What's the dumbest mistake you've ever made while carrying concealed?

[ACP]

Having it slide out of the pocket holster and into the floor. Twice. Once at Sears, once at a hockey game. Both with a Seecamp 32 in a Kramer horsehide holster (which was as smooth as glass on the inside...)

 

[Bernie Lomax]

I had cleaned and oiled it after I shot it last week, and never reloaded it...... Normally I leave it loaded and just put it on and take it off. Oops!!!

LOL, I did that myself just recently. Actually carried around an unloaded gun for about a week 'cause I didn't notice it. In my case, it was after I unloaded the thing so I could take some dry fire practice.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

Just recently I was carrying "appendix" IWB, went into a gas station and forgot to pull my sweater down over the gun. Again, nobody noticed or said anything, but the gun butt was visible the whole time I was in there.

I'm guessing you can't carry a gun showing in TN from the way you said that.

For the life of me I can't understand why there would be restrictions on seeing someone's gun? I always thought carrying concealed was the hard part.

 

[The Lone Haranguer]

No, concealed or open carry with a permit is legal. But open carry is not generally practiced here. My concern wasn't with breaking the law. I just don't want my gun seen, which is the point of concealed carry.

 

[usp9]

What's the dumbest mistake you've ever made while carrying concealed?

I trusted a cheap, good-for-nothing holster resulting in my gun falling out, sliding down my leg, then being kicked across the floor of a Lowe's. I learned my lesson.

 

[Duff_McGruff]

Many of these seem to be displaying a common trend and a lesson learned by most at some point or another summed up in two words: Cheap. Holster.

I learned just like everyone else has - just buy a good holster from the start. Fortunately I didn't have to learn this in a very public way.

 

[Zaydok Allen]

Many of these seem to be displaying a common trend and a lesson learned by most at some point or another summed up in two words: Cheap. Holster.

I learned just like everyone else has - just buy a good holster from the start. Fortunately I didn't have to learn this in a very public way.

Amen. Same here.

 

[zdc1775]

Not my mistake, exactly, but my then 6 year old daughter "made" me one day in front of family and a bunch of other Cabela's shoppers. She was, as usual, being hyperactive, fast, and a bit clumsy. She came flying down a row between some clothes racks and smashed fore-head first into the butt of my 1911! Made a cantaloupe "THUNK" that I swear everyone in the store turned around to figure out "what was THAT?" She burst into tears and fell on the floor holding her head! Left a big white DENT right in the middle of her forehead.

Same thing happened to me except it wasn't my daughter and since I would obviously have no other reason to be waiting by the women's dressing room the very attentive mother accused me of trying to abduct her daughter and called store security and the police. I have ever been more thankful that stores have so many security cameras than that day.

 

[Doc7]

Same thing happened to me except it wasn't my daughter and since I would obviously have no other reason to be waiting by the women's dressing room the very attentive mother accused me of trying to abduct her daughter and called store security and the police. I have ever been more thankful that stores have so many security cameras than that day.

Holy cow! Did carrying cause any extra time resolving the issue with the police?

 

[zdc1775]

Holy cow! Did carrying cause any extra time resolving the issue with the police?

Not with the police but the store security tried to make an issue out of it. Police simply told them that their sign was meaningless unless they physically asked me to leave and I refused. After everything was settled they did ask my wife and I to leave which we were more than glad to do.

 

[EvilGenius]

The first one was a year or so ago when I first started carrying. I used to carry a bag with me into work that had food and what not in it. Only I also put my 1911 in there when I walked from my apt to my car because it was too much of hassle to holster up just to get to my car and take it off once I got to work, which is a posted 30.06 (I.E. NO CARRY) place. Ended up walking all the way in and plonked the bag onto my desk only to be surprised by the very audible KLUNK. I very quickly carried my bag back out to my car and stowed it properly.

The secon story is not really about a gun, but potentially more embarrasing. During the winter I carried an extended 17rd mag for my Steyr S9 in one of the inside pockets on my jacket. I had switched the mags a day or two earlier and left the pocket open unintentionally. When I went to throw the jacket on at the end of the day at work the mag flew out and landed upside down on the floor. Some how this popped the bottom plate of which released the spring and spewed 9mm JHPs all over the room. Fortunately I work in a separate room from the main floor of the shop I work in so no one came in during my mad scramble to find and pick them all up.

 

[tarosean]

Leaving my wallet at home is probably my worst thing I've done.

 

[bainter1212]

I have left my wallet at home once as well. My thought was "too late now, just don't get caught". There are some police around here who would try to make an issue out of something so simple as not having the correct piece of paper on your person.

 

[Madcap_Magician]

I have a time or two gone someplace with a spare magazine and no gun. Once I even had an empty holster attached to my belt.

 

[Fleetman]

I think my dumbest was when we received an unexpected call from our son to meet him for lunch. Lunch was in Maryland and we live in Pa. I completely forgot I was armed until I bumped into a servers station on the way to our table and knew instantly what that "thunk" was.

