SnakeEater ~
Wonderful! Tell her congratulations from me.
I'd steer her away from purse carry if you can. Purses get put down from time to time. This makes purse carry a not-so-safe option for many. They can be good in some circumstances, but not *IMHO* as a primary means to carry. The purse takes away the "throw your purse at the BG and run" option, which might be useful in certain circumstances, and it requires a bit too much attention in circumstances wherein most women aren't accustomed to carrying their purses from point A to point B (inside a friend's home, for example; looks odd to tote it everywhere as you walk around, but if the friend has kids, stashing it behind the couch isn't an option). It is also a very slow draw compared to on-body carry, and can be separated from you in a moment of panic which is the very time you are most likely to need it. So if she can figure out a way to carry on body, that's what I'd recommend.
I don't have a specific holster recommendation, but I do have a few general hints of things I've discovered. I have a classic hourglass figure (read that as "curvy"), so that tends to be the problem I work around in looking at holsters.
The main message I have for your wife is simply this:
it can be done. It
is possible to comfortably wear a gun, IWB, every single day, under regular women's clothing. I know because I've done it for four years now.
Show this next part to your wife (hi Mrs SnakeEater!) ~
First, whichever holster you end up with, you may want to consider carrying in 'appendix carry' position. Envisioning your waist as a clock, with your belly button at 12 o'clock, appendix carry means placing the holster at approximately 1 to 2 o'clock. This spot isn't as affected by curves as are other spots along the beltline for some reason. Works very well for short-barrelled guns, not so well for longer ones. Doesn't take a particular holster type, so that's a plus (it means you can borrow one of SnakeEater's to see if the
idea will work for you).
If you want, I can tell you a little bit about clothes that work and don't work for me with appendix carry -- but that's a pretty personal thing, even more so than fitting a holster. Suffice to say it
is doable (and I felt tremendously flattered when visiting a friend yesterday. I walked in, she commented that I looked nice, then did a double-take because she
knows I always carry: "You're not concealing under
that!?"
I was.)
If appendix carry isn't right for you for one reason or another, then look for holsters offered specifically for women. These are often designed with an extra drop so that the grip of the gun is less likely to dig into your ribs when carrying at 3 or 4 o'clock. Some of them come with a fairly radical cant, which can be a way to drop the grip without getting the end of the barrel below your cover garment. Which brings up the biggest drawback: many drop holsters are OWB and sometimes drop the barrel below what would be a reasonable length for a cover garment. (The
best web article I've ever seen about selecting a holster for a woman's body is at
http://www.womensholsters.com/ , written by a female holster maker named Chris Cunningham.)
If at all possible, try not to order a holster (or at least holster
type) that you haven't tried on, unless you want to collect a drawerful of holsters which don't really work for you. Fitting a holster is for most women something like buying a pair of jeans: you might know the size you want and think a particular style suits your fancy, but until you try that style on your own personal body ... well, you know how much fun it is to take a couple pairs of jeans to the fitting room and discover that "X" brand just isn't for you, in any size. And on the rack it looks about the same as "Y" brand -- which fits you perfectly. Holsters are about the same. You can't tell how it will fit by looking at it!
That's about all I know about holsters. I will tell you that I had occasion, last year, to try on a fairly large collection of IWB and OWB holsters -- most of them allegedly "made for women." I tried on perhaps a dozen of them. Of those, one fit perfectly, wonderfully, amazingly. Several worked pretty well but were nothing to write home about. Two or three were uncomfortable but doable. And one I would not have been caught dead in. I won't tell you the brands, partly because I don't really remember which was which but mostly because the friend who let me try them on had a near mirror image to my experience -- the one I loved, she could hardly bear to have on her body, and the one I simply couldn't stand was really good for her. Point is, women's bodies are all different and what works for me might be awful for you.
Again, it
is possible to carry a gun discreetly under ordinary women's clothing. It will take work as you figure out how to do it, but it is possible and it is well worth doing. I cannot believe how much freer I am. I'm no longer tied to my own fears. Having the means to defend myself means to me that I am able to go about normal activities without being overly fearful or churlish toward strangers because I
know I can take care of myself if things go bad. It's the most freeing feeling in the world.
pax
