Strong Side
Support Side
It's not just a BUG to me, it might be my primary under certain conditions, so it's strong side. That way I can have my hand on a gun for a quick and hopefully unexpected draw.
"Gunfighting is a thinking man's game. So we might want to bring thinking back into it."-MDFA
For many years my normal court attire was two S&W 642s. One in each front pocket with Kramer pocket holsters. There is something to be said for mirror carry
My first pocket holster was for my support side. I don’t use it much as I rarely carry 2.
There is merit in that argument. My personal perspective has been to go blade for my support side. I can access it significantly faster and from weird angles. I’ve drilled it a ton both solo and with opponents standing up and on the ground.
Of course that does not help at standoff distance, and the blade is less effective against a pit bull munching the dominant arm.
I don't think there is a right answer to this question. If you carry it support side obviously should do a lot of practice drawing and firing the gun with your support side hand.
For me I carry strongside in a pocket holster. Depending upon the circumstances, it may be the first gun that I draw or I may have my hand on the grip with the gun ready to draw or partially drawn.
I carry my LCP in my strong side front pocket. It’s not really a backup to me though. I carry a S&W M&P9 2.0 Compact 4” AIWB right now. The LCP is more of an “always” gun, so when I get home and take the M&P off I still have something. I don’t want to have to switch it back and forth. On duty my backup is a S&W Shield with TLR-6 in a Remora holster. I carry that support-side.
I carry in strong side for one big reason:
If you're going for a pocket gun, you should probably be doing a surreptitious draw.
Let's face it: These guns guns suck for getting out of the pocket in any "reactionary" scenarios...
Under a scenario where I can afford the time to get the gun into play, I want it to be with my strong hand so I can deliver some accurate hits (with a hard to shoot gun) using the sights or a solid index. (How many practice enough to develop an index with the weak hand?)
When I pocket carry, the pocketed gun is probably “primary.” I would rather not pocket-carry, outside the house, unless perhaps to let the dog out, and at such times, it is “primary.”
If I plan to walk through the Alley Of The Shadow Of Death, I might temporarily adopt pocket carry, with hand-on-grip-in-pocket, which means the pocketed gun is primary.
If I am carrying “primary” on the belt, anywhere from appendix to 0300, I cannot readily access things inside the right front pocket. There are times that I may have a small firearm entrapped, in this way, but it is more for safe storage than “carry.”
I almost always wear a very stout folding blade in my left front pocket. I would need a very special reason to carry anything else in that pocket. A blade can be a weapon, and that includes being primary-at-a-moment-in-time.
As has already been noted by other members’ posts, getting into a pocket is not something easily accomplished during a FUT.
I have carried a secondary gun in right cargo pockets, but notably, not all cargo trousers do a good job of supporting a weapon carried in this manner.
I have a love-hate relationship with pocket carry.
I pocket-carried a GP100 two days ago, as “primary,” at my father’s funeral, after noticing that my 3” GP100, which the previous owner had had carry-beveled, fit nicely into my dress trousers’ quite amazingly deep front pocket. No holster! The bottom of the grip was visible, but I covered that with my jacket. (The jacket was tapered at the waist, making it difficult to wear any substantial weapon at belt level.)
I like my late friend Anthony’s essay on the “Roving Gun” concept, which was posted, years ago, on another forum. The second/smaller weapon is carried in different places, in different environments. This smaller weapon is not considered a “back-up” weapon, as there are times it will be the more-accessible weapon. One reaches for the more-appropriate weapon, depending upon the totality of the circumstances.
The only time I thought of any weapon as clearly a “back-up” weapon was when I wore a Snub-Gun in an ankle rig, which was normally when I was wearing a police uniform.
Last edited by Rex G; 09-29-2019 at 02:54 PM.
Retar’d LE. Kinesthetic dufus.
Don’t tread on volcanos!