Mostly a hypothetical question, but I recently got an OWB holster that rides so high at 3:00 as to be nearly useless. But it could be reconfigured for cross draw, and would feel kind of like a vertical shoulder holster, I think. Curious whether this is a viable option, or would I just be opening a can of worms best left unopened? Since I'm sure someone will ask, holster is an Alien Gear Cloak Mod OWB, pistol is a Taurus PT 92. Later, and thanks.
Dave
You'd be flagging bystanders. Don't do this.
#RESIST
I would not advise it for two reasons. One reason is that you are probably going to make the holster useless. I have purchased holsters that I was disappointed with in the past. Sometimes I could return the, butsometimes my disappointment a result of use making it unreturnable. I sold those soulless on ebay and took about a 30% loss on them.
The second reason is that as I see it crossdrawing is inefficient because it increased the amount of movement to draw and present the gun. Do a cross draw and compare it with a dominant side draw. I will bet you will see that the dominant side draw allows you present the gun in firing position faster with less time to tabilize your arm positions. I think logic tells us that because the vast number of professional hand gun owners do not crossdraw because it is not a good option. Maybe I am being too picky, but those are my thoughts.
Pros:
You can pretend to be a badass like Pacino in Heat.
Cons:
Everything mentioned and then about 837 more reasons.
Whether you think you can or you can't, you're probably right.
There are only two places were cross draw has merit.
First: if you're going into a gunfight with Johnny Ringo and he's your huckleberry.
Second: seated in a vehicle and on this point I find a shoulder holster to be better.
We may lose and we may win, but we will never be here again.......
At KRtraining, we did an exercise to see if you could interrupt a cross draw when you were face to face with the gun carrier. Not real guns, obviously. The answer was yes. Watch the hands, you move yours straight for the drawing forearm and then you do whatever.
If you spend a lot of time seat belted in, that's really the only place I'd consider it viable. Assuming you are right handed, as you draw your pistol is pointed at the driver's side door which is where the threat is most likely to be. Bad news if the threat is in your car, though.
For anything else, it's easier to foul the draw, slower to get on target, sweeps people who don't need to be swept, etc.
Sorta around sometimes for some of your shitty mod needs.
Crossdraw works well, if you spend a lot of time on your back in addition to being seated. Like say laying on a mechanics creeper or working in tight confines, etc. I've found many times crawling under a car/truck/house that 9'oclock crossdraw carry with a 5-degree butt forward keeps you from laying/sitting/getting jabbed/dragging your gun in the dirt, etc (if you're right handed you tend to roll onto your right side doing things for whatever reason. It also works best - IWB not OWB, in those scenarios.
But - now that we have very high quality and well designed appendix holsters, I'm not as convinced it's as useful for car carry or other scenarios. AIWB holsters seated in the car tend to be as fast, if not a bit faster than crossdraw with virtually the same ability to access the gun and none of the downsides. They also offer all the standard advantages of AIWB when not in the car or carrying in weird ways.
All that said, you can have my shoulder holster for road trips when you pry it from my cold dead fingers. Nothing beats the comfort of the shoulder holster inside the car. If you do a lot of driving, particularly in non-supportive seats a shoulder holster is far less likely to give you a back ache or a groin ache after 16 hours. You won't find yourself adjusting it nearly as often, you never worry about your cover garment having ridden up too far and exposing your piece when you get out to pump gas or take a leak. No worries if you have to stop and visit the commode either.
Did you try the same thing with other carry methods?Originally Posted by Glenn E. Meyer
Not that I disagree with the results of the exercise, but I do wonder about the way it was set up (remember, I wasn't there). If you place two people face to face, and one of them simply goes for the draw without moving away or anything, the other bloke is in a position to foul the draw regardless of the carry position. (Isn't that kind of the whole point of the Shivworks curriculum, that you can't simply go for the gun in that sort of a situation?)
But yes, reaching across your body does place your arm in a position where it is easily trapped in place. And crossdraw does present the butt of the pistol towards any opponent in front of you.
Sent from my Infernal Contraption using Tapatalk
IDPA SSP classification: Sharpshooter
F.A.S.T. classification: Intermediate
This. Done.
Without trying it and seeing how it plays out, I'm thinking crossdraw would put your arm at an even more disadvantaged position than aiwb or iwb, in the scenario described. Forarm almost parallel to the ground to draw would allow even easier control for the other party, I'd think. *I have not tried this in FoF, so could be 100% in the wrong, just thinking out loud
Jeff Martin
Reply With Quote