to address something, primarily his reaction. Throwing the gun to the floor was the wrong answer, if he had the cognitive function to unholster the weapon, unbutton his pants, and respond to the woman attempting to render medical aid after being shot then he could have put the gun on a table rather than dropping it and risking another discharge. Who knows if the discharge was a mechanical failure, it probably didn’t cycle properly given the compressed position but regardless it’s best not to take chances. I fully understand that he was just shot but it was still not the right course of action, it further endangered himself and everyone else in the room.

Judging by the footage, it appears his undershirt may have gotten into the holster and set off the pistol but that’s unconfirmed. The pistol may have had modifications made to it that aided in the discharge as well. The holster may have had an unseen foreign object in it. This could happen with any concealed carry based holster system or for that matter any holster period. The difference here is that his choice to use appendix carry lined the muzzle up with his nether regions. That being said, if the negligent discharge had occurred at a traditional carry position such as on the hip, would it really have made a difference? Maybe, maybe not; a round into your leg or ass cheek still has the potential to deviate to something vital once it’s entered flesh. Below is a video of Derek “Tex” Grebner shooting himself in the leg while drawing his pistol from a holster located on his hip.

I really don’t see any real detriment to carrying appendix when looking at it in this regard. With a proper firearm and holster set-up, i.e. not a 1.5-pound trigger and a cheap ass holster, the risk to having a holstered weapon discharge is extremely unlikely. If great care is taken to prevent foreign obstructions from entering holster when holstering up the gun, there will be even less risk. Personally, I remove the holster before admin loading the gun and sheathing it, then I insert the holstered weapon into my waistband. When re-holstering after shooting, I take extreme care and time because at that point I’m not really in a rush.

The benefits to appendix carry far outweigh the dangers in my mind. For starters it is the most concealed position for a pistol in the waistband. It can be drawn from the position very quickly and inconspicuously with ease in a variety of positions. Carrying the gun in the front gives me great manipulation capability, especially when drawing and holstering because I just look down if the need arises. It’s comfortable provided I keep going to the gym regularly. Lastly, it gives me a level of lethal capability that isn’t there with other methods. Really, I don’t care about muzzling myself (but I avoid it at all costs) near as much as I care about being able to drop bodies with ease so I use what gives me the edge. Someone once said, “Carry and think like a thug without permission, not like a cop with a badge.” I follow this philosophy when it comes to conceal carry so when it comes time to pull my weapon I will have the advantage, appendix carry gives me this capability regarding deception and concealment.

All in all, this type of mishap can happen to anyone and in any configuration of holster system and firearm combo. Train routinely and thoroughly to prevent negligent mishaps of all kinds. Carry in a manner that best suits you provided it isn’t in your sock or something weird like that. Just remember that if you happen to shoot yourself, don’t throw your gun across the room, set it down somewhere safely and bonus points for clearing it out first (although unlikely). Also, big shocker here, you better be well trained if you’re carrying a gun concealed routinely and even more so if you want to carry appendix. There’s a bunch of other stuff I could say but I’m just going to leave it with this, firearms are inherently dangerous and no matter where you stick them in your pants, it does not make them any safer or more dangerous.

Photo courtesy of the Author

*Originally published on SOFREP and written by Kurt T.

Situational Awareness: Getting The Upper-Hand

Situational awareness is very important for being prepared to defend yourself and your loved ones. This can make a huge difference in your performance in a fight if you’re aware of your surroundings. People tend to concentrate more on shooting than they do the other things that will actually make you better at employing those shooting skills. Without situational awareness, you will not know the vital information that using your eyes or hearing will show you. There is a reason soldiers and combat veterans in general come back from combat quiet and are always looking around. It is simple situational awareness that they got in the habit of employing.

Soldiers are taught that security is 360 degrees and 100% of the time. This means that your entire surroundings are a threat and you need to watch them. This is to help with spotting a threat before it has a chance to hurt you. When you are watching your surroundings it is important that you keep quiet and quickly scan your surroundings with intense attention to detail. Watch the little things like the location of hands, where eyes are pointed, how people carry themselves, what they are wearing, etc. There is also location scanning that you must be aware of like sources of sound, camera locations, blind spots, locations of exits/entrances, etc. No detail is too small when you are looking around, and you need to be very thorough in your visual scanning.

