"Business Casual" Carry . . . How?

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mattx109

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I'm often required to be in "business casual" dress. In the fall or winter I can get away with a sweater to cover the exposed portion of my IWB-carried gun. In the spring/summer, however, I have no cover garment. I'm in a button down or polo shirt, tucked in.

I've heard of "tuckable" hoslters (Milt Sparks in particular). Are these recommendable? How about printing when bending or sitting (I imagine you'll get this is any holster, regardless of type, barring Thunderwear and such)?

The gun is a SIG P232.
 
I normally carry a full sized 1911 but in summer business casual, I give up trying to carry it concealed. For these times, I wear pleated slacks so as to not "print" the small S&W 38 airweight in my front pocket. I haven't tried the "inside the pocket" holsters but I've seen many hear speak well of them.
 
Keltec P3AT in smartcarry(small size not xs) or pocket.

depending on your pants a kahr pm\mk in smartcarry (small)

after 9 or so years of carry i gave up on dressing for the firearms and live a normal active life. yesterday i ran 1hr 15min in just shorts, t shirt, clip on wallet, smartcarry.

a KT in the pocket works great too.
 
Colt Gov't Model .380 in front pants pocket.

Kimber Ultra Carry in tuckable holster.

There are a lot of tuckable holsters out there in both leather, kydex or even combinations. Experiment.

Smoke
 
I used to work at a car dealership. I was always worried about some crazy loosing their tranny and then showing up demanding that we fix it. You would believe how many pissed off customer we ended up with sometime. Luckily I wasn't in the car sales department. I managed the wireless sales for the owners, my office was on the sales floor.

I really didn't find any on body carry methods that I was comfortable with. trying to hide a Steyr S40 under a tucked polo shirt seemd too much of a pain. I bought one of those daytimer carry devices. It worked just fine for the two years I lived in IA. In the winter I normally wore a sweater so it was easier to carry on my belt, but once summer rolled around it was far easier to carry in my daytimer.
 
Pocket holster! If you're of average or better size and wear loose slacks, you will do very well with a pocket holster for your Sig. I find that there is very little if any printing. Besides, no one really looks at your groin/below the waist area. I have them from Mika, Thad Rybka, Uncle Mike's, and a home made plastic one - each for a different gun. It was my prime carry mode for almost 20 years. Business formal, business casual, whatever, you don't have to worry about removing the jacket.:D
 
I'll have to investigate pocket carry. I'm intrigued. :)

As for off-body cary (like the daytimer), I don't know. All my training is from on body locations (three, four, and nine o'clock, and ankle). I just don't know that I'd be comfortable having it in something that wasn't somehow "attached" to me. If I'm ever in a need-to-draw situation, I'll want my weapon five seconds ago -- I'm not sure the speed would be enough from off-body.
 
mattx109" I carry a 1911 and two spare mags in a gutted daytimer. My BUG is a Galena/AMT 380 in my right front pocket. I attached an oversized ring to the zipperpull. You don't have to draw. Shoot through it at close range. Happy trails.
 
If you go here , you will see lots of suggestions.

Mine include the Texas Heritage by Tucker Gunleather with my BlackBerry wireless device (like an e-mail pager) as added covert tacticality.
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eyz...

Jogging with a smartcarry? Any bashing of the valuables? it seems like the holster would swing out and then slam back into you.

after 9 or so years of carry i gave up on dressing for the firearms and live a normal active life. yesterday i ran 1hr 15min in just shorts, t shirt, clip on wallet, smartcarry.
Click to expand...
 
I have to wear business casual. I use a belly band worn around my waist with a 1911 in the standard IWB position. Shirt tucked in over it and belt cinched up. It works well for me. Just remember to bend at the knees to avoid printing.

Belly band around the torso works well with a smaller gun in front. You can reach through the buttons of your shirt to draw.

Pocket holsters work, but only for small guns.

Some folks like ankle carry, personally I can't stand it, but everybody is different.

I don't really like off the body carry, and I would never recommend it just because you can't guarentee that you are going to always have 100% control over your loaded firearm. You are liable for it when it is not under your direct control.
 
I'll adjust my wardrobe as much as possible to keep wearing my 1911, even to the extent of wearing a light sportcoat in the North Texas summer. Sometimes you just can't make it work, and that's when I go to my Kel Tec P11 in an Alessi pocket holster. Perfect, with no printing at all.
 
