Handgun Recommendations for Flightsuit....
01-08-2016, 09:01 PM
#21
Line Holder
Joined APC: May 2014
Posts: 81
Why small of back carry? Very uncomfortable. Hip is better either strong side or in a cross draw. From vehicle cross draw is easy, but weapon retention is not ideal. Shoulder rig also is an easy carry but not concealed on flight suit. Wiill you have a jacket over the flight suit? If so the hip is ideal. Lots of options. Let comfort and concealability guide you. More than half of all US Law enforcement officers carry Glocks. There is a reason. Please don't carry a Glock in a pocket without some kind of holster. I like the Glock 26, 9mm and Glock 27, 40 s&w. I would recommend, based on my training of LEOs,that you stay with 9mm easier for most shooters to control than 40 or 45. ymmv.
01-08-2016, 09:40 PM
#22
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Nov 2011
Position: Volleyball Player
Posts: 4,024
Why small of back carry? Very uncomfortable. Hip is better either strong side or in a cross draw. From vehicle cross draw is easy, but weapon retention is not ideal. Shoulder rig also is an easy carry but not concealed on flight suit. Wiill you have a jacket over the flight suit? If so the hip is ideal. Lots of options. Let comfort and concealability guide you. More than half of all US Law enforcement officers carry Glocks. There is a reason. Please don't carry a Glock in a pocket without some kind of holster. I like the Glock 26, 9mm and Glock 27, 40 s&w. I would recommend, based on my training of LEOs,that you stay with 9mm easier for most shooters to control than 40 or 45. ymmv.
01-08-2016, 11:10 PM
#23
Airborne bus driver
Thread Starter
Joined APC: Apr 2014
Position: my seat smells funny
Posts: 222
I tried hip and shoulder and the uneven weight tweaked my back. I found that carrying centered, at the small of my back helped tenfold! It was an instructor at the range that suggested the FBI cant, seemed to help with concealability too.
RadialGal
RadialGal
01-09-2016, 04:10 AM
#24
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Apr 2007
Posts: 867
Tweakerville at 2am, some junkie sees the star of life and thinks "DRUGS!" No matter how many times you tell them the medcrew took them to the hospital, they don't care. They just get more enraged, paranoid that you're lying to them, etc. I use to just leave the aircraft.
01-09-2016, 06:38 AM
#25
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Apr 2008
Position: Sleeping in the black swan’s nest.
Posts: 5,725
RadialGal,
With a 1 piece flight suit on I'm thinking these might be about the best option. I know a couple of Federal Air Marshal ladies who wear these on duty. Like anything else though make sure that you practice multiple draw strokes with an empty weapon before carrying live. The dynamics of a draw from these belly bands can be a bit complicated. As far as the pistol you choose, I really don't think you can go wrong with a Glock 43 or a S&W Shield in 9MM. I carry a Shield almost daily and have put several thousand rounds down range with mine, I've never had the first problem with it. If the 43 would have come out first I'd probably have bought it over the Shield. I like Glocks a lot having fired multiple hundreds of thousands of rounds through them in practice and competition. I bought the Shield because I was looking for a compact slim 9mm and the 43 didn't exist at the time. The Shield is in my opinion every bit as reliable and shootable as the Glock so it comes down to personal preference. BTW I've cracked one Glock frame in my life and Glock replaced the pistol no questions asked. So there's that. Good luck in your search and I HIGHLY recommend finding and taking some quality instruction when you can. My personal recommendations are Bill Davidson with Tac Pro in Mingus Texas, or Clint Smith with Thunder Ranch in Lakeview Oregon.
A handgun is not a tailsman against evil. It is only as effective as the training and mindset of the person carrying it.
Undertech Undercover Compression Women's Concealment Holster Shirts T0760WH-M, T0760WH-L, T0760WH-S, T0760BK-L, T0760BK-M, T0760WH-XL, T0760BK-XL, T0760BK-S. UnderTech Undercover .
