Do vests SCREAM gun?

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What Works for Me

Personally I think I have concluded that a jacket that one would not necessarily take off is my personal best bet. This usually boils down to either a blazer of some sort tailored to hide the gun or a leather jacket one extra size over a t-shirt in the fall and winter months. The latter works quite well for me with a heavy caliber handgun in a horizontal shoulder holster.

Has anyone tried the Coronado Leather line of jackets for concealment purposes?
 
Haven't tried one of the Coronado jackets, but I have a very stylin' vest of their manufacture that I love. It's fancy enough to go with a jacket and slacks, but with the right cut to be good with jeans or Dockers. And, being leather, doesn't seem to get the same attention as the photog vests.

The sucker hides my Steyr S9 just fine...a full sized 1911 would also disappear in it. (If you don't know, the Coronadao garments have twin concealment pockets inside, with elastic + velcro retention {the velcro can be removed} like a shoulder-holster system). I consider it the most attractive holster I own, and wear it daily for CC about 2/3 of the year.

7
 
Okay Okay, I have worm my 5.11 vest even when i wasnt at the range. Never got a second look. SHHHH...I even wore my 5.11 pants at the same time....Hell Ive worm bdus for 5 years so far, thats all they are to me, civy bdus..lol. My wife actually used the term TACTICOOL on me the other day. I lov:p e her.
 
What do vests scream if anything? During the course of a given day, I maybe pass through 2-5 different social situations where what I wear is not appropriate to the surrounding dress code, either over or under dressed. If I worried that I did not blend in all the time, I would be in the psyche ward (more often, anyway). If you stand out, you get noticed, but that does not mean your dress screams gun or anything else like that. For the general public to recognize you as wearing supposed gun garments, they have to recognize them as gun garments. They don't know a gun garment from a Zuni Fetish.

I have a blue vest. In Walmart, I keep getting asked directions to produce or clothing areas. My vest looks nothing like a Walmart blue vest, not patches, pins, or ribbons. Mine is stained and discolored. Plus, I am usually pushing a shopping cart. I guess I could whip out my 1911 and give them some direction, but that isn't legal.

I like to wear my black 5.11 vest with the Carlsbad Caverns $3 patch on the right chest. I keep getting asked when I worked there. Mind you, I now live in north central Texas, nowhere near there. The last football game I attended while wearing a vest, I got asked for my press pass.

Like I said above, whatever you wear, you have to make it work for you and make it a part of your person. It can't look like it is there to serve the purpose of hiding guns.

On the flip side, I enjoy the naivete of you guard dog and wolf gun carriers who know that a vest means the person has a gun. I can go to a gun show, gun range where you check your guns (Bass Pro) or even be amongst friends when they ask if I am carrying. I can open my vest and show that I have on no holster and no gun tucked Mexican...and that is all that is needed to 'prove' I am unarmed...as if the only place you could carry a gun is in a holster on your belt when wearing a vest. I will have the gun in the pocket of my pants or elsewhere, just not on my belt...and the gun folks who are in-the-know on such matters are totally clueless because they know that the only place you carry a gun when wearing a vest is on the belt and if you show them there is nothing on the belt, then you must not have a gun. D'uh!
 
For those of you who carry your self-defense weapon in a fanny pack or some other type of satchel/man-purse, have you considered the possibility that if you are the victim of a robbery or mugging, the criminal may demand you hand over your bag and/or fanny pack under the assumption that it carries your valuables (i.e., wallet, keys, credit cards, electronics...etc)?

What then?
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2 answers… 1) the buckle for my fanny pack is right over my pocket which has my P-3AT I can draw it pretty quick. 2) If the Critter gets the drop on me without me seeing him, I’m in a whole lotta hurt already. I better be throwing the Fanny Pack at him, scooting backwards drawing my backup, and firing. …And SHAME ON ME for being in Condition white.

It seems to me that if you don't care that you might be giving people hints that you're armed, why don't you just say to hell with it and open carry?
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Cause in Texas, we don’t have it. ARGH!

I frankly don’t care if Gun-Geeks and LE’s “know” I have a gun. I doubt anyone other that these 2 groups really have any clue. The only time I will NEVER wear a fanny pack, vest, or even an over shirt (and I’ve mentioned this before) is to places that have nonstandard “no firearms” (non 30.06) signs and an armed security guard that is not and off duty LEO. I don’t, in any way, want to put down security guards. But I’ve seen too many that walk around with there hands on their guns just looking for an excuse to skin it. I’ve also known some good ones too. But, a Gun Geek will look at you with derision or respect, a bad LE might take you in and you can sort that out (hopefully), but a bad security guard might be inclined to draw.

