Appendix Carry Illustrated

AIWB threads pop up in forums here and there and it's unfortunate that internet cowboys with no knowledge or experience feel the need to throw in their two cents, muddying the water. To counter this I decided to make some simple, yet creepy, illustrations to show my dear readers the mechanics of how this form of carry is supposed to work.

Before we get into the pictures, the first thing to clear up is: Why? What does appendix carry (AIWB) have to offer that other modes of carry do not? The main answer is concealability. If you haven't noticed, there's an arms race amongst the firearm manufacturers to make the smallest and lightest blaster chambered in the largest caliber they can reasonable cram into it. The reason to go small is so you can conceal it, and thus not draw the ire and shame of your fellow Wal-Mart shoppers while browsing hemorrhoid cream. The only problem with that is that smaller guns are hard to shoot, are chambered in sub-calibers, hold limited ammunition, generate tons of muzzle flash, blast, and recoil, and with their small grips and frames can be more difficult to draw. A solution is to carry a larger gun, but they're harder to conceal. This is where AIWB comes in; I'm of average height, weight, and frame, and I can carry and conceal a Glock 17 -- a service sized pistol -- with absolute comfort all day long. Dropping down to Glock 19 or HK P30 size is no sweat, and now you have a gun that is reasonable in size, carries a standard payload of ammunition, has a full sized grip, and with its reasonable sight radius allows one to actually aim it instead of merely pointing. Second to that is draw speed approaching that of a USPSA Grand Master (a little bit of embellishment there, but lots of speed, none the less).

The main thing that the morons on gun forums chant is their squeamishness at pointing a holstered handgun at their twigs and berries, or femoral artery. First off, unless you're carrying a J-frame or short slide auto way off your centerline, you're not going to be aiming at your femoral artery, as I'm going to demonstrate. Second, get over the gun being pointed at your crotch; if it's in a serviceable holster, then the trigger is covered and there's nothing to be concerned about. If you have concerns that your gun will spontaneously discharge in your holster then carrying a firearm in any fashion is not for you. Have you ever tried pocket carry? Carried in a shoulder holster? If you have then your loaded albeit holstered handgun has been pointed at everyone: kids, grandma, the guy at register behind you at the liquor store; that's why you don't buy shitty holsters, so that when you snap your gun into that sucker it becomes just another inert object that you carry around with you.

Now that that's out of the way, here's some pics:

This is me with a Glock 17 carried appendix style:



The gun is close to my centerline, but not actually on it. I'd say it was at my 1 o'clock. This is what the gun looks like in relationship to my femoral artery:



Not pointing at it, huh? Amazing. Well now the next thing people whine about is how uncomfortable it "must" be when sitting. I say "must" because these folks have never tried to AIWB, or at the very best they pulled some canted IWB holster out of a box and gave it a try for ten minutes before passing judgment, and just assume that it's uncomfortable. I'm here to tell you that if you have a holster that lends itself to AIWB carry, it's as comfortable or more so than carrying on your hip. Here's why:




Yes, that's a creepy mannequin picture; get over it. Try googling "sitting mannequins" to get a sense at how disturbed this world really is, and then get back to me.

Anyhow, take notice of the crease of the hip meets the leg, and how the holster or muzzle avoids jamming into the thigh area. It really shouldn't touch it at all. Also notice that the gun and holster are sitting upright, so the back of the slide is not pushing into the abdomen. This picture depicts the gun at 12 o'clock, right on the centerline. If you want to move the gun further from the centerline and more towards your pocket, you need to either raise your pants or shorten the slide:




Some people still prefer to carry smaller guns like a J-frame revolver, and if you do then you can probably carry it directly over the leg, as the barrel is short enough to allow it. Doing that does make the gun point at the femoral artery, but if you have a serviceable holster then this is moot. The closer to your centerline the gun is, the longer slide/barrel length you can get away with. Go back to the first mannequin picture and see how much room you have for the muzzle. This is how people get away with carrying a full sized 1911. The only danger here is that with a long slide, you have to sit down on hard surfaces carfully, or you could smash a nut under the muzzle of the gun. So be smooth. Also, a gun with a longer slide/barrel will help to keep the grip tucked towards your body; where your body pushes out against the muzzle makes the gun see-saw against the belt, torquing the top of the gun in.

The other thing you can do is reverse-cant the holster:



This works fine as long as there's enough room to get your fingers wrapped around the grip; you don't want the grip to be sitting right on your belt unless you don't care if your draw speed is slowed down.

