I realized I didn’t know one person who carried that way in all my decades of being around people who carried guns. Not a one. Now every kid out there carries that way. I don’t know exactly when that happened, but it’s a reminder I’m officially old guy status. When did that happen?
Me, never been a fan. Appendix carry is not inherently less safe than other types of carry, but it is inherently less forgiving if something happens if/when an ND occurs. Appendix carry requires absolute focus on draw and more importantly (as that’s when majority of NDs happen) during re holster. The margin for error there is zero. I was at an IDPA match once where a guy put a 9mm FMJ through his a$$ on reholster. We never knew exactly how it happened, it was a very clean hole, and it didn’t even bleed that much. I didn’t see it happen, I did see the immediate aftermath. It confirmed and reaffirmed the importance of safety and not allowing a laps is concentration.
Personally, I think appendix carry for advanced level shooters who practice and practice that draw and require deepest concealment and for everyone else, risk/benefit is not there. Yes, I’m old school, I’m overly cautious, and never worked at being comfortable with a firearm pointed at my junk, my femoral artery etc. I have appendix carry, I do use it if needed, never going to be my go to daily carry.
My appendix carry holster basically got used one time. Too hot in AZ for it. It’s great concealment and fast draw. But a sweat soaked gun isn’t going to work for me.
I don’t look at it as an old guy thing to carry strong side. It’s a little slower from concealment, and it prints easier but it’s more comfortable and my gun isn’t dripping wet. And if you’re a dot shooter sweat seeping under your dot is rust city on the screws.
I’m just interested in where/when it became a thing. It happened under my nose without even knowing it. I realized it’s how most now CCW. I guess it happened during the rise of gun influencer types online via YT channels?
I’m trying to remember. I mean… we were deep into long range rifle when it became “the way”. I’m going to search “AIWB” here and it should time frame the years it became a discussion.
Roughly looks like 2016-2019ish based on the search.
People HAVE been doing it forever, you just didn’t notice, because we didn’t have the prolific electronic media we have now.
Bruce Nelson’s original Summer Special was AIWB, and that’s because as an undercover cop, he needed both concealment & speed.
It’s part of the general evolution of modern pistolcraft.we went from 2” revolvers, to K frames, to 1911s & Hi Powers, to wondernines, to double stack plastic guns with consistent trigger pulls & no external safeties, to slide mountedoptical, etc.
We went from cumbersome shoulder holsters, to better designs in and outside the belt, went from leather to nylon to plastics like Kydex & Boltaron.
From thumb breaks to SLS to ALS.
From Fairbairn’s crouch to Cooper’s Weaver to modern Isosceles.
All part of the journey, and I’m happy to say we are deadlier than ever.
AIWB is generally:
More comfortable
More concealable
Better shooting from retention
Faster
Easier to get to in a variety of positions
Easier to be surrepetitious with the draw
We’re just all talking about it now because we can.
It’s been used for a good while by experienced shooters who practice/train with a purpose on an ongoing basis. When it started becoming general knowledge, the same people who try to buy performance by buying whatever gear the “cool guys” were using, started mimicking it. Many of these people would watch a video and try it with a box or two of ammo, now they’re a cool guy and brag about how hi-speed try are. And it snowballs.
It’s a particular skill set that requires more thought and deliberate practice than most people are willing to put in. The general lack of skill in most people coupled with their choice of equipment (Sig 320?, pistols with modified light triggers) makes me wonder why it doesn’t happen more.
It shouldn’t be a self taught skill with the attendant risk. It’s not a forgiving mode of carry. I suspect the number of competent instructors that can/do teach it safely is low.
The only time I can do it here in AZ is when it’s cool temps. And then, you don’t need to because your clothing allows for regular OWB concealment easily.
Oddly enough, my son can carry AIWB with any gun. Even his Shadow Systems version of a G34 longer slide. He does it like nothin.
That demonstrates how subjective it is. It does take some experimentation to find the sweet spot, both holster-wise and position-wise, but not everybody likes it.
I’m fit though, no gut. I hear that helps.
I do some VERY physically strenuous stuff with a G19 w/ optic AIWB during the day, works fine, but like other carry methods and guns, it’s subjective, we ain’t all the same.
Another advantage to AIWB is that fact that the gun resides “in your workspace”, making it easier to protect, both from a gun-grab, and from people bumping into it, in a crowded space.
Sure not trying to sell it to anybody, just explaining the reasons so many of us have taken to it over the years.
I think the poster above is right, there are some unskilled fucktards who’ve gone there because of the “cool kids on the ‘gram”, and don’t know shit about it, or train hard.
There probably ARE more idiots shooting themselves this way, we just don’t hear about everything that happens to everybody every day. Wouldn’t surprise me though.
I have a little bit of a beer gut. My kid had let himself get a gut for a while and it didn’t phase him. I do sense that a flat belly would be a better “blank canvas” for AIWB.
I have always carried IWB for the most part, I used to carry at the point of my right hip. This was very comfortable for me and it was very low profile.
If we were working undercover inside the Arab rioters that liked to throw stones and molotov cocktails we all carried AIWB.
Post 2 surgeries to fix old damage, I had to start carrying to the left of my fly, as AIWB just put pressure on the wrong place and caused pain.
I am old but I guess I make up for for not carrying at 3 or 4 oclock by using a shoulder holster in the winter.
Now let me be very clear if I am carrying a Hi Power then I really don’t sweat re holstering as much as I do with a Glock. But with both style of pistols re holstering is much slower and more eyes on than if it were going back into a holster at the 3 oclock position. So I carry Hi Powers one with an extended 5.4” barrel and Glock 35 with an extended 6” barrel in the position just to the left of my fly.
I use 2 different holsters for this a Crucial Concealment with TLR7 and then I modified one of the mini holsters that go over jiust the trigger guard on a Glock. I didn’t like the whole string thing that attaches to your belt. So I took some JB weld and built up a ledge on the right side of the mini holster, so that as it clears my pants I flick the holster off with my index finger,.