And once Mr. Bang Bang has left his nappy place too many bad things can happen.
 
Well, my quotation was an honest mistake then, I live in Wisconsin and I've never been to Texas. That's not an excuse, thats an explanation.

Still, to my way of thinking even a gun-geek thinking that you're armed is too much. Maybe that gun geek is also a criminal. I don't know either way, so I don't want him to know.

My only point in all this mess is that there are less conspicuous ways to conceal your gun than a vest, because a vest looks a little funny. At least, around here it does. I think the continuum of obviousness, or some crap like that, goes about like this: 1) Open carry 2) Fanny Pack 3) Vest 4) No accessories. One will set off alarms for basically everyone, 2 is gonna look very suspicious depending on who's wearing it, 3 is gonna look pretty wierd but "gun" might not be a given, and 4 is say, a well-concealed IWB inside otherwise normal clothes. No blips at all until its necessary.
 
Cause in Texas, we don’t have it. ARGH!

Well, my quotation was an honest mistake then
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Sorry, just reread my post and it may have seemed I was ARGH-ing at you. I wasn't. It just ticks me off that we don't have open carry in Texas. This is TEXAS! Who doesn't think we all have guns anyway?

You make some valid points and I felt that way at one point. But now I just don't care. It’s summer and it's too hot. Most, not all, but most of the critters in the Allen Bros. Greatest Scam (Houston for the un-savvy) are not gonna be gun guys, they are gonna be street thugs and tweaks.

If I had a vest and it started screaming, I'd shoot it.
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+1 ... and then I'd put on my foil hat and start looking for "THEM".
 
Holy cow! That's brilliant! Sew a retail nametage type thing on there, and everyone will thing you are some poor underpaid sap on his way to/from work who not only doesn't have a gun, but who couldn't even afford a gun! As a bonus, BGs will think you must be so poor you aren't worth bothering.
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I was in Lowe's a week or so ago wearing my Woolrich Tactical vest (there's that T word). Anyway, I was mistaken at one point for a vendor, who wear vests when they're working in the store.

The guy who asked me where something was in the electrical department was totally oblivious to the J-Frame I had in one of the vest pockets.

Most people are not gun people. If someone thinks I'm a nerd because I'm wearing a vest, I really don't care.
 
I've actually run into the "nerd" thing with kids myself. Had some 10-year-old boy (forget his name) a friend of mine was babysitting look at my tan dickies twill pants, white t-shirt and open-front navy long-sleeve dickies work shirt without a second glance. Then he noticed my goofy red bucket hat and said, "You look dorky in that hat."
I smiled, sat down next him on the couch and calmly asked him if he minded if I played him at the video game he had one. Smirking, he said, "Sure..." and thus began the most serious thrashing he has gotten in his video game-playing life.
As I was beating him mercilessly on-screen I explained that video games is a hobby of mine along with D&D-type games and that these activities combined to make me the most serious laughing stock of my high school graduating class. It was literally uncool to have a mental picture of my face when my name was mentioned. Total social leper. But all my high school friends are still my friends. We'd all still take a bullet for each other. Many of us are the "average guys" that you see at the range and would never know the geekiness that resides within as we walk forward to check our targets and hang up new ones.

So, having discussed this openly, do you honestly think I would ever care if some little punk kid thought I'm a "nerd" after being a proud "nerd" most of my life? :rolleyes:
Mark(psycho)Phipps( HAHAHA! )
 
Call Me Vain!

Vanity can be dangerous, but I consider myself quite the ruggedly handsome type with a sizeable ego as I receive a very positive response from women in general. So I dislike appearing to be a dork or any other such thing.

If you don't mind it and it works for you, I honestly envy you. It would makes things much easier. Then again, I get the best customer service in any female staffed store I visit and the admins here at work bend over backwards for me.

Don't mind the James Bond music playing in the background.

(laughing very hard)
 
"shoot me first" vest?

After all these years, I've only found one case of anyone "getting shot first" because they were wearing vests.

It is found in the very first Star Wars movie. The rebel bodyguards of Princess Leia are all wearing a uniform that includes a black vest which looks remarkably like something from Concealed Carry Clothiers. When the Imperial Storm Troopers led by Darth Vader attack their ship, the Storm Troopers blast every rebel so dressed.

This is the closest I've been able to find...and it happened "long, long ago on a planet far, far away" ....

:D
 
Will Old Dog survive???