From what I gather, the belief about the gun being uncomfortable while sitting stems from the idea that the back of the slide, where the hammer is, will jam into your guts. If it is jamming into your guts then you have the wrong holster. . . period. It shouldn't happen. If you're sitting with a straight back, the gun should be straight up and down too. If you're reclined, the gun should be parallel with your spine. When you sit up, the gun should slide over your abdomen and rest vertical; wearing an undershirt helps this because it keeps the gun from grabbing at your skin and belly hairs. If you're going to experience discomfort, it's going to either be under your belt where it rides over the holster, or it's going to be in the crease of your crotch where the muzzle is. Concerning the former, loosening your belt a notch will usually fix the discomfort; and I highly recommend pants that have elastic sewn into the waist which will allow some "give" for when you get back into the car after eating two triple pounders with cheese. Regarding the latter, that's caused by your oversized guts pushing out on the back of the slide, using the belt as a fulcrum to tilt the muzzle into your body. A daily regime of exercise to lose your gut is one remedy, or you can go up one waist size for your pants. If you have a large gut, moving the gun away from your centerline will get it out of the way.


Hopefully this helps stiffle the yayhoos who don't know what they're talking about. I learn well from pictures, and showing the mechanics of what's involved can be helpful.

Range Report

This is the first bona fide range session I've had since Andy and I went shooting this past summer. All the shooting I've done in between then has been ad hoc, and generally rushed. Today was kinda rushed, but I still clicked off over 500 rounds from the P30, did some more accuracy testing, and tested out the Safariland #27 that I got in the mail yesterday and modified last night.



As always, click on the pictures to make bigger and more beautiful, and also check to see if there's any more pics in my Photobucket account that I didn't post.

The Safariland #27 has been around for a long long time. Rumor has it that Moses used one to CCW his heater past the Pharaoh's guards, and we all know that was a long time ago. It's an inexpensive holster, which means that you can order one and it'll be at your door way before the more expensive holsters arrive. The robust J-hook is very thick and adds to the mass tucked in your waistband, and also isn't the most secure way of retaining the holster. It swivels a bit even if you tighten the allen bolt, so to remedy that I stippled the J-hook with a soldering iron behind where the bolt goes through and it didn't slip at all within the several hours I walked about the house cleaning up after the kids. The #27 doesn't help to tuck the grip in for AIWB carry so I set about adding a wedge to do just that.

My initial design failed, as the wedge I made was not that secure.



My intent was to mount it where the retention screw is, but it moved around too much. I used the plastic from an old muzzle loading stock that I had sitting around by cutting it off with a sawzall, and finishing it using a file and sand paper:





It took some time for me to figure out how to securely place a wedge on the holster without using an adhesive, and my solution was to build a bracket that went from the retention screw to the J-hook screw:



It was cut out of a piece of sheet metal that I had - I don't know the gauge, but I was able to shear it out with incredible difficulty using tin snips in order to keep from waking the rugrats. I had to bend it to match the contour of the holster, and for that I clamped it in a vice to get the initial shape along my contour lines, and put the finishing touches on it with Klein's and channel lock pliers:



I cleaned it up on the belt grinder with a 600 grit belt, and then drilled holes where the plastic gunstock wedge goes:




I truncated the first wedge I made and matched the holes for the bracket; a forster bit counter-sank the holes where the screws ran through:



The bracket was tapped and the screws were run through the wedge into it. The ends of the screws were ground off with a file, and finished on the belt grinder, making sure I kept the whole thing cool by dunking it in water to keep the plastic wedge from melting:




Here's the final product. I added a Bladetech strap instead of the J-hook to make room for the wedge, and also because I find it to be a more secure way to keep the holster on my belt:


My savvy readers will notice that the screws I used look an awful lot like green self-tapping ground screws that have had the outer edge of the head ground off. The whole thing is a little sloppy, and fugly as hell, but I did all this in between diaper changes, sippy cup refills, bathtime, bedtime, and bourbon time, so cut me some slack. Time is not a luxury I have right now, so I measure once and cut once, hoping it all works out in the end.

The holster now keeps the grip tucked into my sucked-in gut quite well:



This is all well and great, CTone, but didn't you mention a range report in here somewhere?

Sure 'nuff, I took all my gear out for a couple of hours to get some rounds on steel:



Any guesses as to where the shrubbery between those steel targets went to? My brothers and their significant others put a metric ton of 9 mil through there every month. Today was my start into some serious shooting using the P30. I started out doing some bench testing for accuracy with the 124 grain+P Speer Gold Dots and the 147 grain +P Federal HSTs. After further review, I'm going to go with the Gold Dots; they shot right to point of aim at 25 yards, and gave me a 1.865" five shot group:



I got great groups from the HSTs as well, but they were not consistent. I shot two groups with them today off sandbags: one measured 1.929" and the other 2.159". Where it was inconsistent was that the point of aim would shift by an inch; this isn't surprising if you pay careful attention to your group average, and not just the tightest one. Each of the HST groups from today and from my earlier shoot would have four rounds almost touching, and one flyer an inch out. If I shot a whole box for accuracy, I bet my group would grow to around 3" to 4".

