The age old frustration by the female shooter inevitably comes back to being “I can’t find a holster that works for me!” How can we carry without looking pregnant or like we’re walking like a duck, without having to wear our boyfriend’s oversized flannel shirt to work, and while keeping the firearm safe from the kids. Let’s chat!
The purse option has never been on my radar – I left a notebook in a public restroom once when I was about fifteen years old and in only the few minutes it took me to return, it was gone! What if that was my purse today? My credit card, wedding picture, car keys and yes, my loaded firearm would be outside of my control. If you’ve ever left a purse in the bathroom or swung it over the back of your chair in a restaurant, I challenge that purse carry may not be for you…
When I’m carrying in the waistband, because of where modern jeans sit on my curvy hips, I have to increase size and style significantly enough that it changes my look to be straight out of the eighties with high waist denim and certainly without form-flattering lines.
I find few women wear belts – and I’m among the lot. And to add that it should be a 1.5-2 inch wide carry belt on sassy low-rise jeans or professional slacks is often simply not practical. So a paddle holster outside the waistband often works for me. Yet swung over low-rise jeans on a female hip protruding like the bottom vessel of an hourglass makes the toes of the person next to me in the line of muzzle direction, not to mention that I feel as though I’m walking like a duck. (Now, when I sling on my dueling custom leather holsters for a Cowboy Action match, don my red feather boa and cowgirl hat, the outside the waistband holsters on the hip helps me have the swagger I need to present the image. But for daily use, it’s just not for me.)
Appendix style carry is quite comfortable for me unless I’m driving, when as a right handed shooter my seatbelt gouges the grip and holster into my skin. Otherwise, I think it’s my most comfortable carry position, and the plastic paddle holster which came with my XDM .45 ACP fits securely over my waistband here, yet I have to wear my husband’s oversized shirt to conceal it (which can be sexy as all get-out ~unless you then look pregnant trying to conceal a full size grip).
Carrying in the small of my back conceals my .45ACP best, but I’d be more comfortable with it if I had eyes in the back of my head. My kids actually say that I do, yet I just don’t like taking the risk that a bad guy or kiddos behind me might be able to reach for it before I can or that I can’t see if my shirt might be riding above it as I reach for something. And I feel like Barney Fife with a shoulder rig, and that just won’t do.
In wanting to keep feeling sexy AND safe, my most common carry placement is now in my Femme Fatale Holsters’ corset holster. It is a lacey little number, comes in great colors, and contrary to the name does NOT cinch you like Jane Austen or your grandma. The sizing directions were understandable and I think I got it right on my first try. It shipped promptly and was in my mailbox within a week – and living where I do in the middle of nowhere, that’s not always the case.
As a 5’9”, size 10, right handed shooter, both a 9mm with compact grip, such as the S&W M&P and the Sig P938, conceal very well with a form-fitting professional blouse or t-shirt. The barrel length is of no concern ~ the barrel of my XDM .45 ACP doesn’t print or dig into my skin as I bend. (I do wonder if a full size barrel when worn in this style holster on a shorter woman might be of concerns as she bends??) However the grip on the larger caliber, full size gun is too difficult to conceal with only C-cups, so I have opted for the compact 9mm as my Carry choice when using this holster…
(Now, reducing ammunition caliber in itself has been a mindset and emotional shift. But at least I am now willing to carry 100% of the time. It does nobody any good at home in a box! )
One last note ~ as I have practiced drawing from a plastic holster from my hip and appendix placements thousands of times, even my trigger finger has developed a sort of memory for what that ‘should’ feel like (to be touching plastic or leather before resting on the slide)!
In my initial experiments drawing from my new lacy Femme Fatale Holster, I realized my brain and trigger finger actually might have this elusive concept of ‘muscle memory’. As I have practiced so many thousands of times from my plastic and fabric waistband holsters, my trigger finger actually seemed to gravitate toward the inside of the lacy holsters so that my finger rested on the polymer or metal of the gun, or to find plastic or leather somewhere, rather than stay atop the lace at the pouch opening of the corset (just under my breasts) as I drew.
I suppose I could have trained my finger to follow the slide inside the pouch as I gripped the pistol and to have it rest directly on the slide as I drew. From a safety aspect, instead I’ve chosen to train my muscles and brain to have it instead rest on the outside of the lace, feeling the position of the frame from the outside as I draw the gun upwards, while having a secure grip which includes my right thumb being wrapped around to the left side of the gun, and my trigger finger then falls directly onto the slide as I draw and expose the full slide until I am ready to enter the trigger guard. Now after just weeks of daily practice of drawing in this manner, my trigger finger isn’t entering the pouch blindly and is in perfect position to rest securely on the slide as it appears from the lace pouch until I am ready to shoot, and I am much more confident to carry in this manner.
This is a terrific holster for me and has significantly increased my mental willingness and practical ability to carry anywhere, anytime. My gun doesn’t do me any good hiding at my bedside if I’m too uncomfortable to carry it! FemmeFataleHolsters.com ~ Thank you for selling me a great product! You’ve got a winner in my book!
*I received no goods or services in exchange for this review.