When looking around, there are four positions that you can use for aiming your head. The first two are 45 degrees to the left and right which will give you a little more than 180 degrees of coverage you’re your eyes. The other two are looking over the shoulders which cover your rear quadrants. This is a very obvious method of checking your rear. Looking around can be as discrete or as obvious as you wish. I employ peripheral scanning in public in order to not make it obvious that I am watching. If I want to look behind me, I will walk past something and pretend to have passing interest in it and use that split second to glance at what is behind me. I highly advise that you not stare since that is all it can take to start a conflict.

Listening to your surroundings is about as important as using your eyes. It gives us good perception of our surroundings such as distance of the source of noise. We must remain quiet and tuned into our surroundings in order to hear those little things that normally go unnoticed as background noise by others. You can learn a lot about your surroundings by just listening to the different sounds. You will find that obnoxious noises will attract attention from everyone, such as a loud rattling cart in the store, revving engines, or crying children. You have to learn to analyze every sound and judge their origin. I typically find that I can use my hearing to cover most of what goes on behind me. This isn’t always feasible, but it is an added method of security that must be used in conjunction with your sight.

With these two senses alone, you can have a pretty good defense from your surroundings. If you take your safety and your families’ safety seriously, you will maintain your situational awareness. There is little to no disadvantages to this, unless you are the one whipping your head around from side to side with your hood up. You can be very discrete and inconspicuous to those around you by using your peripherals and quick passing visuals in order to acquire your visual information. The important thing to remember is that it is not being paranoid, it is being aware and alert to activity around you. This is probably the most important thing you can practice if you want to give yourself the best chance of surviving a fight.

by David Donchess

David served in the USMC for a few years, deployed twice and got wounded. Retired and moved to Alaska. Has a passion for reviewing and testing guns and gear of all kinds. Enjoys working to dispel myths and show that you can train and practice in a realistic, safe, and practical way.

CZ P-07: The Better Glock 19

This is a shooting review of the CZ P-07 Gen 2 in 9mm. I have put over 5000 rounds through it without any malfunctions.

I am going to do my best to describe what it is like to shoot this pistol to this round count. Now just to get it out of the way, you get the pistol with two mags, two backstraps, a manual safety conversion kit, a cleaning brush and patch rod, a lock, and a test target with a manual. And all this is secured in a black plastic box, secured by golden plastic tabs, with the CZ logo on the front for an MSRP of $530.

CZ has grown in popularity in recent years, due in large part to their relatively new line of polymer framed pistols. The CZ P-07 in particular has become a big hit, in my opinion, because it is about the same size and capacity as the Glock19, but with a different…..everything.

It is the same height (5”), about the same width (minus the controls, which really don’t make much of a difference when carrying), and length (but with a 3.8” barrel w/ standard rifling). It may be a little thicker, but with all the angles, it seems to carry so much better than the Glock.

You will see that the CZ P-07 has a lot of character inside and out. CZ put a lot of attention-to-detail into this design, and it shows. When holding the pistol, it feels like I’m shaking hands with the pistol instead of just holding it. The texturing on the front of the grip and on the backstrap are perfect for keeping your hand secure in all conditions, wet or dry. I stuck with the smaller of the backstraps, since I have smaller hands. And of course, as with almost every CZ, it points naturally. The CZ P-07 inherited the slide-in-frame of all the other CZ 75 style pistols, which I have found to be quite easy to run. CZ, over the decades, has perfected this design and made it incredibly durable and reliable. The slide is a little wider than the traditional CZ 75 design, but this allows it to be easier to manipulate along with a couple other factors that we will get into later. Now it has departed slightly from the traditional full contact with the frame, and has adopted the current style of four smaller frame rails.

The CZ P-07 slide serrations on both the front and the back are sharp and positive, allowing for an easy hold on the slide. Racking the slide is still about as easy as it was right out of the box. That being said, the slide rails have zero wear, but the frame is just now showing some minor hints of wear. Right above the trigger guard there is texturing for your trigger finger to rest “straight and off the trigger” while you manipulate the pistol.

All the controls on this pistol were well thought out. I found all of them to be quite intuitive in their operation and locations. The reversible magazine release protrudes out a comfortable amount and is almost the perfect size for the grip. Even with the slide locked to the rear, the mags still like to shoot out of the magwell, which is lightly beveled. The regular CZ 75 mags also fit this pistol, which is good for those wanting extra mags that won’t cost about $40 a mag.

