Free for All Friday: 3-14-14
It’s Pi day! This is the day we celebrate the most irrational of numbers. This March 14th also coincidentally falls on Friday. Friday..pi day…lots of rhymes. It’s also the first Free For All Friday after the Spring time change. Fun fact: in the days following the Spring change, the number of heart attacks increase. There’s also more car wrecks as well as more workplace accidents. After the fall change, where we gain an hour of sleep, the number of heart attacks and accidents go down when compared to the national average throughout the rest of the year. The short of this is: make sure you sleep. It’s important.
What does this have to do with guns? Not a thing. I only got two questions this week so I’m trying to stretch out the article length a bit. Part of the reason is because I was half asleep and waited until Thursday afternoon to post the question thread on our Facebook. I blame Daylight Saving Time for that.
The bright side is that the two questions I did get are great ones (I’m ignoring the sarcastic question that would have made it 3). Quality over quantity, I always say. I’m aware of the irony in that considering the previous paragraph. Actually, now that I think about it: sleeping more will make you a safer shooter. There we go. There’s the connection. On to the questions.
“What are your thoughts on appendix carry?” -James R.
This was a topic that I wasn’t able to write an article about during our Concealed Carry Noobvember event last year. This was mainly because I hadn’t had the chance to really try it out at the time. Fortunately, I have given it a good try at this point.
Appendix carry, for those that haven’t heard of it, is a method of Inside the Waistband carry where the gun is located in the 12:30-ish to 1 o’clock position on the waist. It’s right in front of your appendix (for those that still have one), hence the name. The usual IWB location is in the 4 o’clock position to the side of the spine. These are referring to right handed shooters. If you’re left handed, the clock positions are reversed.
Anyway, appendix carry has some distinct advantages. Given the right gun, it’s very comfortable. It also seems to conceal better than the 4 o’clock position. The downsides, however, are significant. It’s very dependant on body shape as well as the gun size. If either aren’t right for you, it’s insanely uncomfortable. Also, I haven’t been able to find a way (with my body shape) to conceal a gun larger than a SIG P238. I seriously doubt I’d be able to hide my SIG P220 like I can with the typical IWB location.
The big thing, however, is that…well..let’s start a different way. When I’m carrying in the standard 4 o’clock location, the barrel is pointed so that if the ultimate fear came true, the firing bullet would graze my right butt cheek. Now, I know the wife would be disappointed because it would ruin a work of art but other than that it’s recoverable. With appendix carry, the barrel is almost constantly pointed directly at a major artery in my leg but more importantly it’s pointed at..uhm…my boys. My twig and berries. My meat and veggies. My wedding tackle. It’s pointed at them at all times.
Now I know that guns don’t “just go off”. The fact of the matter is that most negligent discharges happen when drawing from a holster (second only to cleaning, from what I’ve been able to find in my research). If I’m going to have an accident, which I hope never happens mind you, but if I do I think you know where I’d rather it happen: I’d rather have it in the painful yet recoverable spot as opposed to the more than likely going to kill you or at the very least horribly and permanently maim you location.
Your mileage might vary…
“As I’m getting older, my eyesight is getting bad and I’m having a lot of trouble seeing the sights on my gun anymore. Do you have any suggestions? I shoot a Glock 21 if that makes any difference.” -Rob M.
Yeesh, I’m sorry to hear that. While some would disagree with me, I’ve always felt the stock Glock sights were a bit difficult to use even with good vision (Glock fans, feel free to post your hate to me in the comments for that one). The upside is that there are a couple of great options available. The cheapest would be to swap out the stock sights for something a bit easier to see. The first that come to mind are the XS Sights by XS Sight Systems. These are really markets as “rapid acquisition” style sights but the GIANT and bright front sight really makes them easy to see. Sticking with a quick sight swap, another option are the fiber optic sights from TruGlo. These use a combination of bright green and red fiber optics for the rear and front sights, respectively. If even a slight amount of light hits these things they glow super bright and the alternating colors make them easy to pick up.
The final, more expensive route, is one used by the great Jerry Miculek. He’s been suffering from deteriorating eyesight for a while so he started using pistol mounted red dot sights. The upside is that you can easily shoot with both eyes open and that makes for rapid target acquisition. Red dots are very easy on the eyes and fun to use as well. The downside is that this has to be done by a gunsmith. The guys at Lone Wolf Distributors, which specializes in Glock modifications, has what they call their “Slide melt installation”. You send them your slide and they do everything that it needs and they send it back with the sight ready to go. The turnaround time as of this writing seems to be about 3-4 weeks. Keep in mind, it’s a permanent install, however, so if you don’t like it well…you’re out a Glock slide. Having shot a couple of pistols with red dots, however, I can’t see anyone disliking it.
So do you have a question burning in your mind? Every week we pick our favorite questions (or all the questions depending on how many we get) and answer them on Friday It doesn’t matter what it is, as long as it’s arguably gun related we want to hear it! Head over to our Facebook or Twitter or Contact Page and send them in. See you next Friday!
Like what you read? GunNoob is now part of Pew Pew Tactical. Check out the rest of our awesome resources:
Leave a Reply