Appendix Carry

[97F1504RAD]

I've seen one video of a guy in a gun store who had an ND in his appendix carry. His hands weren't anywhere near the holster and the ND happened when he bent over. Best theory is he had an aftermarket trigger or shoe that was wider than stock and bending over applied enough pressure to activate the trigger while the pistol was in the holster.

So that's the one outlier I can think of where an appendix carry (combined with other factors) contributed to an ND. But generally speaking appendix by itself isn't less safe than other carry locations, it's just that an ND in that carry position has the potential for more catastrophic injuries.

If you are referring to the video I am thinking of, I recall they determined his shirt got hung up in the trigger when he reholstered and when he bent over the shirt pulled the trigger.

Got yourself a quality holster and you will be fine. Here is a great video cover g this topic.

[faris1984]

i carried with one in the chamber and without but when without I dont wear holster just Mexican style. Not kidding

[Notorious]

Nobody ever won a gunfight by reholstering faster than the other guy.

[tomrkba]

So I read a thread recently where several commentators strongly cautioned against appendix carry. I carry only DA/SA Sigs in full kudex IWB holsters and have been carrying appendix for about 2 years. Some commentors went as far as saying if appendix carrying, they did not keep a round in the chamber. I have not read or seen any reports of NDs that were caused/enhanced by appendix carry, but have not scoured the internet. Just ground-truthing my concepts and experience. Thoughts?

It is just silliness from gun fools. Ignore them.

If you are personally concerned, place your thumb over the hammer while holstering. It will move if something gets into the trigger guard. This is one true advantage of the hammer fired design over striker fired.

Strong side is not “safe” either. I watched a guy in class discharge a round through his rear pocket with a SIG P226 or P229. He encountered resistance while holstering and instead of backing off, he pushed harder. A jacket stay had gotten into the trigger guard. He was uninjured and the bullet went into the dirt behind him. Everyone gave him a hard time for the next day and a half with funny comments. Most would be considered “hate crimes” today.

[tomrkba]

Nobody ever won a gunfight by reholstering faster than the other guy.

You should consider other scenarios. See my post above. No speed or urgency was involved.

[CCWFacts]

There is also this: do not be in a hurry to re-holster. .... get your finger off the trigger

There are not many good sources for concealed carry ND facts and figures. There's only one I could find, which is excellent: Front Sight's incident reports. They have had a significant number of NDs, many causing injury, and they have documented them all with detail.

I haven't gone through and made a statistical analysis of them, but, I can very much conclude that the bulk of the incidents are during re-holstering and the most common problem is keeping the finger on the trigger during reholstering. After that, the other major factor is putting the finger on the trigger at step 1 or step 2 of the draw and pre-loading the trigger, a habit which is easy to get into with DA trigger pulls or Glock's half-pull-then-pause trigger.

The thing to do is to train as follows:

• After-action: gun is at low ready and the environment is checked
• Last step of after-action: pause and mentally reset, bring the focus onto careful and safe re-holstering

This last step is very important and doesn't get trained very well. It's not intuitive that people would leave the finger on the trigger WHILE RE-HOLSTERING but from the incident reports it's obvious that this happens a lot and should be a specific training point.

Other ND problems are modified guns and other wrong equipment choices.

[Pinkie Pie]

So I read a thread recently where several commentators strongly cautioned against appendix carry. I carry only DA/SA Sigs in full kudex IWB holsters and have been carrying appendix for about 2 years. Some commentors went as far as saying if appendix carrying, they did not keep a round in the chamber. I have not read or seen any reports of NDs that were caused/enhanced by appendix carry, but have not scoured the internet. Just ground-truthing my concepts and experience. Thoughts?

I personally don't have a problem with appendix carry but then it depends on the gun, holster, and the training of the individual. Some people are barely safe with an OWB Level 3 holster.