Primary Carry and Backup Carry

[Will Carry]

I said I would rather carry an extra gun than an extra magazine, in truth, I usually carry one gun and no extra mags. Sometimes I carry a pocket pistol as a back up.

Really spoolie? Do you get pleasure out of belittling other people's posts? It reminds me of some other D Bag on TGO?

Edited June 16, 2011 by Will Carry

[daddyo]

What a laugh. The same guys who criticize others for carrying a BUG don't understand when they're criticized for carrying at all.

2 guns is one; one is NONE.

Q: What's the definition of paranoid?

A:Someone who's more prepared than you.

[Guest friesepferd]

i think having a bug can't be a bad idea.

i have never thought of your personal reason before, but there are plenty of other reasons to carry a bug if you can.

personally, i just cant. its hard enough concealing one gun on a body like mine. pocket guns are out of the question unless its winter time.

dont get me wrong, i CAN carry two guns, but it would be really hard for me. i would have to wear guy pants (which i often do anyways, but certainly not all the time) if i wanted to do any kind of pocket gun, and even then it would have to be a very small one.

i dont mean to mock you in any way, but if you do have a problem with the belly, please do look at working on that as well.

you do enough properation against bad guys that you want to have a 2nd gun, but what about yourself?

If you are overweight, you are MUCH more likely to die by heart attack, etc than you are because you got shot in your right arm and cant reach your gun with your left.

[kwe45919]

Ive tried 2 different ways of carrying a second gun. Tried carrying my G19 IWB on my Right hip and my G26 in a LH IWB around the 7 to 8 oclock position. These along with a spare 15rnd mag became to much weight and it became cumbersum to move around comfortably not to mention having to keep up with 2 guns being presented to someone whom is attacking you that may have you knocked down or have your back. I figured I'd try 2 G26's for poops-n-giggles in various positions with various holsters......still a big negatory.

I've come to terms with being confortable carrying one gun and one mag for reload pending on the days activities. The mag stays the same, a G19 but no matter weather I'm carrying the G19 or the G26, the holster presentation is the same as will be the reload.

Some say having faith in your main gun is silly as it could jam or not fire for some odd reason so you'll always need a back up. Well, IMO, I carry a weapon that has been proven reliable (as many of us do) so I tend to have to have faith in the firearm to work the first time and every time. We all keep up with regular maintence of cleanning or changing out springs so why worry about your personal defense gun not working?? That's the sole reason many of us carry what we do....we know they work.

Still, to each his own to what he feels confortable with.......

Edited June 16, 2011 by kwe45919

[daddyo]

Still, to each his own to what he feels confortable with.......

EXACTLY.

[Guest ArmaDeFuego]

If you are overweight, you are MUCH more likely to die by heart attack, etc than you are because you got shot in your right arm and cant reach your gun with your left.

Amen to that.

I personally dont think I will ever carry a BUG. Many things would have to happen that have a very small chance of happening for it to ever be needed. I would have to be in a self defense situation, my main carry gun would have to either A) run out of bullets (I got 13 in the mag I carry) or Jam (which isnt likely. Its a Springfield & has never jammed on me once so far...)

I just personally dont see the point in it. Whats really funny, is that like friesepferd pointed out, the people who carry a BUG probably have all kinds of other things going on that would be much more likely to cause their death than a bad guy shooting their strong hand or their gun misfiring.

I wonder how many people who carry BUGs dont buckle their seatbelt when they get in a car? Hahahaha.

But really to each their own. If you wanna carry a BUG more power to you. Its your right & I would certainly never try to get in the way of that.

[Guest TnRebel]

My EDC ... cant never have to much fire power, look at every nut case shooting since Columbine !

[daddyo]

Just wondering how many of the ones who frown at carrying a BUG have any SD training?

[JC57]

I don't "frown at" it, as in disapprove of you or others for doing it. That's your choice and it has no bearing on me. However, it's not something I feel that I need to do. Why stop at 2? Why not three, or four? And don't forget knives.

My only self defense training was in the police academy years ago, and then ongoing in-service training classes for about 13 years. Never was the idea of a backup gun touched upon that I can remember, and I'm pretty sure I would have been reprimanded, suspended, or ridiculed if I had carried one. Most of our weapons training was related to being able to use the one pistol (and shotgun) effectively, knowing when NOT to use it, and in retention techniques to make sure it didn't get taken away.

