To Wear a Concealed Carry Belt or Not When Carrying!
You now have your pistol permit, you found the perfect handgun for concealed carry after doing months of research. The only thing missing is a which gun holster to choose. You have decided on IWB holsters and are working through your mind what carry position. Maybe you are considering strong side or even cross draw holsters. You start doing your research as there are so many different options. Should you go with traditional leather gun holsters or should you consider a kydex holster?
Whatever your choices you decide you make your decision and even decide to buy from a local gun shop so as to not take the chance on getting gun holsters that don’t work or are not right for you. You go home all excited like a so many kids that just got the toy they always wanted. You are wearing it around the house putting it on as you go to the store. After all you have an obligation to protect your family. And of course you can’t wait to show your buddies, so you go over to his house and when you pull out your gun the holster comes with it, you put it back on and try again. You are thinking the holster must be too tight and not correctly fitted to your gun. Your buddy tells you that you should go back to the gun shop and get your money back.
In reality it the gun holster that is failing? Taking a deeper look in many cases we find that many are actually using the same dress belt or no belt at all while wearing IWB. You might be thinking so what, what does the belt have to do with my gun holsters, sure I can see if I am wearing OWB holsters, but does it really matter? In fact you need to put just as much thought in Concealed Carry Belt as you do the handgun or holsters you selected. The holster is the backbone of proper concealed carry and open carry. The problem described above is that typically most IWB holsters have a clip for securing the holster in place and a thin belt or thin nylon belt does not give the clip anything to grab onto letting the belt pull right through the clip. So you say ok I will get the belt loop style holster so it can’t pull through. Well again the Concealed Carry Belt is the backbone of the holster, just like the spine is to our body.
The Concealed Carry Belt not only secures the holster in place it adds support to the gun and holster. Because we typically carry concealed, most holsters are designed to ride high on our waist. If you have a thin or flexible gun holster belt it will let the gun fall away from your body. A solid rigid thick holster belt will not only secure your holster in place but also add strength to the holster. In addition you will find that a good strong stiff holster belt will also aid in providing better support for the gun and holster and diminish back aches as it helps with comfort when you carry. So when you buy those new concealed carry holsters or OWB Holsters make the investment in a quality Gun Holster Belt and give your gun a little backbone.