Quest for the "ideal for you" carry gun

I really want to carry my 45 Baer Stinger or a Walther PPQ IWB. But with my body build, slim but with a small roll of fat around the middle, I can not keep my pants up. I have wore suspenders before but never felt comfortable with them. So I have went with a LC9 Pro for winter carry, and a LCP for pocket carry with shorts and t shirt.
I load both with Lehigh 65 gr. copper Xtreme Defense bullets.

I’ve been carrying my Walther PPS M2 for the past couple years and still love it. Sometimes I’ll carry my SD40VE, LC9S, or even my older Taurus 85, but the PPS M2 is just about perfect for me. It weighs just a little more than other subcompact single stack 9s, but that also makes it more enjoyable while at the range. The only thing I added since this pic is a set of rubberized Talon Grips. Sure there are other pistols I’d like to get, like a Springfield Armory 1911 Range Officers Compact, the Walther is still the one I grab 98% of the time.


L8R,
Matt

life is to short to carry a ugly gun! i'm 60 years old an i can't stop looking for the next one, so i keep buying and selling

A Shield9 seems to be a winner for me, add an LCP for light days and I’m good.

Some of it is that we have seen substantial improvement in carry guns in the last 50 years, and overwhelmingly the pace of improvement has gone up in the last 20 years as shall-issue or constitutional-carry laws have passed in most states and companies adjust and innovate to sell to that huge market.

Another part of it is that gear is the only objective part of the concealed-carry part of someone's life that is quantifiable. What 'your' defensive shooting(s) will look like, should you be unlucky enough to have one, is totally unknowable. Mindset is hard to quantify; training is expensive, perishable, and varies widely in quality. But guns and bullets. Guns and bullets we can argue about and obsess over in fine detail even though we know that A) it's highly unlikely that the majority of us will ever need either and B) if we do, it's highly unlikely that what type of gun or what caliber we had will be relevant, assuming it is a functioning firearm with functioning ammunition.

But because it's impossible to know what will happen in the event we need our gun, we spend a lot of time worrying about whether it will be enough if we do.

Maybe not "ideal" but I'm pretty set with my carry choices. Like the DA trigger of my two S&W J frame .38 Special snubbies (Model 649 and Model 638), and with my Kahr CM9. Something smaller and I'm carrying my SIG P238.

I don't really care about printing. The majority of people don't pay close enough attention to notice an edge here and an odd bulge there. Capacity and ease of shooting is more important. I carry a Gen 5 Glock 17 in a Raven Concealment Eidelon with a V Defense Group large wedge in appendix or if its one of those days that that gun is uncomfortable, I'll carry a Glock 43 in an appendix holster, with a V Defense Group small wedge.

I've found the combination of foam wedge and claw attachment make it possible to conceal just about anything (for me).

LW Commander, flirtation with Officer's and New Agent, flirtation with Sig P938, back to LW Commander. Now I've got a Sig P365 with the 12 round mags and I'm going to give it a try.

Today: Colt Night Cobra in CrossBreed IWB holster with speedloader in metal clip pouch. And as always, Smith 43c 22 in pocket.

Remainder of the week, probably the same.

Next week, who knows what will be on my belt. But the 43c will be in my pocket.

BOARHUNTER

FL-NC said:

We end up trading or selling that last perfect gun (usually at a loss) in order to get that next perfect gun.

Click to expand...

That's the thing though. They don't ever end up being perfection. Instead they are generally a compromise or tradeoff. Hence the eternal quest. Now-a-days options are endless which makes it more difficult.

Bond Arms Bullpup 380L if/when it is created

The R9. I'm perfectly satisfied and want nothing else.

Thanks OP for starting this thread. Soon after I sold my PC Shield 9 2.0 version last year I regretted it and started looking around to replace it with a used reasonably priced Shield. After reading this post I looked and found 1.0 version standard Shield 9 & 40 for $269 on sale at Cabelas. I decided to bring home a new 1.0 PC Shield 9 w/night sights for $399 because of the trigger upgrade and night sights. Now I've got the SP101 2.25" 357 and the Shield for carry rotation. The Shield isn't anything special but with 8+1 capacity in a potent caliber w/minimal recoil, accurate, easily concealed and comfortably carried it fits my needs. Since there's no "perfect", "best" or "ideal" gun, having the choice of these two is as close to perfect as I'll get.

I’ve carried either a shield or G19 for the last 3 years. Before that it was just a shield. I spent a summer lugging around an SR45. That was never meant to last.

I don’t see much reason to change, although I keep saying I’m going to add a truly tiny gun for the 3% of the time I can’t carry the shield. Probably a revolver or maybe an LCP.

