Understanding Concealed Holsters

Before we get into the topic of concealed holsters, it's import to first understand the words and meanings. Webster defines the word "conceal" as: 'to prevent the disclosure or recognition of, to place out of sight". Therefore, a concealed holster is a holster that hides or prevents the recognition of. The second part of that loose definition may become important to you as you won't always to be able to conceal a handgun gully, but you might be able to get away with making it unrecognizable.

In the pistol shooting industry, there are only a few topics that feature as many opinions as gun holsters. Also, few aspects of handgunning are as individualized as holsters. If you put 25 different shooters or armed citizens in a room and asked them to pick their "favorite" holster, I almost guarantee you won't get the same 25 answers.

Before we continue down this discussion path, let's take a second and clarify exactly what makes a good or great concealment holster?

• Concealable
• Comfortable
• Accessible

Let's talk about each aspect individually:

Concealable
This aspect is kind of a given as the holster has to conceal the handgun. However, as we've seen from the definition, in some cases, we can conceal something by not allowing it to be recognized. If you are a CCW permit holder, you might want to review the CCW guidelines for your state, especially in regards to their definition of concealed. My own state of NC had some interesting verbiage as to their expectation of concealed.

Comfortable
While there are probably some people who would argue that a good CCW holster can't be comfortable, I would politely say that it can. I would also go a step further and estimate that an uncomfortable holster, no matter how well it conceals, will not be worn that long. Eventually, the need for comfort will win out over concealability. Having worked in a gun store for almost half my adult life, I saw/see it all the time. A customer comes in, finds a holster that hides well, but isn't really all the comfortable. The "I'll get use to it" mentality kicks in and off they go. Fast forward 3 months and I see them back in the store. We strike up a conversation and I inquire about how well the ____ (insert holster model here) is working out? If the holster was uncomfortable during the initial purchase, rarely do I get an answer about how well it's working out. Generally, I hear something about how they've stopped wearing it, switched CCW guns, etc.

Let's face the facts. How many people reading this article have the proverbial drawer of holsters that just didn't work out? I know I sure do. Got tons of them laying around (of course, working at a gun store tends to do that anyway). The bottom line here: comfort matters. don't believe for a second that it doesn't.

Accessibility
This refers to how accessible the handgun is while in the holster. Typically, you'll find that the more or deeper concealed the holster is, the longer it takes to access and draw. The trick for most people is finding a balance between those two aspects. For example, I can generally access a strong side belt holster much quicker than a front pocket holster. However, the front pocket holster gives me the freedom to wear just about whatever I want and works in almost any situation. The belt holster, on the other hand, may have some clothing restrictions or require a 2nd layer cover garment. Both holsters work as designed, but have a different level of accessibility.

Again, the ideas above are just part of my opinion, but are based on years of experience in the shooting industry. Maybe, these opinions will provide a little help for those of you who are about to buy that next concealed holster.