I should also add that when we lived in Texas, I reached for something on a shelf in Walmart and a lady freaked out because my shirt lifted high enough for my handgun to be visible???

 

[*Kemosabe*]

While behind schedule going to a seminar at a local hotel, I hurriedly slipped a S&W649 inside of my belt and went. During an intermission I went up to the podium to talk with the lecturer at which time the gun slid down my pants’ leg onto the floor.

I lucked out twice: once because the floor was carpeted and the gun didn’t make an attention getting sound and second, the drape around the podium reached the floor and I was able to nonchalantly nudge the gun under it with my foot.

When I noticed that no one was looking I bent down to tie the nonexistent shoelace on my loafers and palmed the gun from under the podium into my pocket.

 

[GLOOB]

^ LOL!

Went to the movies with a CCW in an IWB. Left the theatre with an empty IWB. Realized it in the parking lot.

When I went back, I found my CCW on the floor under my seat. The theater had been pretty much full, and the seats behind be had been occupied.

 

[USAF_Vet]

Last summer I hastily slipped on my Taurus 709, but only clipped it to my shorts, and didn't pit on a belt. Went out and grabbed the mail, and as I came back across the road, in a hurry to beat traffic, the holster slips off the waistband of my shorts, drops in the middle of the road and dumps the gun halfway out. So instead of beating traffic, I'm holding it up and scooping gun, holster and errant mail up from the road. Nice idiot scratch on the gun to remind me to always wear my belt when carrying.

Also, same gun got snagged by the seatbelt of my wife's van and pulled the gun halfway out. Gravity finished the job in the Walmart parking lot. My jacket got bunched up when I sat down, exposing the grip just enough for Murphy to work his magic.

That holster got replaced after the second incident.

 

[1911 guy]

I once stuck the pistol in the holster, stuck my spare mag in the pouch and went on my merry way. Notice I said nothing about actually loading said pistol.

Now I check it daily when holstering.

 

[Lucky Derby]

While behind schedule going to a seminar at a local hotel, I hurriedly slipped a S&W649 inside of my belt and went. During an intermission I went up to the podium to talk with the lecturer at which time the gun slid down my pants’ leg onto the floor.

I lucked out twice: once because the floor was carpeted and the gun didn’t make an attention getting sound and second, the drape around the podium reached the floor and I was able to nonchalantly nudge the gun under it with my foot.

When I noticed that no one was looking I bent down to tie the nonexistent shoelace on my loafers and palmed the gun from under the podium into my pocket.

Now that's funny.

 

[Warp]

Fortunately I browsed forums before I started carrying so I knew better than to fall for the cheap/crappy holster problem that plagues many.

I once took the dog for a walk around the neighborhood with an empty, openly visible holster. I was a mile away before I realized there was no gun in the holster. Couldn't believe it.

I carried in Illinois, years ago, on accident. Us and another family all piled into my parents' giant SUV (Excursion) to go out to eat for Mothers Day, or something. I had no idea where we were going. When we were almost there I commented on how there were so many IL license plates. My mom said "well, we are in Illinois". I was like... Apparently we were like 1 mile over the state line. My parents use to live relatively close to the state line, but basically never went into IL. Except that time, when I was home from school for the day. I promptly unloaded it and locked it in the glovebox until we got back, of course.

 

[Wishoot]

Just yesterday.

I had to take a pre-employment drug test at a hospital. The tech asked that I turn out my pockets (I'm assuming to make sure I wasn't carrying someone else's pee I suppose). Forgot that I had my LCP in there. Had to quickly excuse myself, run back to my car, lock up the LCP and run back in to finish the test.

 

[Skribs]

Luckily, I always test out holsters before I use them seriously. I've come to the conclusion that kydex is fine for IWB, but or OWB or other carry options I want a good leather holster with retention strap, and for pocket carry the pocket need to help keep it secure (as opposed to a large pocket where it can just fall out of the holster). I've also determined that those pressure holsters (the IWB ones that use the tension of your belt) are worthless, they either fall out of my waist or pop the gun out the top. So, I've never had any issues where my gun goes skittering across the floor.

I've had two mistakes. My first was after cleaning the gun, I forgot to rechamber the round. That could have led to a few seconds of troubleshooting if I needed it.

The other was relating to differences in the law besides carrying a weapon and transporting a weapon, particularly in relation to CCW a handgun vs. transporting a long gun to the range. Needless to say, I'm glad it was a range officer that corrected me instead of a cop that arrested me.

 

[Warp]

I've come to the conclusion that kydex is fine for IWB, but or OWB or other carry options I want a good leather holster with retention strap

By retention strap for the OWB, do you just mean a plain old thumb snap?

When I holster shop it seems that the OWB holsters with legitimate active retention devices are all kydex based. (duty holsters, basically)

 

[Skribs]

I'm talking about a leather holster where a strap extends at the top of the holster that snaps together.

I was not aware of a technical difference between retention strap and thumb snap, I thought they were interchangeable.