Turns out, contrary to the movies, TV, and what you would assume from the internet, police work is not a constant gunfight. Most of the time is spent driving, talking to people, and writing reports. I did carry two pens, though, and two sets of handcuffs. Those did get some use.

Edit: So as to keep on track with the OP - I am not thin, but I am flexible enough to reach behind my back with my left hand and draw a weapon that is carried in the 3:00 to 5:00 position, unless it is in some kind of extreme forward-cant holster with a thumbsnap or other retention system that is designed to prevent access. I have actually practiced doing that in the past, and it works, but how easy it is would depend on the holster design.

Edited June 18, 2011 by JC57

[graycrait]

Left hand Glock and Right hand Glock:)

[DaveTN]

Just wondering how many of the ones who frown at carrying a BUG have any SD training?

I don’t know if that was directed at me, but I was in no way frowning on it. Quite the opposite I was laughing at it. I don’t think that you shouldn’t do it if you feel the need. And I certainly don’t think there should be anything that stops you from carrying so many guns you have trouble walking. It just makes me smile when I see it.

Training? You go first….

[Guest spoolie]

Just wondering how many of the ones who frown at carrying a BUG have any SD training?

I have none...0, but I carry a solid weapon and practice way more than anyone here does. I've shot so many rounds through one of my carries it needed rebuilding and spring kit. My weapon will fire every time and I can guarantee I hit at what I aim at.

No "back up gun" needed here....and I'm a fatass too.

[Guest friesepferd]

haha. last thing we need here is to get in a 'who has more training' war.

they fact is, it is possible for your gun to jam in a nonfixable way, reguardless of the fact that it never has before.

it is possible that you may be dissarmed, or many other reasons why a bug could save your life.

It is my opinion that you should do everything you can within reason to protect yourself. Because of that, I am all for people carrying as many guns as they can without it being a hiderance. For me, I have found that number to be one. Some people find that number to be two, good for them.

Some (but very very few) people may indeed find that number to be zero.

I don't mind people doing whatever they want when it comes to this stuff. I certainly would not critisize anyone for carrying two guns.

[daddyo]

I don’t know if that was directed at me, but I was in no way frowning on it. Quite the opposite I was laughing at it. I don’t think that you shouldn’t do it if you feel the need. And I certainly don’t think there should be anything that stops you from carrying so many guns you have trouble walking. It just makes me smile when I see it.

Training? You go first….

First of all, I wasn't trying to indicate that I had more training than anyone else. Every instructor I have had encourages carrying two weapons. One even encouraged carrying three if you could manage it.

Secondly, I carry a primary and a backup. But I've gotten so good at concealing them, I can guarantee you that you'd never know I was carrying at all. I don't say that to brag. My point is that if I can do it, anyone can do it. All it takes is being committed to carry and to self-defense.

I'm amazed at the number of folks who throw a .25 in their pocket and somehow think that they are prepared for anything. Dumbfounding to say the least.

I'm done.

[Guest Drewglynn]

I often carry a small nine on my belt and a p32 in my pocket, not so much as a backup,although it could serve that purpose, but because most every weekend I might end up somewhere while I'm out where I don't want the nine to be noticed, but I'd still like to have options.. Like when I take my little girl to the park around other kids and their parents..I can just leave the nine locked in the truck. It's legal to Carry there now where I live but I don't think it's a good place to open carry.

[JAB]

I don't always carry a BUG. When I do, I don't view it as a stand-in for my primary but, instead, envision a slightly different role.

My BUG is generally a NAA in .22WMR. Not the best defensive caliber, sure, but as I said I don't see it as a stand in for my primary. It is not a primary carry gun and I do not treat it as such. Instead, it is a 'get off me' gun. Further, (and, really, more importantly) in the summer I can carry it with shotshells as the first two up. That way, I can be ready for an entirely different type of SD situation than we normally think of - and one that is probably more likely than having to defend myself against a street thug given my rural location. I see this as advantageous because it means I don't have to either give up an already limited capacity of SD rounds if I carry a revolver or carry rounds that probably won't cycle the action if I am carrying a semiauto.