The slide stop/release, which doubles as the takedown pin, is flat and has two rounded horizontal serrations. I experienced good results with it when I used it as a release, but I’m still partial to power stroking. The decocker is ambidextrous and is shaped very well for positive manipulation with your thumb. It doesn’t interfere with a two-handed grip, being that it sits above where your thumb could comfortably rest. Actuating the decocker takes little effort and once you rotate the serrated lever down just over 45 degrees, the hammer snaps right into the quarter-cocked position. I don’t care how loud the decocker is and I still don’t understand the problem some people have with it. If you’re decocking it, the fight is over; you’ve cleared your surroundings and you’re ready to holster your pistol. It is absolutely safe to use the decocker to set the hammer down on the P-07. These guns have firing pin safeties, which will prevent the firing pin from being able to reach the round without you pulling the trigger.

The sights on this pistol are kind of cool. They are metal, photo-luminescent, adjustable, and removable with an Allen key. They are pretty low profile, compared to other sights on the market. The rear sight is very much like a Novak rear sight in that it is almost snag-proof. One handed manipulations off of a belt or shoe with the sights is possible, but there isn’t much room on it to work with. I found that if you use the ejection port instead, it works just as well. When I got to 500 rounds, my sights came loose and my rear sight moved about freely under recoil and made me think that there was an issue with me and my shooting. Eventually I checked the sights and saw the rear one was a bit off and the front sight was loose. I got out the Loctite and an Allen key, and centered and secured the sight with the help of a laser boresighter. And after almost 5000 rounds, they are still snug, so no big deal.

Now the trigger is an interesting one for sure. My first impression of this trigger was that it was gritty, long, and heavy on the double action. That was when I was pulling the trigger super slow straight out of the box. The single action had a slight wall, after a lot of take-up, and then a mushy break. Before shooting it, I broke it down completely and stripped all the factory oil off the metals, before reassembling everything and lubricating where I felt it’d enhance the performance. A few spots can be lubed to help improve the trigger: The trigger spring, the sear spring, the sear where it rubs on the hammer, the hammer spring, and between the trigger bar and the grip wall. You will find that by lubing these few points that your trigger pull on SA will reduce in weight and the DA, though it will remain relatively the same weight, will smooth out. After about 3000 rounds, I found that I didn’t need to oil all of the above points anymore.

I will note that at 1200 rounds, the stock trigger spring broke. The sign you will notice is that the trigger on DA will immediately and dramatically drop in pull weight. It was just a bad spring, and it was replaced by CZ immediately. I haven’t had any issues with the new trigger spring so far, but I do have two other springs just in case. After 5000 rounds, the trigger has worn in well, and all the friction points are worn smooth. Other CZ fans have described their triggers as being like a fine wine, and I’d have to agree in this case. There is definitely no need to polish stuff like the sear or anything else. Just shoot the pistol and you will get a naturally good trigger without voiding your warranty. The one thing that surprised me above all else, is how this pistol is so easy to shoot well. I have made comments before about how it feels like this pistol is laughing at me when I shoot it fast. My groups stay tight and the gun doesn’t kick much at all. Even with +P loadings and NATO ammo, this pistol is back on target right away and is ready to pew-pew again. These pistols are just so easy to shoot and it will really surprise you, if it hasn’t already. This is how you get bitten by the CZ bug.

This pistol was well designed and has again proven that the Czechs really do know how to build a combat pistol. This pistol in particular is my favorite mid-size pistol to carry. I have fallen in love with the CZ P-07 and I intend to shoot it out to 10K before doing another review. As far as the two issues I had with this pistol, I must say that they were quite trivial. It runs fine, shoots really well, is easy to handle, and is a great value for those watching their wallets. CZ has continued to improve their manufacturing methods in one way or another, and this pistol has inherited all the benefits and then some. With this standard of quality, it’s no wonder why people like me are fine with the bite of the CZ bug. I sure will be buying more guns from CZ. You’d be doing yourself a disservice to turn down CZ just because of preconceived notions. Run it before you shun it!

by David Donchess

David Served in the USMC, deployed twice and got wounded. Retired and moved to Alaska. Has a passion for reviewing and testing guns and gear of all kinds. Enjoys working to dispel myths and show that you can train and practice in a realistic, safe, and practical way.