You can't see your own muzzle

There is an argument in this industry that never dies. Someone says appendix carry is dangerous because you point the gun at your femoral artery when you reholster. Appendix advocates say behind the hip is dangerous because you can't even see the holster on the way in. Everybody picks a side, nobody changes their mind, and no one gets any safer.

For the record, I don't believe any carry position is inherently dangerous. Pointing a gun at yourself is dangerous. That is the actual problem, and it can happen from any position on your body if your mechanics are sloppy.

Here's what makes it hard to fix. You cannot see your own muzzle while you draw and reholster. You are looking down at a bad angle, your hand and your cover garment are in the way, and you are almost certainly convinced you are doing it correctly. In my experience people who are screwing it up honestly believe they are being safe.

Three things that actually help:

1. Put a camera on yourself. Set your phone up and record a set of slow draws and reholsters. Do it from the front, from the side, and from behind. Then sit down and watch it. The camera does not care what you believe about your technique.

2. Run a BarrelBlok in the barrel. This is not what it was designed for, but a lot of folks have found it useful for exactly this. It protrudes past the muzzle, so it gives you a bright, obvious line showing you where the gun is actually oriented. Think of it like a laser coming out of the muzzle, except it is a highly visible piece of plastic that shows up clearly on video. It also makes the gun incapable of chambering a round while you work, which is the whole point of running these reps at home in the first place.

3. Move your body, not just the gun. Thrust your hips forward or rotate them. Clear your cover garment and your midsection out of the line of sight so you can actually see the mouth of the holster. Most people try to solve a reholstering problem entirely with their hands. You will get a lot further bringing the holster to a position where the gun can go in straight.

Do that for a few sessions and you will know whether your carry position is the problem or whether your reholster is. It is usually the reholster.

If you want to keep going on this, I wrote up the three safety violations we see most often at the range. Unsafe reholstering is one of them. The other two show up constantly and almost nobody notices they are doing them either.

Stay sharp,

Jacob Paulsen
President | ConcealedCarry.com

P.S. If you don't have one, you can pick up a BarrelBlok here. It is the same tool in the photos in that article, which is why every gun pictured has a stick coming out of the barrel.