Now, if for some reason I find myself in a 'contact' situation with an assailant and have a real fear for my life then you can bet I would empty the little fellah into an attacker's gut in order to create some space, if necessary. In fact, I think it would make a perfect 'belly gun'. Also, no matter how many 'flawless' rounds I put through a semiauto, I will never completely trust one of them not to jam on the next shot. Sometimes, however, I go places where I like having the greater capacity of a semiauto. Having a backup revolver - even something like an NAA - is just reassuring, for me. Further, if carrying a revolver I am aware of the limited capacity and that they are relatively slow to reload so the NAA gives me just a few more rounds to work with, just in case. After all, I carry not because something is likely to happen but more 'just in case' so why not carry a BUG 'just in case'?

I will say that when my primary is carried in a pocket that I don't generally carry the BUG as I have other stuff that has to go in the other pocket. If carrying OWB, however, the NAA will ride completely unnoticed (by others and, for the most part, even by myself) in the offhand pocket.

And, really, that is what it boils down to, for me. I don't imagine I'd ever carry two 'full sized' guns but carrying that NAA in my offhand pocket creates no issues for me beyond the issues created by carrying one gun. I don't envision doing a tactical entry with my NAA blazing but then I don't envision doing a tactical entry, period. The weight is negligible and so is the size. In other words, beyond the fact that I believe there are good reasons for carrying it, I can see no good reason not to carry it.

Edited June 20, 2011 by JAB

[Guest Th3KhansMosin]

I usually just carry my primary far enough around the back of my strong side that I could reach it behind my back with my off hand if I needed to...I have a smaller backup carry option but I use it as a different carry option for extremely light clothing as opposed to as an additional backup. Not at all against the idea of a small backup if you feel it is needed though, everyone's carry situation and philosophy will be different.

Bottom line, use what works for you, and what you are going to be COMPETENT defending yourself with.

[Guest Gfrk]

[ProjectDexter]

"I've got two guns, one for each of you ..."

[Guest Gfrk]

^ yes...

[Guest Ugrey]

Why carry a second gun? Just a few of my experiences from 32 years of gun ownership.

One pistol I took to the range one day fired the first shot and the slide chambered the next round. That second round would not fire. The firing pin tip had broken.

I once unloaded a magazine that had been loaded about a year and had been my spare beside my bed. The brass of one round had corroded so badly it was fused to the magazine wall. The spring could not push the other rounds up. That would have been a 1 shot magazine.

About 30 years ago I cleaned a stainless revolver with WD-40, bad idea. It penetrated and swelled the primers in the rounds I had loaded it with. I could have sworn I cleaned it all out and dried it all out, before reloading. The cylinder would not rotate to fire, 2 months later. I learned a lesson on that one.

I have had an extractor in a home defense rifle that chipped very slightly, and it would not extract without jamming.

I have seen friends have magazine floor plates that let go and dumped all the rounds and the magazine guts on the ground while they were firing.

I have known people who had ejectors break while firing their pistols.

I had the assembly pin walk out of my brothers Kel Tec P11 while I was firing it. That locked up the gun.

My brother had a frame pin walk out of a Glock 19 he was firing.

I have known people who lost a front or rear sight while firing.

I saw a guys Glock go KaBoom, in one pistol class I was in. Yes he was firing reloads.

I am sure I am forgetting a few more stories, but are some of you starting to understand that guns break? What do you do if it breaks at the worst possible time? Stand there with just a smile on your face? Two is one, and one is none.

I am pretty sure something else is going to kill me other than some bad guy, but can any of you give me a double my life back gaurantee on that? Can you promise me my main pistol will NEVER break? Do some of you think you can read the future?

Back up guns can also be handed to unarmed friends in time of danger. (For example, my brother has a carry permit, but he does not always carry) They can be drawn by your other hand, depending on where you carry them. I cannot quickly draw my main weapon while seated, but my pistol on my ankle is easy and quick to draw while seated in a restaraunt or car.

We are all playing the odds on this. I pray to God I will never have to pull a pistol on another human being, and I probably will not ever. But, I would like to survive long enough to die of old age.

Get some training and listen to people who have more experience than you do. I have, and they have ALL told me to carry a back up pistol. A word to the wise is sufficient.