Tune in next week to find out!
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The Pacific Northwest remains at high alert though, as far as I know, there have been no Old Dog sightings yet. We are maintaining our vigilance. :p

-PB
 
Hey, it's a good thing to know that other people get the same compliments and level of service as a geek. ;)
Once I picked my own eyeglass frames (no more birth control goggles), started working out and didn't have my mother buying me the dorkiest clothes EVAR I did just fine. I was finally out of the hyper-shallow world of public high school and got to meet new people to I became quite popular with the ladies.
You see, I actually enjoy dancing during periods of time besides the 1AM+ "please think I'm hot while you're drunk and don't know any better" phase, enjoy hiking, cooking, discussing philosophy and all sorts of other "woo" skillz. I do laundry correctly, clean up after myself without a cattle prod or promise of sex later that night and generally do the little things that make my perfect wife (with admittedly horrible taste in men) not want to tear out her hair when she walks in the door after a long days work.

I still play video games and D&D regularly and get to hit the range with her blessings... :)
Mark(psycho)Phipps( HAHAHA! )

P.S. You know, my life ROCKS!

Anthony
Vanity can be dangerous, but I consider myself quite the ruggedly handsome type with a sizeable ego as I receive a very positive response from women in general. So I dislike appearing to be a dork or any other such thing.

If you don't mind it and it works for you, I honestly envy you. It would makes things much easier. Then again, I get the best customer service in any female staffed store I visit and the admins here at work bend over backwards for me.

Don't mind the James Bond music playing in the background.

(laughing very hard)
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I haven't seen Old Dog either; but given our weather this week, anyone wearing a vest will attract attention. Will he survive, or will he melt?
-BothellBob
 
Massad your da man

Happy to see you post.. I(ve read all your books to date and I think your the Man...Thanks for spreading the knowledge.One article in particular was about double action guns in an justifiable homiside..and how a D.A. could make a good case against a revolver with a hammer that could be cocked and fired single action. Bobbed that hammer of mine right after the article.Good to see you on da web with us civilians.My vest screams photographer at least thats what folks have said to me.:cool:
 
Doesn't much matter what I wear, at 6' 5" and around 300 lbs, I stand out no matter what. :) Folks in town are use to seeing me wear a vest, jaclket or coat all year long any way, and I don't CCW. Just a weird old man.
 
The vest thing is certainly an interesting observation but I have a strange suspicion that the rather nasty-looking weapons pointed at the them might have been a bit more of an issue with Lord Vader and his ilk than the vests in question.

I might be totally off base here, though... ;)
Mark(psycho)Phipps( HAHAHA! )
 
Saturday at the range,I met 2 new shooters who were enjoying their first trip to the range having just bought their first pistols,making it the second time after the NRA basic class that they'd shot.Here in MA,one must obtain a License to Carry in order to own pistols but it may not be granted for actual carry purposes or an individual may not ask for the ability to carry or own large capacity handguns but their instructor told them they should ask for All Lawful Purposes.
They both asked what exactly All Lawful Purposes meant-and if that meant that they could,if they wanted," carry right down mainstreet": I said "sure" and lifted up my tshirt to show the full sized Para IWB.Having been talking to me at arms length for half an hour,neither saw what I thought was printing far too heavily for me to leave the house with or thought "gun".Most people don't go out with the mindset that normal people carry guns;people who carry do.Most people don't care what others or wearing and certainly don't look for guns in waistbands.One of the town detectives came into the post office in shorts,golf shirt and mini-Glock on his belt OWB;the woman ahead of me turned to say " what is it with people and guns these days?" after he finished mailing his letter.I explained that he's a town cop and she shrugged;there were probably 50 people that saw him and not a single shriek of fright went up that there was a man with a gun on his belt,who being a short,fat,bald guy doesn't look very "cop", in line at the post office.This is as MA and MA can get and an open gun didn't cause panic-when I walk around with my P239 under an untucked buttondown ( solid color or plaid ,I don't do crazy prints) and cargo shorts I look just like every other 30ish tourist jamoke.
Most people really don't care what others wear and as far as some thinking that 5.11 pants scream gun-please!Do you think they're really any different to the millions of other pairs of cargo pants walking around the country? A vest might get a snicker but I see vests of all kinds daily- photographers,dads keeping dad gear,Harley guys,Christian motorcyclists,anyone from a boat...I'd bet that if you wore a shirt that said " I have a gun in my pocket" in 4" orange letters everyone would just think it was a typically trendy tshirt and not even notice if you _actually were_ printing.

That's not to say I'm lax with carrying,I check the mirror when I leave and forget about it.
 
I must report. I was called out on my tacticoolness. I was wearing my vest ( it was hot and I just grabbed it to cover my offfending piece), I was in Safeway, and a cop said to me " I have one in khaki", I gave him a confused look, and he replied " the vest,". we chatted for a second while the clerk rang up my magazines ( american handgunner and guns and weapons for law enforcement) and nothing was noted. I wasnt shot. I wasnt questioned. I am alive. :evil:
 
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