What gun should I carry?

[couldbeanyone]

What gun should I carry and where on my person should I carry it? I work for a large corporation as a field technician. They have a strict no weapons allowed policy, concealed or otherwise, not even a pocket knife. They also won't hesitate to send you into the worst neighborhood in town alone and unarmed. Your boss may show up at your job site at any time unannounced.
I have a concealed carry permit. This past summer had several days in excess of 105 degrees. I wear denim jeans, leather boots, a t-shirt, and a tool belt most days. My work location can be anywhere from up a utility pole, to inside a customers home, to down in a freshly dug pit in the ground filled with loose dirt or mud depending on the weather and location.
Bear in mind that when working up a utility pole you must wear a wide thick and heavy body belt around your waist. You also may be wearing a pair of climbers that strap around your ankles and put a lot of pressure on the inside of your ankles and lower legs. When working down in a pit it is not unusual to finish the job covered in mud or with dirt in your pockets.
I look forward to your input and opinions as I have yet to come up with a really good answer.

 

[hammerklavier]

A Ruger LCP in a smartcarry holster -- these pull on like underwear.

 

[hammerklavier]

I would suggest something down your boots/ankle carry, but it sounds like it would get caked with mud.

 

[couldbeanyone]

hammerklavier,
The smart carry would be very uncomfortable under a body belt as well as almost impossible to access with a tool belt or body belt on.
Ankle carry seems to work ok except when you need to wear your climbers to climb a utility pole or pull off your boots to put on your rubber mud boots.

 

[jrod]

Pocket carry,642 S&W. About the only option... or another job.

 

[couldbeanyone]

Pocket carry,642 S&W. About the only option... or another job

If my jeans are tight enough to stay up with a tool belt on, I can't even think about getting a j-frame in my pocket. Also I have found that my tool belt often ends up right around the openings of my pockets. Other than that it would be possible to pocket carry.

 

[mljdeckard]

First, make no mistake, you are choosing here. Your job or your safety. I know firsthand what is like in the current economy to get another job, I would think hard about it.

My summer carry rig is a Crossbreed Supertuck with a full-size, all-steel 1911. Denim shorts, baggy t-shirt, no problem in 100+ degrees. I don't expect everyone else to do this, but it certainly is possible. The more logical choice might be a G-19 or similar gun IWB. I would try several.

Looking again at your job description, I don't know if there really is a good way. If I was engaging in that kind of work in Iraq, I would probably have someone else hold my weapons and provide security, rather than shimmy up poles with a rifle, or secure a belt OVER my pistol on my waistband. If the climbing rig wouldn't interfere with a thigh holster, I would keep it, but that isn't an option for you.

 

[tomaz45]

I might suggest the LC9, or the keltec 9mm. Both super simple, inexpensive, dependable and easy to clean. The super tuck, or their smaller tuck (I forget the name) for general carry with a extra long tee-shirt. I would also have an appendix carry holster for when working up the pole. Your work and mode of dress doesn't seem to fit an ankle holster. I also live in a hot and dirty enviorment and an in the waistband with a long covering shirt works best for me, but attention to your weapon cleaning becomes more important.

 

[jad0110]

You might consider something like a belly band, and carry a small auto or revolver either around your chest or abdomen. That is the only thing I can come up with that would possibly work. Accessibility is an issue, but there really is no ideal alternative here.

 

[couldbeanyone]

First, make no mistake, you are choosing here. Your job or your safety.

You are absolutely right. But, I can retire with a pension in less than 5 years. At this point I am just trying to make it till then. There just seems to be a lot more bad neighborhoods now.

 

[NMGonzo]

5 shot snub nose.

 

[Strykervet]

It does what it's told!

No, seriously, based on what you said I think a very simple answer would be to carry whatever you want in a generic rectangular nylon pouch (perhaps even a brand name like Carhart (sp?) or whatever). A tool pocket or some such on your tool belt where the pistol would go, say 3-4 o'clock. Get one that the pistol doesn't move around in too much. A lineman's handset pouch, or a Fluke meter pouch, something like that. All kinds of possibilities.

