Anyone who has been with Concealed Nation for a good amount of time is probably somewhat aware that I haven’t been a fan of appendix carry. We’ve had a few discussions about it, and I’ve always come to the same conclusion.
The article below explains my concerns.
Recently, I was on a trip with Luke McCoy, owner of USA Carry. We’ve discussed carry locations at great lengths in the past, and the two of us are on pretty opposite ends of the spectrum: He’s a diehard appendix carry guy and I have a thing for IWB carry around the 4-5 o’clock position.
On this trip, we had 4 new holsters from Vedder Holsters to try out. I wanted him to try the hybrid holster for IWB carry, while I was going to give the appendix holster a whirl.
No bullsh*t, their LightTuck holster was comfortable immediately. This has been a huge hurdle for me with appendix carry. There were some other changes, though, and those were as follows:
- New holster (Vedder LightTuck)
- Different, thinner belt
- New gun; Springfield Hellcat
With the thinner belt, plus the Hellcat being slimmer than the gun I previously carried (Glock 26), it all played into the better comfort.
Alright, I’ve got the comfort part situated. For the most part.
Yesterday, I went for a bike ride and left the gun and holster where it was all day. It was comfortable even when riding around. But then, I hit a bump and my water bottle was making a departure.
I reached down to save it and in the process, had the rear of the slide dig into me. It was painful, to say the least.
The red mark above the gun was the point of impact. It doesn’t look like much, but I can assure you that my insides took a beating.
Still learning.
If I hadn’t reached over like I did, I wouldn’t have had the problem. But does appendix carry actually work when riding a bike? I’m not sure yet. Maybe? I can’t carry in my normal location, IWB around 5 o’clock, because it’ll print like a mofo.
The biggest hurdle for me, still, is the idea of pointing the gun at your crotch and possibly your femoral artery.
As noted in the above article, my historically-carry-location doesn’t do that, but comes with it’s own problems. No method of carry is going to be absolutely perfect, but I try to weigh the differences between them.
Anyway, I’m still plugging along with appendix carry to see how it continues. I’m 10 days into 30, and it’s not as bad as I thought it’d be.
Final judgement: End of April. Stay tuned.
