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Thread: So your back is on fire and so is your leg - modify your EDC

  1. #1
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    So your back is on fire and so is your leg - modify your EDC

    A couple of weeks ago, I came down with a truly agonizing pain in my lower back and down the front of my leg. I could not walk more than a few feet without a blaze of pain about a 9 on the doc's scale. Long story - spinal stenosis run amok. Going to physical therapy. No competitions for me. Don't lift any thing heavy (so that's that for my gym plan).

    However, the daily gear up of a Glock, extra mag, Surefire, Delica might contribute a bit to the agony. Glock is in an OWB on the side of the pain, mag opposite - on my hips. Knife and light clipped to pockets.

    Thus, I want to lighten up. I'm thinking about carrying my SW 432 and a speed strip (limited capacity for the zombie fight and slow to reload) for a light weight reasonable gun. Might drop the Surefire for a 5.11 pencil light in my breast pocket.

    I'm a decent J frame shooter so that doesn't bother me but lower capacity - OY!

    Thoughts?

  2. #2
    Member JHC's Avatar
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    Feb 2011
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    Quote Originally Posted by Glenn E. Meyer View Post
    A couple of weeks ago, I came down with a truly agonizing pain in my lower back and down the front of my leg. I could not walk more than a few feet without a blaze of pain about a 9 on the doc's scale. Long story - spinal stenosis run amok. Going to physical therapy. No competitions for me. Don't lift any thing heavy (so that's that for my gym plan).

    However, the daily gear up of a Glock, extra mag, Surefire, Delica might contribute a bit to the agony. Glock is in an OWB on the side of the pain, mag opposite - on my hips. Knife and light clipped to pockets.

    Thus, I want to lighten up. I'm thinking about carrying my SW 432 and a speed strip (limited capacity for the zombie fight and slow to reload) for a light weight reasonable gun. Might drop the Surefire for a 5.11 pencil light in my breast pocket.

    I'm a decent J frame shooter so that doesn't bother me but lower capacity - OY!

    Thoughts?
    That'll work.

    I gots a 43X
    “Remember, being healthy is basically just dying as slowly as possible,” Ricky Gervais

  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by Glenn E. Meyer View Post
    A couple of weeks ago, I came down with a truly agonizing pain in my lower back and down the front of my leg. I could not walk more than a few feet without a blaze of pain about a 9 on the doc's scale. Long story - spinal stenosis run amok. Going to physical therapy. No competitions for me. Don't lift any thing heavy (so that's that for my gym plan).

    However, the daily gear up of a Glock, extra mag, Surefire, Delica might contribute a bit to the agony. Glock is in an OWB on the side of the pain, mag opposite - on my hips. Knife and light clipped to pockets.

    Thus, I want to lighten up. I'm thinking about carrying my SW 432 and a speed strip (limited capacity for the zombie fight and slow to reload) for a light weight reasonable gun. Might drop the Surefire for a 5.11 pencil light in my breast pocket.

    I'm a decent J frame shooter so that doesn't bother me but lower capacity - OY!

    Thoughts?

    I’ve had one lower back surgery. I’m doing my best now to lose weight and try some low impact exercising. Having a chair or couch that reclines all the way back to take weight off my lower back has been one of the biggest helps. Interesting for me, I’ve found moving to AIWB from 3/4 o’clock has helped my back along with not putting anything in my back pockets. I’m also trying some less stiff belt options, as I have had a few folks say that a stiff belt on your back is a no go...

    I love carrying my j-frame around. However, I dint enjoy it much pocket carrying. I’m using a Dark Star Gear AWIB rig for it at the moment with a metal clip. Works great when I’m not wearing a belt. Interestingly though it’s less physically comfortable than a larger gun in that position, but I do notice the weight savings. I’ve wondered if a g26 in a g17 might be a great compromise between physical comfort and weight, but I’m betting the shorter grip of the g26 would be uncomfortable on my muffin top. Maybe a 48? I’ve also thought about trying a px4... Love the trigger on my 92...

