What is everyones favorite place to carry concealed, why do you use that location on your body? Do most people use a holster or not use one?
I prefer to always use a holster. I have a soft suede-type leather holster (sorry, can't recall the brand) that fits inside the pants, either on the side or the small of your back. If you position the clip under your belt, it's virtually impossible to see. My 1911 fits nicely and I prefer the small of my back.
The other one is called a Pager Pal. It's a sturdy leather holster with a pager attached (you can use anything else that has a sturdy J-hook, like a cell phone holder). The standard one holds
anything!!!, with exception of a small derringer or .25 type, but they have a smaller version for those. It is ordered either left or right handed and is a cross-draw type. I shoot right-handed, and it goes inside the pants to [in my case] left of the center of your belt buckle and to the right of your pants pocket. It holds my 1911, my Glock 30, and even my old S & W Model 19 or 36, from my old LEO days when you could carry anything as long as it was a revolver and carried .38's. The nice thing is you can sit comfortably with weapon secure, even with shorts or cut-offs. I demonstrated to one woman, using her husband's Desert Eagle, how it fit nicely and she could sit comfortably with it. The only drawback was that her cut-offs were so short (nicely very short, I might add) that the barrel protruded outside the shorts, otherwise you'd never know she had it.
The preferred method of draw is to take your thumb (non shooting) and pull out the front of pants slightly near the dummy pager, pull the pager up slightly then retrieve the weapon with your shooting hand. Another method, which I really like, is referred to as the "Dirty Old Man Draw." This works great with my Colt 1911. Either reach in your pocket or find the end of the barrel from the outside and simply push up while grabbing the grip. This sounds like a lot of motion, but with practice (And you
SHOULD practice repeatedly with any piece of equipment you use) it's done in the blink of an eye.
I got one at a Gun Show here in Ohio, but this was a one time thing for the Sales Reps. The company is based in Texas and you probably will find them in that area, as well as the East Coast. I was so impressed with this holster that I emailed the Owner of the company, as they had no Reps in our area.
I ended up driving to Harrisburg, PA, for a "training" session. The area Rep. was training 2 others, so I was instructed to "observe" and basically keep my mouth shut, lest I mess up the other trainee's sales. I did what I was told, and upon calling the owner the following week, received the news that I hadn't shown very good sales potential. Go figure. Anyway, I'd still put up the startup cash and travel to shows in OH, MI, IN, & KY as needed, I believe in this holster that much.
No hard feelings, Ron. I'll give out the website (
www.pagerpal.com) not as a sales rep, but so people can check it out for themselves and make their own decision.
Bob