[Guest ArmaDeFuego]

Why carry a second gun? Just a few of my experiences from 32 years of gun ownership..........

Everything that you mentioned could just as easily happen to your BUG. Better make sure you have 3 guns on you.... No wait, all those things could happen to that 3rd gun too! Better have 4 guns!! No wait.....

It all comes down to what risk you feel comfortable taking. Your odds of ever getting into any type of self defense shooting situation are already extremely low. I'm sure you have a better chance of hitting the Powerball than you do of getting into a self defense situation with a well maintained reliable gun and ​it catastrophically failing on you. But hey, if its comfortable for you to tote around 2 (or more) guns everywhere you go in the extremely unlikely event that that happens, more power to you.

Do you wear two seat belts in your car?

[daddyo]

I personally don't care whether anyone else carries two or if they even carry at all.

All that matters to me is that I do.

[Guest Ugrey]

Arma, I have always had a mild interest in automobile racing and one thing I have noticed since I was 7 or 8, is that most racecar drivers walk away from their accidents. My father, a lawyer, also brought home automobile accident reports along with photos, and he let me read and see them. So, yes, I have always worn my seatbelt because people I respected showed me, and told me, why it was a good idea.

I am going to guess that my life experience and where I live, Memphis, are a little bit different from what you know and have known. I lived through and saw the King riots here in 1968. I saw the National Guard convoy go right by my house from the Armory to downtown. That means I have seen M113 APCs, trucks and jeeps full of Guardsmen drive right by my house. I later saw the looted and burned buildings downtown. I saw armed guardsmen on EVERY single corner downtown. About 12 years later, Memphis had a Police AND firemans strike go on for about a week one Summer. Again the Gaurd was called out and I saw them patrol the city and gaurd the few remaining firemen as they tried to work fires. We had about 10 major fires in the city on a Saturday night and it looked like a scene from a war movie. I will never forget that smell. My dad used to take me into the jail from time to time, and there I got to see some very bad people close up. I have always understood there are people in this world who would eat you, and worse, if they thought they could get away with it.

On a more personal level, I was shot at by 3 urban yutes when I was a paper carrier putting myself through college and I caught them stealing papers. One Summer night when I was at home from another college, 3 urban yutes jumped my parents at the back door and it was thought at the time that only the house alarm kept them from dragging my parents on inside with them. I had heard the alarm and I was standind on the up stairs landing with an M1 carbine waiting for whoever had broken into the house to come into view. All that was in a very nice part of town.

I live in a nice part of town now and I have had 2 stolen cars dumped beside my house and stripped, one bank robber crashed into the fence next door, and was captured there. I have had two people try to come into my house while I was home in the last 10 years. I have had to pull a pistol on 2 different people who were advancing on me in my own yard. One was one of the two who had tried to break into my house and the other was drunk, high and/or crazy, advancing on me in my own yard and telling me he was going to kill me. He was about 6 foot 3 and 250. I am not close to that size. I have had about 7 of my cars or visitors cars broken into in the last 10 years while parked in my driveway. Very little was stolen, and the best I or the Officers can figure, is that they were looking for the garage door opener. According to my neighborhood Emails, we have a burgler who has gone into two occupied homes in the last 2 weeks and he has pried at the windows of several others. This last spring I had someone try 3 times in 14 days to break through my fence gate to get to my back shed, I hope. I hope that was the case because around the same time we had a "bigfoot" thief kicking in back doors, in the daytime, alarmed or not, and taking whatever he could grab in 3 minutes.

Before you ask, yes, I am trying to move out of this city. Wanna buy a house in Memphis?

Maybe in Clarksville you do not feel a need to carry a back up pistol, good for you. I am going to take Massad Ayoob's advice, and a whole lot of other people I respect, and carry a back up pistol. I think he knows a whole lot more about this subject matter than you do.

[Guest ArmaDeFuego]

Well yea if you live somewhere where WW3 could break out any moment you probably should have a couple guns on you & a few more in the car any time you go out! Like I said, I totally respect anyone's right to have as many handguns on them as they feel like carrying.

I went to Memphis a couple times for job interviews & for my wife's Green Card interview. Lets just say its not my favorite place. This was back before I had my carry permit. If I ever have to go back there again I might just carry a BUG with me hahaha