Belly Band Holster in 4" by The Well Armed Woman
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With a 1 piece flight suit on I'm thinking these might be about the best option. I know a couple of Federal Air Marshal ladies who wear these on duty. Like anything else though make sure that you practice multiple draw strokes with an empty weapon before carrying live. The dynamics of a draw from these belly bands can be a bit complicated. As far as the pistol you choose, I really don't think you can go wrong with a Glock 43 or a S&W Shield in 9MM. I carry a Shield almost daily and have put several thousand rounds down range with mine, I've never had the first problem with it. If the 43 would have come out first I'd probably have bought it over the Shield. I like Glocks a lot having fired multiple hundreds of thousands of rounds through them in practice and competition. I bought the Shield because I was looking for a compact slim 9mm and the 43 didn't exist at the time. The Shield is in my opinion every bit as reliable and shootable as the Glock so it comes down to personal preference. BTW I've cracked one Glock frame in my life and Glock replaced the pistol no questions asked. So there's that. Good luck in your search and I HIGHLY recommend finding and taking some quality instruction when you can. My personal recommendations are Bill Davidson with Tac Pro in Mingus Texas, or Clint Smith with Thunder Ranch in Lakeview Oregon.
A handgun is not a tailsman against evil. It is only as effective as the training and mindset of the person carrying it.
Undertech Undercover Compression Women's Concealment Holster Shirts T0760WH-M, T0760WH-L, T0760WH-S, T0760BK-L, T0760BK-M, T0760WH-XL, T0760BK-XL, T0760BK-S. UnderTech Undercover .
Belly Band Holster in 4" by The Well Armed Woman
https://www.galcogunleather.com/unde..._393_1326.html
01-09-2016, 07:00 AM
#26
Disinterested Third Party
Joined APC: Jun 2012
Posts: 6,261
It was .40. The ammunition was factory Remington UMC, 180 gn. It was purchased at a range, in the factory box, headstamped correctly. I watched them open the sealed shipping box. I didn't make it through 200 rounds before the frame cracked. I didn't know it was cracked at the time, just that I had an unusual malfunction. At first I thought it was a magazine issue. Failures to feed, and failures to fire; just a click, or no resistance at all when depressing the trigger.
When the trigger was depressed, it wouldn't trip the striker, and when I removed the slide, I could clearly see that the drawbar wasn't making contact. Compressing the sides of the frame with the fingertips made it function, but we didn't see a crack. Five of us examined the pistol, didn't see the actual problem. It was only after doing an internet search and discovering that a number of other people had experienced something similar, that I found a site with pictures. They described a crack, and when I examined the pistol closely, I found an identical crack on my frame.
S&W offered to "replace" my pistol by selling me a new one, ironically at a higher price than I could get elsewhere. They called it a "replacement," though they advised they'd take my cracked frame, charge me a "discounted" price" and I'd get a pistol with a different serial number. I told them to pound sand and demanded my pistol back. It's in my safe now. It took months to get it back.
So far as SOB carry, be very careful. A number of injuries have occurred when people fell against the pistol (ever slipped on ice?); the pistol acted as a fulcrum against the small of their back and resulted in back and spinal injury. Also bear in mind that most people, when drawing from SOB, end up covering themselves or someone else with the muzzle. I do SOB carry a .357 SP101 from time to time, but I've also done a lot of drawing from the holster, and a lot of training. If you haven't, I don't recommend SOB.
A flight suit presents carry challenges, and most who carry while wearing a flight suit use a shoulder holster. I know a few who use belts. I've had a few friends doing medevac who carried off body in their gear, which is also viable, and a couple who used very small pistols in leg or chest pockets. My preference is to carry beneath the flight suit and use a modified breakaway opening to reach the concealed pistol. It's not hard to have the flight suit modified to reach a belt holster underneath, or other means of carry.
If you wear a jacket (Alaska, winter; who doesn't?), it's also a good source of carry, and presents a lot of options. It's also the most immediate option as it's an outer garment. It's drawback is removal when indoors.
Consider a 5 shot short barrel revolver in a pocket holster, such as a DeSantis. If you wear pants with pockets under your flight suit, you can have openings in the flight suit to reach the pants pocket, and carry the revolver in a front pocket. It also works well in a chest or lower leg pocket.
