When I started carrying a concealed handgun, I used an appendix holster. As a new police officer, I chose this mode of off-duty carry at the recommendation of a fellow officer with slightly more experience. I didn’t consider that drawing my gun from an appendix rig would be different than drawing from my hip-mounted duty holster. It is. Before you affix a holster to your belt, you should understand the nuances of drawing from different carry locations.
For simplicity, let’s divide the belt line into four sections: forward of the hip, on the hip, behind the hip, and across the centerline with the butt of the gun forward (cross draw).
On the Hip
As my mentor, Dave Spaulding, is fond of saying, hip carry produces the most “physiological efficient” draw…
