Podcast 314 Carrying a Firearm in the Cold

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Do you change anything when carrying a firearm in the cold?

Today:

I got a message from a listener asking about changing his carry gear for the season.

This question comes up every year and I don’t think about it until about this time of year because it doesn’t get cold in San Antonio until about now.
Last week we had our first real cold front and I had to change the way I dress.

Here are the things I think about when I’m changing my clothes for the season:

• Jacket Carry
• Smaller vs Bigger Gun
• Changing Holsters
• Changing Ammo
• Gloves
• Draw Change
• Where you wear your gun
• Everyone Looks like a Bag Guy

Jacket Carry

Jacket carry is me putting a hammerless J-Frame or similar revolver in my right front coat pocket inside a pocket holster. I like a Vedder Holster or a Sticky Holster. You can even get them on Amazon.

What I’m looking for is a holster that covers the trigger guard, that the gun won’t fall out of, but I can bump it off inside the pocket so that I can fire the gun from inside my pocket.

This is an old police officers’ trick. They would drop a J-Frame inside their coat pocket and would just stand there with their hands in their pockets and have the person at gunpoint the entire time. Back in the day, they didn’t use holsters, but you should now.

It works. It’s a great technique, but takes a little practice.

Smaller vs Bigger Guns

In the winter it’s easier to go to a bigger gun as your backup gun. Your small revolver in your front coat pocket becomes your primary gun and your actual carry gun becomes the backup for that one.

In the winter it’s generally easier to hide a bigger gun. If you can, you should. The bigger gun always gives you more ammo, more sight radius, and more velocity. With more velocity on the bullet, you generally get more penetration depending on what ammo you are using.

The penetration is going to be important because everyone is wearing more clothes than your bullet will have to get through to get to the person and then through into vital organs. It is just more your bullet has to travel through to get the effects on a target you need.

Changing Holsters

Yes, if you can or want to, you should. I generally don’t change holsters and just carry my IWB that I’ve been doing all year round. But I also carry a full-sized gun all year round too. If it’s more comfortable and faster for you, given the extra clothing to change holsters, go for it.

Just make sure you carry the gun in the same place. You don’t want to be patting yourself down looking for your gun in an emergency.

Changing Ammo

Maybe. Depends on what you carry during the summer. I just carry Federal HST’s all year round. They just work.

If you are carrying one of the new-fangled controlled penetration rounds, you need to look at the penetration of those rounds. You want something towards the end of the FBI standard of 12 to 18 inches. Everyone is wearing more clothing. You want that 18 inches in your carry ammo during the winter.

Gloves

Do you wear them? Can you operate your gun with them on? Can you ditch them before you go to the gun? If you live in the far north frozen tundra you probably don’t want to ditch your gloves because of frostbite.

And if you have to ditch your gloves how much more time with that take you to draw your gun? Have you practiced ditching your gloves to get your gun?

Have you tried running your gun with your gloves on? Can you do all the things: malfunctions, reloads, draw, and fire with your gloves on?

Draw Change

Do you have to change your draw with the extra clothing and gloves on? Yes… I’ll give you the hard ones. How many layers are you wearing and under which layer are you wearing your gun?

No matter how many layers I wear, my gun is always under my shirt and outside any skintight layers, I’m wearing. So I may have to clear multiple layers to get to the gun. It makes me slower and I have to be more deliberate. Have you practiced it?

Everyone Looks like a Bag Guy

This is Covid related and just the change of the year. I noticed about a week ago when someone walked in wearing a hoodie with the hood up and pulled down with a gator over his face the person looked like a robber.

The reality was, it was just cold outside so the hoodie, and with the current Covid crap going on for the shit-show that was 2020 this will probably continue.

Also, just a PSA, crime is up all over the country. People are just pissed and taking it out on others. Plus cops are busy enforcing mask regulations, we are letting people out of jail, and cops don’t want to deal with people. So many things are making this a perfect storm for crime to go way up. This isn’t just a bump in violent crime this year, it’s an epidemic.

So watch your six out there, and be more vigilant than you were in the past.

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Thanks for Listening, don’t forget to check out Shooter’s Club and Lucky Gunner for ammo.

Stay Safe,

Ben