Steyr S9A1 goes to work in DeSantis holster on DeSantis gun belt

My new Steyr S9-A1 subcompact 9mm went to work with me yesterday at the gun shop in a rig I haven't worn in a while, a DeSantis Speed Scabbard.

I'm not really ambidextrous, which is equally skilled with either hand, more like ambiguous. My right hand is my "strong hand" meaning I throw right-handed.

But my left eye is my master eye, so I have to shoot a long gun from my left shoulder.

I eat and write left-handed, but almost everything else I do right-handed.

The gun term for oddballs like me is cross-dominant, in my case left eye/right hand.

But it comes in pretty handy if you want to wear two handguns, one main and one backup, which is what I habitually do at the gun shop, along with some of the other workers there.

We've had one midnight burglary and one attempted armed robbery during the less than two years that I've worked there, so it behooves us to be ready for anything. In addition to what we carry, there's always a loaded shotgun in easy reach in the gun shop.

So the new carry combo I tried out has the DeSantis rig with S9-A1 in a forward-cant position over my right hip pocket with cell phone on a DeSantis belt and pocket knife clipped in my right-side pocket.



On the left side is my Bianchi Accumold paddle holster with my S&W 396 Night Guard .44 Special revolver.

My new DeSantis gun belt held the gear very comfortably all day. It's the first genuine gun belt I've tried, 1-3/4" wide vs. the 1-1/2" belts I've been wearing. I gotta say after only two days of wearing the DeSantis gun belt I will have more genuine gun belts in my future.

I have read that a good gun belt is better than any off-the-rack belt and now that I've tried it, I found it's true.

I've been buying belts at the local Western wear store, but this plain-Jane DeSantis belt is much more comfortable for all-day wear than any of my other belts.

Red Friday at the gun shop is Carry Three Day, comfortable carry

Friday at the gun shop where I work is always Red Friday for me. I always wear red on Fridays to honor the troops at war, but most Fridays the rest of the crew is gone setting up for a weekend gun show.

And that means that yours truly and one other worker are providing all the security for the shop as well as selling guns, making it Red Friday in the alert category for us.

We've been robbed once by gang-bangers who sledge-hammered through the back wall at midnight, grabbed a handful of guns and ran before the police responded to the alarm.

And in another incident two armed thugs tried a stickup one evening when the shop was closed but two of the owners were working inside. When faced with a Glock .40, they left faster than they arrived.

But those two incidents put an extra edge on our awareness at the shop and I always wear two guns, a main and a backup, as do some of the other workers.

But today I tried something entirely different, as Monty Python says. I wore three. My main battery in a Bianchi shoulder holster rig was a S&W 65 3"-barrel .357 Magnum 6-shooter with a pair of speedloaders on the weak side. I'm a lefty so the S&W 65 is on my right.

In a DeSantis Mini Belt Slide on my left side was a Kel-Tec PF-9 9mm subcompact.

And in a Galco small-of-back holster was a Ruger LCR stuffed with .38 Special +P loads.

And not only did we hold the tigers at bay for another day, it was a comfortable rig to wear all day. And with 18 rounds of .357 Magnum, 8 rds. of 9mm and 5 rds. of .38 Special +P, I was ready for any foolish thugs.

Search for the "Perfect Packin' Rig" settles on a .45 and a .44 --Duh!

John Taffin is always writing about his lifelong search for the Perfect Packin' Pistol. Well I'll be satisfied when I find the Perfect Packin' Rig. And I think I've come pretty close if not already there.

My pretty much constant companion since I started carrying double for working at the gun shop has been a Galco small-of-back holster that I wear more or less over my right hip pocket. It usually has a revolver in it but will also do for small semi-autos up to 3.5" barrels. But that's a bit much for weight and tends to drag my britches south a bit too far. For an small auto it works best with my subcompact Kel-Tec PF9. So usually it's a small-frame revolver, J-frame-size .38, or Charter Arms .327 Magnum or .44, that rides in the Galco SOB for my right hand.

Most of the time lately it's been my Charter Arms Bulldog .44 Special 5-shot snubby. I'm prejudiced. If I'm gonna carry a 5-shot snubby, I'd rather have a .44 than a 38 or even a .327 Magnum. Bigger is better.

But the real question has been about the left side. I've tried a wide variety of different holsters and types, leather, kydex and canvas, belt slides, paddles and snap-ons by Galco, DeSantis, Bianchi, Blackhawk, BladeTech and Goodrich & Gould. I've also tried shoulder rigs by Galco, Bianchi and Blackhawk.

And in addition to that I've tried a variety of different handguns, revolvers usually in K-frame size but some J-frames too, and semi-autos from subcompact to compact to full-size.

The revolvers include S&W 65 and Taurus 65, both .357 Magnum, Charter .38, .327 Magnum and .44, and Ruger LCR .38. The semi-autos include Steyr M9A1, Sig Sauer P229 .357 Sig and P220 full-size and compact .45 ACP, Para-Ord P12-45, and last but certainly not least, my Glock 29 10mm subcompact.

Out of these I have settled on the Sig P220 Compact in a DeSantis Mini Slide. Fits better and wears better all day than another combination I have tried.

I'm sorta ambiguous instead of ambidextrous, being strong side right, dominant eye left, so I like the option of being able to grab with either hand, should the occasion arise. I shoot a little better left-handed than right but I'm pretty comfortable shooting with either hand. I just have to line the pistol up with my left eye.

And I also gotta add I like the quiet draw and no retention device of leather holsters. I hate that snick sound kydex makes on the draw and unless I wear the same kind of active retention holster all the time, I might get caught fumbling with a release at a critical moment.

And none of the active retention holsters I've tried wear as well as the DeSantis Mini Slide.