Guess I was luckier than many when I first started carrying legally. I bought a HKUSP45C before my CPL was ever delivered, as I considered it the finest CW available. (Some still do) Carried it less than a year, mainly because I was and am a 1911 guy, and have been since the 80s. My 1911s were full-sized, though and Colt. Wanting a smallish 1911 to carry, with Colt having only the Officer's at that time, I went shopping for others. Settled on the Kimber Ultra CDP, which had all the features I wanted, save for large grips, which I provided. It must be my "perfect" CW, because there wasn't much of a "journey" to get here, even 17 years later. Just a significant waste of $759 to find out what I should have known already. Though I carry different calibers and arms for a couple different things, I surmise the UCDP will always be my normal primary.

I have often thought that this old question could be solved with a mathematic equation.
Something like:
bore (diameter x capacity) - loaded weight(oz) + (10yd B3 score)=carry factor

My lcp... .380x8- 15 + 79 = 67.04



My officer... (.45 × 7) - 41 +92 = 54.6

My SR9C ... (.356x11) - 29 +92= 66.19

Well....not exactly the outcome that I would have predicted....but, the lcp is my EDC soooooo...?
Of course, this means nothing!

Like Stevie-Ray, I was either lucky or did my homework because my first carry gun completely satisfied me until my back no longer tolerated the weight. The little single stack nine I bought as my second carry gun also has continued to serve me perfectly well.

Other gun acquirements were for sport or aesthetics.

I have been chasing the elusive "perfect carry gun" for over 30 years.

In the past I have settled on compromises. Most of the time it was a Kahr PM9. Sometimes a S&W 642/442. Glocks of several types, the .45 Springfield XDs, Colt Officer's ACP. And others.

I still am looking, but yesterday I might have finally completed the quest. I purchased a blue label Sig P365. Nice and small like the PM9, good trigger like the PM9, but 10+1 instead of 6+1. If I didn't want to stick to the flush mag I could even go 12+1, whereas the best with the Kahr was 7+1.

Only time will tell, but whereas when I was at the LGS yesterday it was a 442 in my pocket, today it is the P365.

I've carried an M1911 .45 ACP for more than 50 years now, and have no intention of changing.

It's flat and thin, easy to carry and conceal. It's powerful and reliable. And I shoot it very well.

I always wanted to carry a 1911... and do once in a while... but they are not practical for me in my situation. I found I was leaving it in the truck more than I was actually carrying it... which isn't a swell idea. For a while, I needed a small, compact piece... an AMT DAO .380, a Colt Gov't .380, a 3" J-frame .38. But I finally left all those behind for a Kahr CW9. I own 4 different Kahr 9mm pistols... 3 CW9's and a CM9, and carry them interchangeably. I tried to carry a P45... but it was just a wee bit bigger in all the wrong ways, and I traded it for... another CW9. The simplicity of the Kahr is one of the things that appeals to me... no safety, no Glock-like trigger ding-dong, no nothing... draw the pistol and pull the trigger. The fact that it fits my hand perfectly is another plus, too...

When I travel, I still strap the 1911... but in a shoulder holster. For my build, that works best. I have a very hard time concealing a 1911 on my hip.

There is not "one" because edc entails so much variation and I want as much as I can have in a given situation.

For this reason, I go with the toolbox philosophy. The guns are similar enough that training with one yields proficiency with all, yet they fill different roles.

I have come to institute this philosophy with both handguns and rifles. Years of looking for the "one" just lead me in circles as I would get rid of my selection if it could not be carried on a given occasion or if I felt that I needed more gun. In essence I was looking for a dress clothes pocket 45 acp that could connect at 100 yards with the ability to accept happy sticks. I was asking too much of any one gun.

Every change I've made to my carry set up has been the result of an issue that's come up in training. The more training I get the more I want to simplify the process and the more I want to eliminate variables.

I started out carrying 1911s, then switched to a DA/SA, then to a TDA, then to specifically Third generation S&Ws because the controls were the same no matter what gun I used. I switched to striker fired guns because I had an issue in a training class with a TDA.

I started out with M&Ps but switched to Glocks because they're more compact and the magazines are cheaper.

I currently carry either a Glock 19 or a 26 depending on my concealmeant needs.

Sorry but I don’t get the ‘one perfect carry gun’ thing.. my needs vary greatly for day to day and so do my guns. I regularly carry 8-9 of my pistol (only one or two at a time tho)
I minimize financial setback by never paying retail prices, only buying quality guns, and rarely, if ever, sell.

Strangely , the guns I carry the least are the small ones... as time goes by I find I prefer to carry full sized pistol whenever I can.

huntsman said:

A Shield9 seems to be a winner for me, add an LCP for light days and I’m good.

Click to expand...

+1 on the Shield which you can get now in version 1.0 for $250-270 NIB unless you feel they're no good anymore now that the 2.0 is out.