The traveling holster: a wardrobe for handguns

Guns Magazine, Feb, 2009 by Massad Ayoob

If travel will--or even may--include carry, make sure the provisions are in the suitcases. I'm on the road a lot. One thing I've learned is--just as at home--the traveling handgunner needs a wardrobe of holsters as surely as a wardrobe of clothes. You simply pack fewer of each. Whether we're talking clothes or gunleather, this means extra attention must be applied.

The last trip involved both courtroom appearances and firearms training and range work. Two very different wardrobes. Two decidedly different carry environments, too.

When teaching, I usually have two handguns with me: one double action revolver and one semi-automatic pistol. so I can demonstrate handling, reloading, malfunction clearance, etc. with each major type of defensive sidearm. That generally takes the form of a full size "duty" auto on the strong side hip, and a small revolver in a "backup" location.

TSA Compliance

This time around, the guns were a 9mm Sig P226R autoloader and a .357 Smith & Wesson Model 340 M&P super-light snub-nose revolver. They rode together in a hardshell DMC gun case with integral locks and spare keys, inside hardshell Samsonite suitcases. This gives full compliance with all TSA and individual domestic airline regs.

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In a separate hardshell suitcase were three 50-round boxes of ammo. Two were for the Sig (Federal 9BPLE 115-grain +P+ 9mm hollowpoints) and one was for the Smith (Speer Gold Dot 135-grain +P .38 Special). TSA limits you to 11 pounds of ammo in checked baggage, and some airlines have cut that to seven pounds, so I travel with just the carry loads.

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Training amino, practice ammo and match ammo can be bought on the ground at the destination, and if I'm going someplace where you need a state ID card to purchase ammunition. I'll ship mine to myself at the hotel or the host site ahead of time by UPS. The ammo in the suitcase is in factory boxes, with each cartridge individually supported within the container, per the strictest interpretation of TSA regulations. I put rubber bands around the boxes to keep them from spilling inside the luggage if they get rough treatment from the baggage handlers.

Carry Methods

Legal to carry concealed at each place the trip took me, I made sure I had something to go with each wardrobe. For court, l had one business suit and one blazer/slacks outfit. Each were sized for proper fit, so I brought a Ted Blocker outside the belt thumb-break holster. These waistbands were sized to fit me, not me and a bolstered pistol, so IWB holsters would have been uncomfortable. Leaving the blazer or suit coat unbuttoned allowed discreet carry without "printing."

Tropical-weight suit pants tend to be made of light material that lends itself to bulging with even small handguns in the pockets. So, I threw in an Alessi ankle holster for a J-frame. The pleated slacks and the straight-cut legs of the suit pants covered it just fine.

The rest of the time I wore comfortable, lightweight BDUs. These "cargo pants" have generous, heavy duty pockets and a roomy cut to the legs, so my preferred Safariland pocket holster designed by Bill Rogers went into my left front trouser pocket. I find it quicker to reach there under many circumstances. These pants also have elasticized waistbands, and I order them 2" larger in the waist to allow for inside the waistband (IWB) holsters.

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Like most people, I find IWB to be the most concealable method for belt carry. The Sig rode on those comfortable days in another Ted Blocker system, the LFI Concealment Rig. The inside of the dress gunbelt is lined with Velcro, which mates with Velcro tabs on the holster and the spare magazine pouch, both of which ride inside the pants. Concealment was such the big service pistol hid well under an untucked, 1-size-larger polo shirt, and simply disappeared under a photographer's vest, blazer or rain jacket for downpour days at the range.

Opposite Hand Options

An elastic bellyband is always handy for gun concealment in side the waistband. I generally have a comfortable old Bianchi Ranger unit with me on trips. I find it works best with a big handgun behind the strong side hip, like today's popular "tuckable" holsters, or with the snub revolver butt-forward to the left of the belly button, if I'm wearing a tucked-in shirt and no separate cover garment. By simply turning the bellyband inside out, it reverses from right handed to left handed.

Over the years, I've experienced the occasional injury to the dominant hand or arm while on the road. In 1981, sustaining a crushing comminuted fracture of my trigger finger at the base joint on the way to Chapman Academy Advanced Pistol School, I discovered it's not smart to wait until after you're hurt to look around for some way to carry your gun accessible to the non-dominant hand. The belly gun in the left trouser pocket, and the reversible bellyband, covered me nicely on this trip, though I managed not to get hurt. When my travel gun is a Glock, I throw one of Glock's own ambidextrous polymer holsters into the suitcase. It never hurts to be prepared.