Big GUN Little GUN
Thoughts on: You should carry the largest gun you can shoot and conceal.
And: You need a super small gun in order to conceal carry.
I think both schools of thought get it wrong. Selecting a firearm for concealed carry is a highly personal decision that nobody else can make for you.
Take this Glock 34 and Surefire x300 set up that I’m concealing in my grey tank top and skinny jeans for example. I CAN conceal this, and it’s fun to shoot, but I don’t carry this for SO many reasons. I can, but I don’t. This size of firearm impedes on my mobility, all day comfort, and outfit choice. You can also tell by my draw stroke in the first image, in order to clear this monstrosity from its holster I have to draw the gun almost up to my shoulder.
Keep in mind also what I mean when I say “conceal”. Specifically I mean that I can hide this gun under my clothing with minimal to no printing while going about my day, but I’m not sure I can say that my concealment wouldn’t be easily made by my obvious discomfort or a simple hug.
Don’t hear me wrong, this set up isn’t bad, it’s actually what my husband carries, but that’s just it, it matches his mission, and works with his body proportions. It doesn’t for me regardless of the fact that I can conceal it.
Now this doesn’t mean that we should go in the extreme opposite end and buy the tiniest gun we can shoot and conceal either. If that fits your mission, it’s reliable and you can shoot it well? Go for it, but part of why I wanted to make this post today was to show just how BIG of a set up you can hide when using the proper concealment features. You don’t HAVE to carry a teeny tiny gun, you can conceal something bigger if you’d like, just keep in mind your own proportions and how size may impact comfort and mobility.
For me personally, anything larger than my 48 impedes on my mobility, comfort and thus my overall concealment, but my 42 leaves me wishing I had a bit more capability (capacity, dot). Personally I think the “perfect” size for my proportions sits somewhere between the 48 and the 42, but because I can comfortably conceal my 48 I’m good with that until the perfect option in the middle comes around.