Finally, the one option which works very well for your application is an ankle holster. It requires lifting the pant leg to access the weapon, but with or without boots, it works well with a loose fitting flight suit pant leg. In a tight cockpit, you'll probably find that the best location is not outside the leg (right side of right leg, for example), but inside of the weak leg (if you're right handed, on the left side of the left leg). Makes for a good cross draw, and keeps the pistol more protected and less likely to catch on something. Make sure you train (a lot) with this method, as you should with any carry.
The G43 makes a great carry pistol for size and weight. I do wear one a lot. I prefer a .357 Sig and frequently carry a G33. I also like .45 acp and 10mm; a G29 and G30 are perhaps heavier than you like, but are effective concealed carry tools.
When the trigger was depressed, it wouldn't trip the striker, and when I removed the slide, I could clearly see that the drawbar wasn't making contact. Compressing the sides of the frame with the fingertips made it function, but we didn't see a crack. Five of us examined the pistol, didn't see the actual problem. It was only after doing an internet search and discovering that a number of other people had experienced something similar, that I found a site with pictures. They described a crack, and when I examined the pistol closely, I found an identical crack on my frame.
S&W offered to "replace" my pistol by selling me a new one, ironically at a higher price than I could get elsewhere. They called it a "replacement," though they advised they'd take my cracked frame, charge me a "discounted" price" and I'd get a pistol with a different serial number. I told them to pound sand and demanded my pistol back. It's in my safe now. It took months to get it back.
So far as SOB carry, be very careful. A number of injuries have occurred when people fell against the pistol (ever slipped on ice?); the pistol acted as a fulcrum against the small of their back and resulted in back and spinal injury. Also bear in mind that most people, when drawing from SOB, end up covering themselves or someone else with the muzzle. I do SOB carry a .357 SP101 from time to time, but I've also done a lot of drawing from the holster, and a lot of training. If you haven't, I don't recommend SOB.
A flight suit presents carry challenges, and most who carry while wearing a flight suit use a shoulder holster. I know a few who use belts. I've had a few friends doing medevac who carried off body in their gear, which is also viable, and a couple who used very small pistols in leg or chest pockets. My preference is to carry beneath the flight suit and use a modified breakaway opening to reach the concealed pistol. It's not hard to have the flight suit modified to reach a belt holster underneath, or other means of carry.
If you wear a jacket (Alaska, winter; who doesn't?), it's also a good source of carry, and presents a lot of options. It's also the most immediate option as it's an outer garment. It's drawback is removal when indoors.
Consider a 5 shot short barrel revolver in a pocket holster, such as a DeSantis. If you wear pants with pockets under your flight suit, you can have openings in the flight suit to reach the pants pocket, and carry the revolver in a front pocket. It also works well in a chest or lower leg pocket.
Finally, the one option which works very well for your application is an ankle holster. It requires lifting the pant leg to access the weapon, but with or without boots, it works well with a loose fitting flight suit pant leg. In a tight cockpit, you'll probably find that the best location is not outside the leg (right side of right leg, for example), but inside of the weak leg (if you're right handed, on the left side of the left leg). Makes for a good cross draw, and keeps the pistol more protected and less likely to catch on something. Make sure you train (a lot) with this method, as you should with any carry.
The G43 makes a great carry pistol for size and weight. I do wear one a lot. I prefer a .357 Sig and frequently carry a G33. I also like .45 acp and 10mm; a G29 and G30 are perhaps heavier than you like, but are effective concealed carry tools.
01-09-2016, 01:10 PM
#29
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Sep 2012
Position: Babysitter
Posts: 975
Only time I've packed wearing a flight suit was with my government issued 9 mm downrange and it wasn't concealed. But my personal concealed fav is the Walther PPS .40 love it. Single stack and packs a punch.
01-10-2016, 08:12 AM
#30
Get's Every Day Off
Joined APC: Oct 2006
Position: Retired
Posts: 1,860
In a tight cockpit, you'll probably find that the best location is not outside the leg (right side of right leg, for example), but inside of the weak leg (if you're right handed, on the left side of the left leg). Makes for a good cross draw, and keeps the pistol more protected and less likely to catch on something. Make sure you train (a lot) with this method, as you should with any carry.
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