I know where you are coming from, but as an independent contractor they couldn't make any demands of me other than not give me work based on complaints --and a complaint that I carried a firearm into a customer's home would certainly be a good one. I installed alarms, and I've been in govt. housing projects by myself on Friday evenings after dark --putting in alarms for the good folks that have to live there and are only off after five or six. These places were surrounded by ten foot fences topped with C wire and had one way in and one way out. In the daytime, they'd just look normal, sort of trashy as in littered, but night it is like the walking dead. I carried a 1911 at the time and had a semi auto UZI in my toolbox. Evidence the place wasn't what it seemed is that under the carpet under every window or glass door in those neighborhoods you'd find broken glass. Needles and crackpipes, and beer bottles thrown at your truck, those are giveaways too. The racial epithets, distant gunshots, and dim muzzle flashes from the towers were also indicators. Some were so bad I had to pay a guy that would normally run my wires to sit in the truck with the UZI and guard the gear.

Nobody was ever the wiser for it, no complaints. Installed 6000 homes over several years. However, a lot of the time I would leave the weapon in the truck once I started the job as long as I was in a decent place, but I carried to the door everytime. On commercial jobs, I carried all the time.

When I worked later for a company that did have a policy, I just carried my 340PD in my pocket. It is so light it doesn't drag the pocket down, and the bulge will only be really noticed as a firearm by you --because you already know. It is a mental thing all new carriers go through. To everyone else, it looks like a pocket full of keys, junk, toilet paper, whatever. A cell phone.

So there's a few ideas from someone that has done it. Keep some pepper spray on your belt too but keep that visible. It can keep some of them away just by being visible on your belt when you may otherwise have had to draw. Good for dogs also.

Nothing like knocking on a door in the country, nobody at home, and feeling a big nose in the back of your crotch nearly lift you off the ground and turn around and see the biggest dog you've ever seen --an Irish Wolfhound. Dog had a head the size of a baskeball and had me cornered. But I'm good with dogs and this dog was a good dog, so we hung out until the owner got there. Still, don't take chances.

And unless your boss is providing you with a security escort, and I doubt it, then who is he to deny you your 2A rights?

 

[Bobson]

But, I can retire with a pension in less than 5 years. At this point I am just trying to make it till then. There just seems to be a lot more bad neighborhoods now.

If you find yourself needing to use a gun, and you do use one, you'll lose your job; which means you wouldn't make the next 5 years anyway.

If I were you, I wouldn't carry. The logic doesn't add up.

 

[mljdeckard]

But if you are inadvertantly outed carrying, how bad would it suck to lose your pension with less than five years to go? You are the one who has to decide if you can keep it quiet.

 

[couldbeanyone]

Bobson,
I know what your saying. Yes I would be fired if I had to use it. But I would rather be fired than dead. I just don't want to be fired simply because my weapon was seen by someone.

mljdeckard,
You are right. Mum is the word. When I have carried, I never let it be seen, and I have never ever told anyone that I have even considered carrying.

strykervet,
Great idea. Why didn't I think of that? A small pouch on my belt could work if the gun wasn't too big. I will have to look into this. Thanks.

 

[coolluke01]

I work in the service industry. I carried a few times in customers homes but have since then decided it's not worth it. I'm more concerned with the impact on our company image. It's our family business. It's very hard to CC when working. I'm a plumber and I'm crawling around and in holes and under sinks all day. Ankle carry was the only option.

Still I don't think the risk is worth it. The chance of you being attacked over the risk of being found out does not compare.
I decided that the customer was not going to call me to their home to attack me. There are easier ways. I figure they will call the pizza guy if that's their plan.
That leaves coming and going from the truck. Would you be able to stash a gun in the truck? They make those cool gun magnets that you could install and no one would ever know. You may ever be let off with a warning if they were to find it there. It's not on you.
I have been on jobs with clients that were trouble. Apartments! I carried a 12" screwdriver and a 4 lb sledge hammer with me.

Good luck and stay safe.