I ran 500 rounds of 115 grain Federal POS through it for practice drawing from the #27, and I did OK. I draw from concealment, and in today's cold, windy temps, that meant drawing from under my favorite Dickies hoody, which is many years old and stretched out. Sometimes my sleeves would get trapped in between my grip and my hand, slowing my first shot. I also found out that keeping my Leatherman Wave on my belt at 9 o'clock means that it will snag the bottom of my shirt while lifting it during the draw, thus slowing me down. This is why you practice with your gear exactly like you would be wearing it so you know what works and what doesn't.

The LEM trigger is superb if you practice good trigger control, and horrific if you do it wrong. I'm a big fan of that, as it means that if I learn to not half ass any of my shots at any time, I will be rewarded with consistent hits. The P30's grip lends itself to excellent control and follow up shots. I can't say enough good about it. I haven't had a malfunction of any kind, though if I don't get a proper grip, sometimes my strong hand thumb will prevent the slide from locking back on the last round.

Soon I will be back out for some more shooting, and I'll have more pictures and stuff to post then.

Appendix IWB on the cheap

I've been experimenting left and right with affordable ways to appendix carry a handgun, and I've had a decent amount of success. Here's some stuff I've been messing around with:



Click the pictures to make them bigger, and also feel free to browse my growing four+ year old collection of pictures at Photobucket.

The Bladetech Nano (top left) for my Glock 17 is a well made holster, and is suitable for AIWB carry if you're not too concerned with concealment. It's very thin, light, and the attachment loops are spread apart which keeps the profile thin for waistband comfort, but it also doesn't tuck the gun's grip in towards the abdomen. I've tried to modify it to make it conceal better, and I have one more idea, but so far I've struck out. I think it set me back about $35, and for that price it's a steal.



Next to a plain old Bladetech IWB holster that I've modified, you can see the difference in the belt loops and that there's less holster overall. Keeping those loops out to the side makes a big difference, as the amount of thickness stuffed in between your belt and jelly roll is minimal:



I've had great success with the Bladetech IWB, and I had to do some more modifications since my last post. I've now mounted the plug/spacer/old-rubber-piece-from-a-rifle's-buttstock directly to the holster, instead of to a strip of leather, and it works better, but the screws holding it on are dragging on the trigger guard. Back to the drawing board.



The DeSantis Sof-Tuck I got on sale at Midway for $15, and it's a very sturdy and well made holster. It is a bit thick, as the tuckable J-hook piece adds material between the gun and the waistband, but it does hold the Glock 26 well:



I recommend the baggie-over-the-gun-stuffed-in-the-holster trick to loosen it up a bit. I didn't get any concealment pictures of it with the Glock, but you did see the same holster a few days ago with a Kahr CW9.

The Zack holster is still good to go. I've modified it a bit so that I can put the gun on and take it off the belt without unholstering the pistol. This is done as a margin of safety, as unholstering a gun and laying it on the car seat next to you while you jack around the front of your pants is not exactly the safest idea:



I've even modded it since that picture was taken by drilling new holes in the back of the belt clip, near the top, and running the cord through there. The gun sits at a perfect height in my waistband, doesn't move around, and is still tuckable for concealment if you so desire:




A word of caution here: because the Glock 26 has such a short slide, it can pop up out of your waistband if you have a spare tire around your guts. Since there isn't much slide down inside the pants, if you push your gut out while bending over down to the ground, there is enough leverage against the grip to potentially shove the whole piece out of your belt. I can make it do this, but I have to try to make it happen. It's a double edged sword -- the Glock 26 conceals so well in this holster because the grip is short and doesn't stick out, and the Glock 17 is way more secure because its longer slide gives opposing leverage preventing it from coming out, but it doesn't conceal as well because the grip is longer. I wear my pants low enough that the gun sits just below my gut, so in effect my jelly roll becomes a retention device, so I can make the Glock 26 work.

I also found an AIWB holster where I didn't expect it: inside my pocket. I was thinking about the Remora holsters the other day, which don't expose any clips or loops or such, and it struck me that the DeSantis Super Fly is basically the same thing, so I gave it a whirl:




I'm happy to report that it works perfectly. I left the detachable shield thingy on it to give more traction, and was careful when tucking it that I didn't jam my shirt up underneath of it, so that if I had to draw it it would yank the whole thing out. I did have all day comfort without any movement or loops showing, so there's another option for carry. I have one of these also for the Glock 26, and I'm going to give that a go to see if it will work.

So there it is. Cheap AIWB solutions. It's a dirty job, but someone has to throw themself onto the alter of concealment. Folks, it's not easy trying on holsters all day, taking pictures of your crotch in the dirty mirror in the kid's bathroom, but I do it for you, dear readers!