Carry Rotation

[Clusterfrack]

That stuff is made nearby... but I'm still not going to take on another wife. Nope. No thanks.

We got a VIP tour of the distillery. Awesome operation and products.

[willie]

The rotation term made me flinch. If I had carried the many different types of handguns I owned, I would have looked like a Christmas tree. For self defense, I seldom varied from a double action Smith or a DA/SA pistol, or a Shield with a safety. When fooling around along field and stream, I did go armed. However, since the mission was recreation, I might have carried a .22 target pistol, a single action .45 Colt, a 1911, or a Glock. Why a Glock? That's what I grabbed. If I were carrying a long gun, I might not have a handgun with me. Always I selected safe location in which to play.

[Rex G]

Some folks feel a need to cycle through their collection of handguns, as if to be fair to each one of them, and, have stated as much, when using “rotation.” If this collection of guns represents several different operating systems, well, that could be a problem, due to conflicting controls.

One example of conflicting controls is that if I trained extensively, with a Glock, I would need serious trigger time, to “reset” my reflexes, when returning to using my SIG P229 DAK, which was my duty pistol, from 2004 to 2015. If I failed to do so, I might fail to let the DAK trigger reset, to a sufficient degree. This user-failure-to-reset happened to me, at ECQC, in June 2005, when I used a G22 during the morning session, with a concealment rig, and switched to my duty rig, with my P229, for the afternoon session. (I had used G22 duty pistols, 2002-2004, but had switched to SIG, after becoming frustrated with being stuck at a performance plateau, that fell short of any duty-sized handgun that I had ever used.)

Shortly after that ECQC, I sold that G22, to a friend/colleague, who already had first dibs on it. (I did return to Glocks, late in my LE career, for orthopedic reasons, and 9mm, not .40 S&W; my chief had just authorized 9mm to be an alternative duty cartridge. By then, Gen4, which fit my hands MUCH better, was extant.) As soon as I qual’ed with that new Gen4 G17, I permanently retired my SIG P229R DAK. (If I return to using DA/SA, I may convert it.)

Then, there are the DBs/Dagga Boys of this world, who really do know how to run several systems, and run them well, on demand. I am not going to try to guess his training regime.

I am no DB, but can run several different systems, which are carefully selected so that their operating procedures are suitably de-conflicted. All of them “point naturally,” in my hands. One is the 1911, of course, my first handgun system. Another is S&W and Ruger DA revolvers. I had to learn long-stroke DA, as a rookie LEO, and learned to really, really like it. My Seecamp pocket pistol is long-stroke DA, like the revolvers. Another system is Glock. Tentatively, I want to return to using traditional DA/SA, with some Third-Generation S&W 9mm pistols, acquired pre-owned, along with some spare parts and springs, over the last couple of years. An intense vetting, of myself and the guns, will happen, soon. They may beat-up my aging hands, too much, or, I may experience numb-thumb malfunctions, or, some other problem may rear its head, that I did not experience with this family of pistols, in the early Nineties.

I do not know which systems will be relegated to the safe. One thing is certain: Glocks require much live-fire, to maintain skill, compared to the 1911 and revolvers. Live ammo is no longer cheap. The S&W Third-Generation pistols will stay, regardless, as there is another family member, in the house, who runs her 6906 pistol well, and could use my single-column-mag S&W pistols, as reserve weapons, if I put rubbery Hogues on them.

[Donny B]

For safety reasons (myself and others around me), I perform best with striker fired handguns and won't carry one that has a trigger 5lbs or below unless that becomes the only gun I practice with.

[Oldherkpilot]

More than one is an option?!?!?! That's good to know,,,, uh, asking for a friend - yeah that.

I think he's referring to "marry rotation." (Heh, heh) There's an old airline pilot saying: the best second job you can have is keeping your first wife.😁

[Casual Friday]

I confess, though, that I hate the process of vetting a new carry gun. I hate burning money on carry ammo just for testing. I hate spending money on new sights, installing them, and tweaking zero. Add the time I would have to spend gaining competence on a new system and it's just not worth it to me.

I guess I'm too cheap and lazy to have a carry rotation.

Bold thread, @GJM. I saw the title when you posted, and didn't want to look inside... but I think it's gone in an interesting direction.

A carry rotation, or whatever anyone calls it sounds like a pain in the ass to me. It's like when people joke about how awesome it would be to have multiple wives, and I'm thinking how hard it is just to keep one happy.

I like to keep it simple, and go all-in on one (or maybe two) platforms. For each gun model that requires at least one spare gun (with identical aftermarket parts if desired), multiple holsters (AIWB, OWB) with/without WML, 10-30 spare mags (plus extended capacity if available), full spare parts kit, tools including adaptor for my MGW sight tool, and now the possibility of a RDS (milling, adaptor plates, batteries). Add to that the requirement of testing ammo in each gun, gun-specific reloading requirements (e.g. CZs with short chambers).

Next, I need to practice with each gun. Dryfire, live fire, and on the mat (need a Bluegun for each model). So, when people tell me to try some new hotness like the p365, I'm thinking --are you kidding me? What a complete hassle. I have better things to do with my time and money.

@Edster and I will sit over here in the curmudgeon corner.

I'm with you both. In 2019 I switched back to Glocks and put the thought out of my mind that I am ever gonna find something that checks more boxes for me. I tried SIGs, HKs, S&W, and multiple variations of each and no matter how much time I spent on them and how long I'd been away from Glock I could pick up a Glock and match or better my times with the others. Once you decide a particular gun isn't for you, you dump it at a loss and either toss the box of holsters and gear in a bin in the garage to be forgotten about or you spend time selling it all at a loss. I'd rather stick shards of broken glass in my eye than go through that again.

Un-zero'd and un-vetted guns and people who have carry rotations go together like peanut butter and jelly. It's typically used to refer to carrying a Glock on Monday, a 1911 on Tuesday, a revolver on Wheelgun Wednesday, etc. That is much different than the scenario of DB with a wheel gun in his pocket, 365 AIWB, and a scattergun in the center console of the Raptor. I look at that not as a rotation, but a diversification of hardware based on the current circumstances.