The difference between winter and summer concealed carry.

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.308 Norma said:
However, it’s not the extreme differences between winter and summer temperatures here in Southeast Idaho that trouble me the most when it comes to concealing my carry guns. It’s those other two seasons, spring and fall that trouble me the most. During those two seasons here, it’s not at all unusual to see frost in the morning, which on occasion has made me wish I had not left my jacket at home that morning just because I knew it was going to be 80 degrees by 2:00 in the afternoon.:oops:

Spring and fall also present concealed carry problems for me depending on where I’m going and what I’m going to be doing. I’m long time retired, so problems with carrying at work don’t concern me personally. But there have been threads on these message forums lately about carrying at church. This time of the year (spring) my wife and I pull on jackets or coats when we leave for church in the morning. But of course those jackets or coats come off when we get there. And by the time church is over, it’s often too warm outside for the jackets or coats we pulled on that morning. It’s the same story on Saturday mornings when we usually go into town for breakfast or brunch before running our Saturday errands.
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I have the same issue. I decide on what sized gun to wear based on the MAXIMUM expected daily temp. I don't want to decide to pack a full sized gun, and then have it warm up to a temp at which I will need to shed clothing, and then have a hard time concealing.
 
entropy said:
Seriously, most concealed carriers obsess about printing, and go way out of the way to avoid it.
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An ex-girlfriend and I were talking about this. I had just received my carry permit. I was pocket carrying a .32 Top break(all I could get at the time) and was nervous. She told me "Nobody is looking at your pants pocket" and if its on your top "tell them it is an insulin pump" I upgraded to a 9MM Shield eventually. Printing was a factor, I carry IWB and Appendix. I have some T-shirts so tight it is obvious. Others barely print the end of the grip with the right wind gustS if at all. If I dont care, then I bring it. If however I am going somewhere and I do mind the SLIGHT print/possibility of hassle I drop a .25ACP in my pocket. Small PT25, 9+1, and load it with ball. It is what I could accquire with the money I have and location. No lock gun, made in '78 barely fired and runs 100%.

I plan to buy a few guns, and handload some HOT .25ACP. I found information that suggests the 750fps is loaded down like 7x57 is in stock form. I hope to load up some hot stuff with the right guns after seeing promising results. Someone posted some 1100-1300fps numbers with 50grain, no bulged primers or case separation out of a 950BS. We will see what happens. I'd be happy with 900.

Back to OP;
Pocket guns are easier in basketball shorts or swim shorts. My 9MM Shield is doable in my bathing suit/shorts if I keep them really tight, still hangs my shorts a bit if I walk a lot. I think clothing choices, relaxed versus tighter or professional, and setting are why people rotate. If my laundry rotation is not favorable to my Shield, .25 goes. It goes everywhere honestly. If you prepare, practice, and carry your tools you are ahead of most guys.
 
As others have mentioned, a lot depends on the climate, workplace, and legal environment. I live in an area where showing the gun (even if you have the appropriate paperwork) is likely to get you a business encounter with law enforcement. And a professional workplace where a tucked shirt is de rigeur. Which means that a Seecamp or Rohrbaugh in the pocket may be the only option.
 
It gets gosh darned hot here. The high last year was 118 degrees. I'm wondering if a P32 might be a better option than an LCP!
 
I've kinda stopped posting in these threads as I have started to believe that those who cannot commit to carrying a decently-sized handgun, both in caliber and size, also aren't typically serious about training with their chosen platform.
 
Why cannot you train with multiple weapons?

I am also of a mind that people who do not understand the need to dress down in hot climates do not live in such climate and do not participate in outdoor activities and sports where clothing needs to be suitable for the activity first and the gun just has to fit in to the broader scheme, not be the dominate factor.

Nothing screams GUN like a fanny pack on a hair neck in cycling Lycra. But my .380 BG disappears into a top tube bag that is smaller than my hand and easily accessible for fending off a pit bull or Buicks as the case may be. Yeah, I would like to carry my Glock 19 or my Kimber 1911 but it is not very practical for a 5-11, 155 pounder to have a place to hide all that in summer activity clothing.

You know, I am still working on a good concealed carry for my mile swims, what y'all think?
 
With a long, heavy winter parka, I carry a Sig P290RS in a DeSantis Super-fly which fits well in an outer pocket of a parka. In addition, I carry my year-round EDC Sig p229 IWB or p226 OWB depending on the occasion. It's easier and quicker to get the gun out of the outer parka pocket than open the parka to draw.
 
kozak6 said:
It gets gosh darned hot here. The high last year was 118 degrees. I'm wondering if a P32 might be a better option than an LCP!
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If it's that hot then you should get a really cool gun ...

...

sorry, couldn't resist :)


btw I have a P32 with the mag extender. decent little pistol but I'm not too sure I would trust my life to it unless I had to. I have a lot of Keltecs but I'm skeptical.
 
