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New York reload

Sld1959

Ronin
I have started carrying a New York Reload constantly. It consists of either a Jframe in my left hip pocket, or the Taurus M380 in my left pocket.

Which one depends upon what I am carrying on my right hip, if it's the Model 60 in .357 I carry the Jframe in .38 special and carry .38 special reloads. If it is the Browning I carry the m380, and I carry one spare magazine and two stellar clips all loaded with the same .380s.

The biggest reason for carrying the backup is in this hot weather my wife is traveling very light. With her back arthritis and her CHF she is carrying nothing extra. So, in an emergency I can arm her also.
 
I have started carrying a New York Reload constantly. It consists of either a Jframe in my left hip pocket, or the Taurus M380 in my left pocket.

Which one depends upon what I am carrying on my right hip, if it's the Model 60 in .357 I carry the Jframe in .38 special and carry .38 special reloads. If it is the Browning I carry the m380, and I carry one spare magazine and two stellar clips all loaded with the same .380s.

The biggest reason for carrying the backup is in this hot weather my wife is traveling very light. With her back arthritis and her CHF she is carrying nothing extra. So, in an emergency I can arm her also.
I would say Texas Two Gun, but oh well close enough?
 
There's a lot to be said about having that second gun that's ready-to-rock, and definitely, being able to hand it off to a trusted helper is a huge tactical plus.

The late Louis Awerbuck, on two-gun carry...

Because of depth-of-concealment concerns, I typically only two-gun carry when I have a jacket of some sort on. Colder weather also means an extra layer of concealment for me to defeat to access my waistline EDC, so staging a snubbie in the front "handwarmer" pocket of my outer garment also allows me the ability to have a hand on the gun without anyone necessarily being tipped to my doing so, and confers the ability to shoot-through, should the situation require.

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The picture was taken in late fall, 2011, Three Tango Firearms Academy, which was then under the care of the late Bill Holcomb.

It was a hot and humid day as only late fall in NE-Ohio can get....that sweat line you see there on my now-retired favorite ballcap? Yeah, that wasn't there at the beginning of that day!

I believe this picture was me trying to make sense of what happened to my Kahr PM9 after I tried shooting through the handwarmer pockets of my shrunken sweatshirt from undergrad.

After that class, I went out and bought my first wheel-gun.
 
Backup guns for uniformed officers were always a bone of contention in police departments. Some departments allowed them and some did not. There were various reasons for this. One had to do with the manner of carry.

Maintaining control of one handgun during vigorous physical activity was a challenge and many officers were shot with their own service gun before we had level III holsters. A popular manner of carrying backups was the ankle holster, but holster designs were poor and many guns fell out of ankle holsters during a run or a fight. Twice in my career I and other officers spent hours searching for an officer's backup after a foot pursuit. On another occasion when we had several prisoners sitting on the floor in the police station I observed one of the prisoners trying to conceal a small semi auto under his shoe. When I picked it up and showed it to a fellow officer he said it looked just like the one he carried on his ankle. When he pulled up his pant leg to show me, the ankle holster was empty, and of course it was his gun. On another occasion an officer who was struggling to cuff a burglar in a neighboring jurisdiction was shot and wounded when his backup fell out and the suspect picked it up and used it on him.

We taught our officers that in every encounter you have, there is at least one gun present, the one you have on you. If you carry a backup there are at least two.

I do not have any objection to officers or civilians carrying backup guns, but you have to give some thought to the security of your holsters so the gun does not become a liability. And BTW, I think carrying a pistol in a pocket without some kind of holster is a negligent discharge waiting to happen.
 
And BTW, I think carrying a pistol in a pocket without some kind of holster is a negligent discharge waiting to happen.

Oh, absolutely +1.

I didn't mean for my post to suggest that I "free-floated" a handgun in a pocket - if I made it sound like that, my apologies! :oops:

I use a properly-sized pocket-holster for pocket-carry: not just to protect the trigger from unwanted interactions (and that pocket would be dedicated to the weapon, with no other items present), but also so that it stays properly indexed for presentation. [ Aside: Towards the latter, for fully in-pocked, discrete, carry of a pocket knife, I will clip the knife to a pocket magazine pouch, like the DeSantis Mag-Packer, so that it remains properly indexed for in-fight access. ] . Because of my use of the "coat gun," I favor a pocket-holsters like the DeSantis Nemesis, which allows in-pocket access, versus a more well-molded, pocket-hook release (like my Kahr PM9/D.M.Bullard leather combo) or a static-line setup, like the MIC.

The pictured range-exercise was the instructor showing us what can potentially happen to a pocket-auto when fired from (or attempted to fire from, as depending on the design of the pocket and the user's hand position, the slide may be forced out-of-battery, thus preventing a successful discharge to begin with) inside the concealment garment's pocket. In order to accomplish this range-exercise, we (individually, this was not done as an line exercise) carefully staged the live weapon inside our pocket of-choice while maintaining full adherence to The Four Rules, and then discharged the firearm downrange.