 

[couldbeanyone]

coolluke01,
I really don't worry too much about my customers. Most of my work is done outside. You very often have to access peoples back yards and open areas that are not at your actual customers house. The customers trouble is often in our companies cabling which means you may have to access our cable anywhere between the customers house and the source of the signal up to 10 miles or so away. It is these things I worry about. You may also spend hours out in the open fixing a cut cable anywhere that some knucklehead might dig with a backhoe.

 

[jon86]

If my jeans are tight enough to stay up with a tool belt on, I can't even think about getting a j-frame in my pocket. Also I have found that my tool belt often ends up right around the openings of my pockets. Other than that it would be possible to pocket carry.

I still say a 642 in a good pocket holster would be one of the best options. If your tool belt ends up right around the opening of your pocket then it may be a slow draw, but probably not as slow as drawing from an ankle holster. If you can't do 642 in a front pocket, then 642 in a smartcarry. I wear a J frame in a smartcarry when I ABSOLUTELY CANNOT get "made." The 642 is theoretically more reliable than similar sized autos, remington R38S12 will take care of you.

Let us know what you come up with.

 

[coolluke01]

You could carry this. Even if someone saw it they wouldn't know what it was. $499 for steel and $699 for titanium.
And if you do wear a tool belt all the time this may fit in a broken electrical tester or large tape measure. I'll bet you could get a leather shop to make a special pouch in your tool belt.

http://www.weaponevolution.com/images/misc/doubletap_pistol.jpg

 

[Rail Driver]

Carry the one you shoot the best and are most comfortable using and carrying. Carry it where you can access it quickly and easily. A shoulder holster sounds like a good carry method for you. Ankle holsters and belly bands can present access issues in certain situations.

 

[skoro]

If I were in your shoes, I'd pack a 38 snubby; a S&W 642 or maybe a Ruger LCR and pocket carry in the rear of your jeans. It's well concealed and readily accessed. Be sure to use a pocket holster, though. Best I've used is a Robert Mika.

 

[PabloJ]

What gun should I carry and where on my person should I carry it? I work for a large corporation as a field technician. They have a strict no weapons allowed policy, concealed or otherwise, not even a pocket knife. They also won't hesitate to send you into the worst neighborhood in town alone and unarmed. Your boss may show up at your job site at any time unannounced.
I have a concealed carry permit. This past summer had several days in excess of 105 degrees. I wear denim jeans, leather boots, a t-shirt, and a tool belt most days. My work location can be anywhere from up a utility pole, to inside a customers home, to down in a freshly dug pit in the ground filled with loose dirt or mud depending on the weather and location.
Bear in mind that when working up a utility pole you must wear a wide thick and heavy body belt around your waist. You also may be wearing a pair of climbers that strap around your ankles and put a lot of pressure on the inside of your ankles and lower legs. When working down in a pit it is not unusual to finish the job covered in mud or with dirt in your pockets.
I look forward to your input and opinions as I have yet to come up with a really good answer.

PepperGuard 10%.

 

[Bobson]

You could carry this. Even if someone saw it they wouldn't know what it was. $499 for steel and $699 for titanium.
And if you do wear a tool belt all the time this may fit in a broken electrical tester or large tape measure. I'll bet you could get a leather shop to make a special pouch in your tool belt.

http://www.weaponevolution.com/images/misc/doubletap_pistol.jpg

I like how they specify that ST Louis, MO is in the USA, which is on Earth.

Have you fired that weapon? I wonder how the felt recoil is. 45 ACP - it could be painful.

 

[gearhead]

Honestly, if I were in your situation I would carry a can of pepper spray and the biggest, most rugged utility knife I could find. That's a legitimate tool for your belt, right?

 

[coolluke01]

you can get it in 9mm as well. I haven't shot it. It only weighs 12-14 oz. This would suck to shoot i'm sure. But for this case of close range personal protection this may be the ticket. If I were going out with my family or were thinking I may have to defend others I wouldn't trust even a pocket pistol.
IMO if you can't confidently take a headshot at 10 yards you shouldn't carry that gun or need more practice.