Old Dog said:
I've kinda stopped posting in these threads as I have started to believe that those who cannot commit to carrying a decently-sized handgun, both in caliber and size, also aren't typically serious about training with their chosen platform.
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Since I don't live in the PNW but in the Southwest where it's warm in the winter and hot in the spring and even hotter in the summer I generally pocket carry my "chosen platform" a J Frame. Specifically a 642. on those occasions when I'm forced to wear other than shorts and T shirt I carry IWB with my shirt tails out.
 
Striker said:
None for me...I dress to the gun, not the other way around.
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Same. It's early this year but it was 92 and humid, yet I wore my standard Glock 19X under a t-shirt whilst cutting down, chopping up and ranking some pine trees that have needed to die for years now.

Bonus points since my rabidly anti gun MIL was over and didn't notice (or she would have made a snide comment to my wife, guarenteed).

The Glock is gonna need to be cleaned tomorrow, I sweated just a bit.

Sure it's no 100 degrees like the southwest gets but Midwest 90s and 80% humidity is unpleasant to anyone.
 
Old Dog writes:

I've kinda stopped posting in these threads as I have started to believe that those who cannot commit to carrying a decently-sized handgun, both in caliber and size, also aren't typically serious about training with their chosen platform.
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.. and he's addressing an OP from Texas (as well as others from the Deep South) about summer concealed-carry, while posting from Puget Sound... ;)

This was not opened as a(nother) "minimum caliber/handgun size thread."
 
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Striker said:
None for me...I dress to the gun, not the other way around.
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Agree and it doesn't require any change on my part.
I don't have to make any clothing changes to carry a 1911 IWB and a Glock 43 in front pocket.
Mowing the yard, bicycling, jogging are an exception, only have a pocket size 9mm.
Normal summer attire: untucked loose shirt with A frame (wife beater) underneath and cargo shorts - the only thing that could be less is no "A frame".
Nobody is going to the store, running errands, wearing less than that ^ in public places, would have to be shirtless.
Carrying more than a pocket gun in summer is not so much about amount of clothing, rather type / style.
I only tucked in my shirt at work, all other times untucked; work aint a thing for me anymore and tucked in shirt sucks, aint doing it.
Some are limiting their summer carry not because of the heat or amount of clothes, but because of style, don't want untucked and/or loose fitting.
Unless work dictates a tucked in shirt or while mowing the yard, most could carry more than a pocket gun all year if they chose.
 
JR24 said:
Sure it's no 100 degrees like the southwest gets but Midwest 90s and 80% humidity is unpleasant to anyone.
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I grew up in the lake states, and have spent considerable time in the SW. I'll take 110 and dry over 90 and humid any day of the week. It's a big part of why I left the lake states and won't live there again.

I prefer to be baked rather than steamed.
 
460Shooter said:
I grew up in the lake states, and have spent considerable time in the SW. I'll take 110 and dry over 90 and humid any day of the week. It's a big part of why I left the lake states and won't live there again.

I prefer to be baked rather than steamed.
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I certainly don't disagree, I turn into a slug through July and August up here (sadly its not even June and 90s this weekend).

Especially since moving back from Alaska a few short years ago (and it only got above 75 once in my years up nort.)
 
MedWheeler said:
Old Dog writes:

.. and he's addressing an OP from Texas (as well as others from the Deep South) about summer concealed-carry, while posting from Puget Sound... ;)

This was not opened as a(nother) "minimum caliber/handgun size thread."
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As it happens, I've lived in Arizona, Eastern Washington (where, believe it or not, it gets sizzling hot for half the year) and Southern California for long periods of my adult life -- and have been able to successfully carry concealed decent sized pistols with little difficulty. It's just simply not that hard.
 
The logic of "more clothes in winter" doesn't pan out for me as I am not a mountain man; I don't live outside. While I will wear a coat to get places, when I get there I take it off and may be wearing pretty much summer clothes (one layer on top, pants) then.

So, I don't have winter guns, but I do have a full size, and a compact and choose which one based on clothes, activity, and permissiveness of the environment. Yesterday it was in the 90s, shorts and t-shirt and I wore the full size, WML, with a spare mag. In the winter I have worn the compact. It depends.
 
I've found the best balance for me is my Ruger SR9c in a good IWB holster, year round.
May even find a LC9s or LCP that will fit in a pocket, now that I have a job that requires me to keep a shirt tucked into slacks 12 hours a day. Even my .38 prints that way.
But I live in Florida, and there's maybe a week out of the year my 130-pound self can wear anything that will conceal a pancake holster.
Seriously pretty tired of 90+ degrees at 90+ ten months of the year.
 
Depending on the time of year, I can be caught wearing anything from shorts and a T-shirt, to snow pants and a parka. Shirts buttoned or unbuttoned, jackets zipped up for wind and rain, or kept open. How I carry varies based on this. IWB, OWB, shoulder holster, pocket carry, off-body carry. Strong side, weak side, appendix.

So I carry a number of different guns depending on the situation and the activity. And the method of carry and how accessable that weapon is, seems as important, if not more important than what type or caliber of handgun I'm carrying.

I can clearly see the value in carrying the same gun every day, and in the same location every day. Unless the gun becomes inaccessible because of a change in clothing or activity based body position, etc.
 
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