Hope this helps clarify. :)

But like a very well-known and highly-regarded holster maker I know once said...."what is a holster, but a *very* well-made pocket for the gun?" ;) Well, that pocket had also better not have anything else in it, and had better make sure that it actually protects the trigger (but even to this last point, which I think is de-rigueur currently, it's definitely been an evolution, over-time)!!!!
 
Oh, absolutely +1.

I didn't mean for my post to suggest that I "free-floated" a handgun in a pocket - if I made it sound like that, my apologies! :oops:

I use a properly-sized pocket-holster for pocket-carry: not just to protect the trigger from unwanted interactions (and that pocket would be dedicated to the weapon, with no other items present), but also so that it stays properly indexed for presentation. [ Aside: Towards the latter, for fully in-pocked, discrete, carry of a pocket knife, I will clip the knife to a pocket magazine pouch, like the DeSantis Mag-Packer, so that it remains properly indexed for in-fight access. ] . Because of my use of the "coat gun," I favor a pocket-holsters like the DeSantis Nemesis, which allows in-pocket access, versus a more well-molded, pocket-hook release (like my Kahr PM9/D.M.Bullard leather combo) or a static-line setup, like the MIC.

The pictured range-exercise was the instructor showing us what can potentially happen to a pocket-auto when fired from (or attempted to fire from, as depending on the design of the pocket and the user's hand position, the slide may be forced out-of-battery, thus preventing a successful discharge to begin with) inside the concealment garment's pocket. In order to accomplish this range-exercise, we (individually, this was not done as an line exercise) carefully staged the live weapon inside our pocket of-choice while maintaining full adherence to The Four Rules, and then discharged the firearm downrange.

Hope this helps clarify. :)

But like a very well-known and highly-regarded holster maker I know once said...."what is a holster, but a *very* well-made pocket for the gun?" ;) Well, that pocket had also better not have anything else in it, and had better make sure that it actually protects the trigger (but even to this last point, which I think is de-rigueur currently, it's definitely been an evolution, over-time)!!!!
Good thinking. My comment was a general observation and not directed specifically at you but relevant here as many folks do carry with no holster.
 
I have only very rarely ever carried more than one gun on my person and that would have been an incident or two where I knew with almost certainty that something was going down. Unless you count a holstered pistol on my hip while bow hunting but I don’t think a bow counts as a firearm.
That said, there are times I have a back up in a nearby location. In the truck, in my lunchbox, etc.
 
Backup guns for uniformed officers were always a bone of contention in police departments. Some departments allowed them and some did not. There were various reasons for this. One had to do with the manner of carry.

Maintaining control of one handgun during vigorous physical activity was a challenge and many officers were shot with their own service gun before we had level III holsters. A popular manner of carrying backups was the ankle holster, but holster designs were poor and many guns fell out of ankle holsters during a run or a fight. Twice in my career I and other officers spent hours searching for an officer's backup after a foot pursuit. On another occasion when we had several prisoners sitting on the floor in the police station I observed one of the prisoners trying to conceal a small semi auto under his shoe. When I picked it up and showed it to a fellow officer he said it looked just like the one he carried on his ankle. When he pulled up his pant leg to show me, the ankle holster was empty, and of course it was his gun. On another occasion an officer who was struggling to cuff a burglar in a neighboring jurisdiction was shot and wounded when his backup fell out and the suspect picked it up and used it on him.

We taught our officers that in every encounter you have, there is at least one gun present, the one you have on you. If you carry a backup there are at least two.

I do not have any objection to officers or civilians carrying backup guns, but you have to give some thought to the security of your holsters so the gun does not become a liability. And BTW, I think carrying a pistol in a pocket without some kind of holster is a negligent discharge waiting to happen.
I don't believe I said it was without a holster...
 
When working as a patrol officer, most of the guys at my department carried a backup. Some of the old-timers would wear ankle holsters, but most of us either carried a small semi-auto attached to a vest strap under our shirts, or had a small semi-auto or revolver in a weak-side pants pocket. The thinking was that if a suspect was trying to remove your duty weapon from the holster, you would secure it with your strong hand while drawing your back-up with your weak hand. I cannot speak to other departments, but we never had an officer shoot anyone with their backup gun while on-duty during my career.

These days I usually carry a backup .380 in my back pocket in a pocket holster. The main reason for this is that my wife has her LTC but rarely carries on her person. She will sometimes carry in a purse when she is carrying a large enough purse/bag, but she often carries small purses and clutches. The backup in my rear pocket is often her gun.

I will sometimes carry a J-Frame or similar revolver in an outer coat pocket if it is cold enough to warrant a heavy jacket. That's pretty rare in my part of Texas, so I'm normally able to access my EDC in my waistband without issue.
 
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