I like my Milt Sparks VM-II.

The tuckable feature is great... but I tried to wear it all week that way when on vacation in FL this spring, and having to pull the kydex clip apart to put it on my waistband ended up making my fingers really sore by the end of the week.
 
Another vote for pocket carry. I carry an S&W340PD in a DeSantis Nemesis holster. In pleated khakis it conceals great - no one has ever raised an eyebrow. Also works in less-than-tight jeans - for casual Fridays.

The DeSantis holster is made of a tacky fabric whhich stays put in the pocket and is pretty cheap - $15-20.

I would imagine if the pocket would fit it, a SIG 232 will conceal well since it is pretty flat.
 
I am with Swamprabbit on this one. I carry comfortably at work, with pleated slacks, a good pocket holster that does not print, and a Taurus J frame full of 129 grain HydroShocks. Almost three years in that office now, and no one has 'made' me yet.
 
Check out comp-tac.com and look at their shirt tucker holster. It works very well with a glock 23; should be even better with your Sig.
 
I hate tuckables.

I'm standing there in my shorts, with my pants hanging around my thighs, trying to hold my holster positioned properly on my belt while getting my shirt to drape naturally over the grip of the gun, while neither the gun nor the belt nor the shirt will stay in place until I have the pants buttoned and zipped and the belt buckled.

No thanks.

Give up on the tuckable IWB.

Get any IWB holster you like. Remove all the fastening tabs, loops, whatever. (I used a FIST K1).

Go to the hardware store and get some stick-on velcro. Peel the backing paper off one half and stick it to the outside of the holster.

Go to a clothing store and buy a stretch web belt. Then stop buy the fabric store and buy some sew-on velcro. Sew one half on the inside of the belt where you want to hold the gun.

Put on your shorts. Put on your new belt. Place your holstered gun inside the belt so the velcro meshes.

Put on your shirt. Put on your pants. Put your old belt through the loops, and buckle up.

A tuckable IWB carry, that's easy to put on, drapes more cleanly than you can manage stuffing a shirt-tail intol that little slot in a tuckable holster, that stays on when you drop your pants in a public toilet, etc.

Or you can use the same gear as a deep carry. Put the stretch belt on over the top of your shirt-tail, but lower on your hips, placing the holstered gun so it's entirely covered by your pants.

I do this, usually. At about 2:30. With the butt of the gun just behind the belt of my trousers.

I find it faster to push the holster up above the belt-line than to pull my tucked shirt-tail out of the way. I can, and have, pushed it up to IWB carry in situations where I thought something untoward might be pending.

I take of and put on the gun by removing and replacing the entire holster. I take the holstered gun out of the cabinet at home, put it on my belt, take it off my belt to put in into the safe in the car, etc., without ever holstering the gun - which eliminates any possibility of something, perhaps my shirt tail, from snagging the trigger.

And the motion of putting on and taking off the gun is simple, fast, and unobtrusive. I've done it in parking lots without attracting attention.

And for winter, I just sewed some velcro on the inside of a pocket of my winter coat. Drawing from a belt holster from under a heavy winter coat is impossible - pocket carry is much better.

And again, the movement is fast, easy, and not attention-getting.

I got the idea from Andy Arratoonian's "TJM Holster":

http://www.holsters.org/deepconceal-holster.htm

jtjm.jpg
jtjmworn.jpg


I don't actually use his holster, but it's from him I got the idea.
 
I think I would go with a small pistol (the Kahr PM9 seems ideally suited for this) or revolver in a pocket holster. I do not recommend carrying a gun loose in a pocket. It can tip and get tangled up in the pocket material as well as wearing a hole through the pocket. A pocket holster will keep it properly positioned at all times. And never carry anything else in the same pocket as the gun -- no keys, no coins, no nothing.

Another choice might be the Kramer Confidant. This is basically a fabric horizontal shoulder holster sewn onto an undershirt. Being white and having no straps, it will not print under a white or light colored shirt. Choose a relatively heavy cloth for the shirt so the gun butt will not show under it. It will not be a fast draw; you will have to literally rip your shirt open.

Off body carry in a briefcase, day planner, etc. is another option. This will let you carry a larger gun. But you must never let it out of your sight and always have it nearby at all times.
 
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