IWB draw with thumb safety

[rdtompki]

Background: I shoot Steel Challenge with a 9mm 1911 and had been carrying HK (P2000, P20SK) both OWB and IWB. I decided if my life depended on it I would rather be presenting a 1911 so bought a Staccato C. The gun is accurate, decent trigger and easy to conceal. The "rub" relates to safety manipulation. My surrender draw from a BladeTech has my thumb over safety, safety off during press out. I've done this >10K times. IWB from a recently purchased Tenicor holster I can't establish a grip with my thumb over safety so I'm having to shift my strong hand once my weak hand makes contact both in terms of getting on top of the safety and improving the wrap of my right hand.

I'll practice a good deal and can certainly mange to get self-defense effective, but short of going OWB with some offset, hardly a stealth configuration, I'll believe I'll have to live with what appears to be a compromise.

I'll note that before Tenicor send to close loops I had tried the metal clips AIWB and I'm going to start working that means in dry fire; appears much easier to establish a good grip versus the hip-hugging 4 o'clock location. Observations and suggestions would be much appreciated.

[Hot Sauce]

Do you have a photo to represent what is happening i.e. where is your primary hand and primary hand thumb starting, and where are they adjusting to as you're finishing?

Is the issue that the holster is getting in the way before you're establishing a master grip?

[JCN]

It’ll likely require a different holster or modification of the holster.

IWB with a 1911 style safety is aided by a full sweat guard, hybrid holster or wedge padding that actually creates a little space / angle between the safety and your body so you’re not digging into your belly with your thumbnail on the draw if I’m reading your question correctly.

That’s my experience from carrying an EDC X9.

[rdtompki]

Do you have a photo to represent what is happening i.e. where is your primary hand and primary hand thumb starting, and where are they adjusting to as you're finishing?

Is the issue that the holster is getting in the way before you're establishing a master grip?

I'll try to have my wife take a few pictures. The holster is not getting in the way; it's just very tight to my body. I can get a decent grip but I've got to relax/shift the grip a bit to maneuver my thumb up and over the safety. One mitigation would be to change the safety to the Harrison Extreme Service safety that I have on all my other 1911s. The shelf on that safety is considerably lower an may make is easier to get a thumb-over-safety initial grip.

I have an OWB holster with a full sweat guard and even with that the gun is very tight to my body. I don't have a spare tire, but at >75 y/o I'm not young-guy trim. I might also try adding to the Tenicor one of the auxiliary wedge pieces that came with the holster.

I've also order some Tripp officer 9 round mags which have an extension on the front part of the base pad to fill in the gap to the grip. This will provide additional purchase for my large-size hands on the small grip. The gun's current mags are flush 8 rounders and when I shoot with my 10-round mags its possible for my pinky to slip in the gap.

[JCN]

On the draw I’ll have my thumb by the beaver tail and slip it down to the safety as I draw from the holster.

The hybrid leather backing of the holster facilitates me moving the sweat guard out of the way.

[JRV]

Are you trying to get a 100% master grip in the holster? You might try drawing with a “thumbs up” strong hand grip regardless of holster. Grasping with a high thumb will not slow down your open carry draws, and it will transition easily to IWB by letting you claw the gun up and out of the holster into a master grip.

I draw Glocks with my strong thumb nearly on the back of the slide, and I draw everything else with my thumb up against the rear sight or optic. I didn’t do that intentionally… my first work holsters were SLS/ALS combos, so getting a master grip on the draw was not my thumb’s focus.

[rdtompki]

Thanks for all the helpful responses. I've got a few things going forward in addition to the obvious need to practice.

1. I'm going with a t-shirt under whatever I use for concealment. My first trials were shirt over bare skin and it's definitely harder to get a good purchase on the gun doing the skin-on-skin thing. The thumb on back of slide is something to consider, but the stock grip is slick so I might be better waiting until I've installed some grip tape.
2. I've order some 9-round officer mags from Tripp. These have a base pad extension on the front of the mag to fill in the gap. You can see from the picture, below, that I don't have much margin for error especially coupled with the slick grip.
   
3. I'm going to hold off on the Harrison thumb safety but the shelf is at a different angle and I know from my experience with my full-size that I'll be able to get a better initial grip out of the holster.
   
4. Belt -- When I first tried the holster I was using my Kore Essentials web belt. I love that belt for OWB carry and the occasional class when I use a TekLok mounted stuff, but it's so stiff that with enough pressure to keep my pants up it was really pressing the holster into my side. I tried a more compliant belt and that a)kept my pants up and b)held the holster securely without driving it into my side.

So, we'll see how Saturday's IDPA match goes, a low cost, low pressure way to baseline my journey with this gun.