Need to rethink how I carry, moving to the surface of the Sun

[RevolverRob]

Rule 1) Hydration wins championships. Your biggest summer challenge will be drinking enough water and avoiding fireants.

Rule 2) Two garments: an undershirt/t-shirt that wicks moisture. A cover garment - I basically only roll with the CCC Tropic Weight Vest. Pockets are lined with loop velcro. You can easily stick pouches in them for holding all kinds of accoutrement.

Rule 3) Pocket carry is awesome when you want to roll light.

Rule 4) Kydex can't be left in the car. Leather doesn't soften much in the heat BUT it's terrible at retaining moisture. Just don't leave kydex in the car.

Rule 4) Sunshades for the car windshield are a MUST. Never - ever - ever - under any circumstances - touch the bare metal of a seat belt that has been in the sun. Nor should you sit on leather/vinyl seats or park benches that have been in the sun for >10 min.

Rule 5) Hydration wins championships

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Stick your G-lock in your holster and rock on with a cover garment - shirt or vest is fine. Like I said I have a couple of those CCC "shoot me" vests I wear often - no one has shot me yet. I have run IWB and OWB 1911s under the vest. My preference is usually SME + STI + Spare mag in pocket.

[farscott]

Have been in the southeast for the past twenty-seven years. If you use leather, daily rotation of holsters and belts is necessary to avoid premature wear out of the items. Getting caught in a rainstorm or sweat saturates a holster or belt. Horsehide and sharkskin work well for humid environments. I have two of every belt and holster I use. I do not use Kydex as I find leather more comfortable for IWB, and leather works better for office dress.

In addition to hydration, consider long sleeve shirts, a good hat, and sunglasses for sun protection. The difference in sun intensity is surprising at first.

[Zincwarrior]

Florida man here. Put me in the "you can pretty much conceal anything under a fishing shirt and look normal while staying cool" camp.

I also have found that a CCC IWB Gesalt and Mastermind belt made a 1911 disappear quite nicely under a tshirt.

Can you reference what you are referring to by a "fishing shirt?" Sorry I am old. My fishing short was a Tshirt. That sunburn wasn't going to make itself!

[RoyGBiv]

Can you reference what you are referring to by a "fishing shirt?" Sorry I am old. My fishing short was a Tshirt. That sunburn wasn't going to make itself!

These are great in the summer.... Well ventilated, provides screening from the sun. And you look like a dude that drives a truck and owns a boat. Does not scream gun.

https://www.academy.com/p/magellan-o...E&gclsrc=aw.ds

[HeavyDuty]

These are great in the summer.... Well ventilated, provides screening from the sun. And you look like a dude that drives a truck and owns a boat. Does not scream gun.

https://www.academy.com/p/magellan-o...E&gclsrc=aw.ds

That is very much like my current cheap cover shirts - mine are short sleeved. I should look for these at Academy or wherever.

[JAD]

When I lived in Texas, and here in KC in the summer, I am 90% of the time wearing a tucked-in cotton t shirt with an untucked polo over an AIWB rig. I like Land's End mesh shirts with patterns.

[TAZ]

I’m in central TX. Wear a simple wife beater from anywhere to keep something between the gun and my skin. If I know I’m going to be sweating I may put on some wicking undershirt, but more often than not I forget to swap out. Cover garment is a TShirt now that I work from home. Before it was an untucked polo or button down shirt. Carry a 365XL with optic or VP9OR in a JMCK AIWB rig. Honestly, the heat sounds worse than it is. After a year or so you get used to it.


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[Glenn E. Meyer]

If you have a house and a garage, try to park in the garage when there is a storm threatening hail. Count on a wrath of God hail storm every few years. I had a nice Toyota Matrix totaled by one. Truly large orange sized hail. We were driving in it and a couple of blocks from the house. Drove through it into the driveway and told my wife to get below the dash board while I covered her body. It was like being under shell fire. The hail actually came through the side of the neighbor's house and windows. Roofs were penetrated easily. If you were out, you would have been killed. Another neighbor wanted to run out for Fido, her husband grabbed her. Luckily, Fido made it to his dog house.

On my car, the roof had tents so deep it looked like Superman punched them. The concrete porch pad and sidewalks at impact marks for years, they weren't just dirt but structural into the concrete.

$1.5 billion in damages, it took a good part of a year for roof repairs, car claims, etc.

Previously, I had a Honda Civic that got hit a few years earlier. Windshield gone and lots of golf ball sized dents. The car had 165k miles on it and insurance gave me $1500 damages. So I fixed the windshield and the hell with the cosmetics. You do see cars with pock marks for a few years after a storm, when folks keep the money. With 165K for a commuter car, me too. It went to 256k and was breaking down a bit, so I gave it to charity and got the Matrix (whom the gods also clobbered). The Matrix became a Forester, whom an idiot totaled on 1604 and wrecked my shoulder.

BTW, accidents - in TX, you got them. Since I got to Erie County and in a smaller town, I've seen one or two major crashes (yes, NY has downsides, family reasons, blah, blah). But I'm not fearful of my life driving.

[alamo5000]

With my impending move from NH to TX, I’m going from a place where a cover garment can be worn year round to the furnaces of hell. I’ll still try to wear a light shirt as cover when I can, but I suspect it will be difficult for a large part of the year - at least during daytime.

I currently almost always wear jeans and carry OWB. I’m thinking it may be time to look at cargo pants and shorts with pocket carry? I would think something up to the size of a G26 would be doable.

Those of you that live in hot climates, how do you cope?

Can I ask where in TX you are moving? We are having a TON of people move here. A BUNCH from the West Coast (the whole thing not just Kommiefornia) and a bunch from the North and Northeast.

I am definitely a shorts and sandals kind of guy. I can conceal easily with just a light golf style shirt (T-shirt with a collar basically) and shorts. It just depends on what you are carrying and how you are carrying.

Being absolutely concealed 24-7 isn't a thing here. We can open carry (but I choose not to). Some places do not allow open carry on their private property but in general concealed carry isn't really a problem except in certain areas. For example I went to a mall (known liberal hangout) the other day, first time in years that I've been there and now they supposedly don't allow carry. The signage was wrong but they would harass you until you left if they saw you. Every now and then you might run across some place like that, but it's nowhere like other parts of the country where you are right up on people all the time or where entire states are iffy at best (for carry).

At work the 'official' corporate rule is that I am not supposed to carry, but I bought a bag with a carry pocket in it so I can avoid leaving my gun in the car and no one cares.

Personally through a lot of trial and error I have shied away from trying to carry the smallest thing possible and moved to carrying the biggest thing I can get away with. Current carry is a 365XL.

Another thing people do here is to have two carry pistols. One for pocket ride like a small 380 and then their regular carry.

In large part if you really can't or don't want to conceal you can always carry open. The only thing with that is more businesses don't allow open carry on their property so you will have to deal with that a little bit more.

[Corse]

You need to redefine "cover garment."

Untucked button up or polo shirts and IWB/AIWB are the way go go. Pocket carry when those are not feasible.

Some wear jeans and western boots year round but they are winter wear for me. Light Khakis or shorts most of the time. I've given up on cargo pants to avoid the "5.11 Tuxedo."

@Gadfly

That’s how I do it in AZ.