    I look forward to hearing what others do for weight.
    Last edited by CLaw; 05-12-2019 at 02:48 PM.

  4. #4
    Member feudist's Avatar
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    Jan 2012
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    Murderham, the Tragic City
    I like my LCP2. Easier to shoot than my 442 with a viable reload.

  5. #5
    Site Supporter Totem Polar's Avatar
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    Aug 2013
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    PacNW
    If you can swing it, get a second 432, and 'Mike Pipes' your way about town. Add a single CR123 or rechargeable polymer surefire, and you're about there. JMO.
    ”But in the end all of these ideas just manufacture new criminals when the problem isn't a lack of criminals.” -JRB

  6. #6
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    Sep 2017
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    South Louisiana
    Is it the weight or the location? Would a shoulder holster for J frames be viable for the way you dress?

  7. #7
    Four String Fumbler Joe in PNG's Avatar
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    Feb 2011
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    Papua New Guinea; formerly Florida
    An additonal classic bit of advice (and you've probably heard it/ do it already)- never sit on your wallet.
    "You win 100% of the fights you avoid. If you're not there when it happens, you don't lose." - William Aprill
    "I've owned a guitar for 31 years and that sure hasn't made me a musician, let alone an expert. It's made me a guy who owns a guitar."- BBI

  8. #8
    I’m in my 20s with barely any back pain (I do have a fused vertebrae near my tail bone). I carry a bat-belt for 4 days out of the week, and even have a med kit in the Small of my back, but none of that has caused me grief for my two short years of doing so. I carry AIWB daily, but decided to start carrying my 19 traditional IWB around 4:30/500.

    After one short week, and sitting in a chair for a movie, I couldn’t walk. I had all the signs and symptoms of sciatica, nerve pain in my back, shooting down my leg, and extreme pain with every step. I came very very close to having to call out of work (first time in my career) and spent the rest of my day with a limp.

    I stretched, and the following day abandoned traditional IWB returning to AIWB and almost immediately felt relief. The pain hasn’t returned, and I’ve been able to go back to normal life. This was with keeping the same carry gun, and actually adding a light to my appendix rig.

    Granted my age is probably swinging towards the other end of the pendulum, but I would strongly recommend Physical Therapy, and ditching IWB for AIWB if possible. Even something like pocket carry if appendix isn’t feasible, but at least with appendix you could probably maintain a relatively more capable gun, like a 43, 48, or 19.

    Good luck with the recovery.

  9. #9
    Our issued concealment holster is the Serpa. I have an older ALS and an ALS/SLS that I got approved by the range gods that I wear for field work and IDPA. However both of them are just an 'nth bit wider than the Serpa and if worn on the commute home usually manage to put my r. leg to sleep by the end of the 45 mile drive in the narrow seated work car. Thus, I end up using the Serpa for commuting. Very cognizant of the different draw mechanisms and the downfalls of doing so. My longer than average fingers help with the Serpa in that I push off against the bottom ridge of the release paddle/button which helps ensure my trigger finger is dead straight. I can tell you that the first and only time I used the Serpa in an IDPA match, one of the stages was scrambling out of a pup tent and a stone got lodged in the mechanism and locked the gun in. Serpa's suck and everything is a tradeoff.
    -All views expressed are those of the author and do not reflect those of the author's employer-

  10. #10
    Been there, done that, have the scars from three back surgeries to prove it. Going to see the surgeon again soon for what will probably be number four.

    Focus on getting better, which it sounds as if you are. Now is not the time to worry about being as "tactical" as possible.

    I have found an alloy J-frame in a good pancake holster on a true gun belt might be weight-dispersion overkill in any other situation, but is just the ticket when fighting spinal stenosis and/or bulged discs combined with sciatica. Not sure what the weight difference actually is between that combo and my 9mm Shield, but the way the little wheelie sits on the belt just seems to ride easier when everything hurts. YMMV.

    Good luck with the physical therapy. Mine just aggravated things, but I hope you have success with yours. If you need to be cut on, I know a good surgeon at Mayo in Phoenix.

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