All posts tagged CCW Clothing

Pocket guns and getting dressed up for CCW

Many of you that are married may not have the option of dressing  yourself, but I have often been told that I can not wear a certain type of pant or shirt when I was going out because it clashed with what my wife was wearing.   CCW clothing options are very limited even though there are plenty of tactical clothing companies offering concealed carry or covert carry clothing.   I did a few trips to local gun shops and picked up Proper, Tru-Spec, Woolrich Elite, 5.11 tactical and a few other clothing options and the sizing variations was a nightmare.   I was buying 36/34  pants to 38/32 pants depending on the manufacturer and that was what I had to do to just get the fit right.

When it comes to shirt options, that’s a much hard sell.   I haven’t been able to buy anything other than 5.11, Blackhawk and Woolrich Elite shirts and a couple Eotac shirts, but there was not a lot of versatility.  If I wanted to do out of uniform Law Enforcement duty then the tactical clothing companies worked, but if I had to pass the Wife’s going out for dinner options, I did not have a lot to wear that didn’t get flak from her.  I highly recommend the Woolrich Elite Oxford shirts and the Woolrich Elite CCW shirts.

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Elastic waistbands, it doesn’t feel right without it anymore

I just put in an order for several new Galco holsters that I’m going to try to work with a few regual jeans I own because I recently hurt my side with a kydex holster on a pair of jeans that were suppose to be for CCW but I found them to royally suck because they didn’t have an elastic waistband.   I’m half wondering if this 5.11 tactical jean has been discontinued because I see them being sold at clearance levels of under $20.   I’m still testing out various type of tactical clothing from Tru-Spec and Blackhawk, but I’m a little overwhelmed with what I have being tested out right now.   I had to give up on IWB holsters for these 5.11 pants because they just don’t cut it.   I will be trying a Don Hume Jit holster and see if that works.

I had good luck with the Eotac 502 jeans because they had an elastic waistband, but I actually had issues with the Woolrich Elite tactical pants that were almost identical looking.  The waistband on the Woolrich 44909 seemed to be thicker and my IWB holster from JS holsters had trouble clipping onto the belt due to the thickness….weird.   I personally like the idea of having less tactical pockets on jeans because jeans really can’t be tactical looking if you want them to be CCW.  Most guys are going to want the straight leg pants and a more washed look to them.   I really have limited ways of carrying in the summer because every time I have to walk out of the door at this time of year I have to wear layers of clothing or a heavy jacket and it’s hard to really test out shirts.

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Concealed carry pants and backup weapons

tactical pantsI still run into friends that laugh at the whole concealed carry market and say that the pants and shirts all look tactical and not very concealed carry.   There are arguments all over the internet about not wearing camoflauge while carrying a gun or wearing anything that makes you look like you’re packing.   Well, I’ve spotted plenty of off duty cops that were wearing t-shirts and jeans, but the shaved heads and the polite manners basically gave away the fact they were LEOs, so how do you hide that?

Here’s the realty,  keep your eyes open, situational awareness is more important that what type of clothing you are wearing.   I agree that looking like a SWAT team member with tactical pants  might make you a primary target if you are in the middle of a bank robbery, but if you spotted the bank robber first and left the building or confronted him before he confronted you, who cares what you are wearing.   In this day and age, with so many pocket guns ect.  many regular clothing designs are not comfortable to use if you are carrying mace or firearms and accessories.  The Eotac style 205 pants have side zipper pockets that can hold firearms or mace and are very good for backup weapons.   The Kimber Guardian angel works very well in these pockets and although there are other similiar looking pants out there, these look more like men’s jeans and feel like them wear other tactical pants or concealed carry looking pants are a purplish blue and not very manly looking.

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