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Pancake or Check Six

NeverAgain

Regular Member
Joined
Jul 4, 2011
Messages
20
Location
Mississippi
Anyone use either of these? I have a Serpa but my gun still makes a print. I have even adjusted it as far as it will go. I am using a 2" gun belt it helped better than when I was using a regular belt. So which of these two holsters would you suggest?
 

carry for myself

Regular Member
Joined
May 1, 2011
Messages
544
Location
Maine
no matter what you do. if you CC with a serpa. you WILL print. i've tried every single way there is, and barring a HEAVY winter coat. your gonna print.

pancake holsters also print in summer weather. unless yet agian your wearing a coat.

IWB holsters are better for CC. especially in thin framed weapons. Galco makes the kingtuck2 for around $54 does a great job for CC.

if your wearing a long shirt. a SOB *small of back* leather OBW holster would not print.

but t-shirt.......work shirt.....tank top..........go with IWB.

Serpas make great OC holsters , but even though they say "concealment" on the box. they are absolute crap for "concealment" :) hope this helps
 

thebigsd

Founder's Club Member
Joined
Mar 23, 2010
Messages
3,535
Location
Quarryville, PA
I have a Galco FLETCH holster that I use with my Springfield XD, I don't notice a considerable amount of printing when wearing a t-shirt or something similar. If you are looking at IWB for concealment, you should look at the Crossbreed Supertuck. As for pancakes holsters, they tend to fall apart when you add butter and syrup :)
 

Dreamer

Regular Member
Joined
Sep 23, 2009
Messages
5,360
Location
Grennsboro NC
All snarky comments aside, there are FOUR main factors with controlling "printing" while CCing.

1) holster configuration (IWB, OWB, angle of cant, deflection from body)
2) body geometry issues (narrow waist, wide hips, thick middle, etc)
3) size and geometry of the gun's grip butt
4) clothing (and this is the one people seem to ignore the most--but is actually the easiest and cheapest to fix!)

If you are going to insist on an OWB holster for CC, you are REALLY limiting the rest of the factors as to what you can effectively CC with little or no printing. Some OWBs side more snugly than others--Serpas are notorious for sticking out. Leather holsters generally ride more snug, and a 3:30-4 o'clock carry is probably better than SOB because it's easier to draw from, and you can't sit in a car or chair comfortably for any length of time if you're carrying SOB...

I often use a Galco Side Snap Scabbard for "dressy CC". IT is shug to my body, comfy as all get out, and I can CC a full-size Para Ordnance S-14.45 under a sports coat with almost NO printing.

If you are a woman, CC can be problematic too, because female hip/torso geometry tends to be VERY different from male geometry, and most holsters are designed for men, and they tend to ride TOO snugly against your side (biting into your waist above the belt) and sticking out at odd angles below the belt. If you are a woman, get a CC holster specifically designed for women, or a "mainstream" holster that rides comfortably on your body.

If you are male and overweight, then my only suggestion is to either slim down, or move to a state that doesn't have laws against "printing". Really...

If you are trying to CC a full-size pistol (1911, duty-sized Glock, Beretta, etc) chances are the bottom corner of the butt will print like heck, and there is really NOTHING you can do about that. Get a smaller gun for CC, or if you have the money, have a competent gunsmith do a "bobtail" job on your gun's butt.

And last, but certainly not least--CLOTHING. Most men don't know jack about how clothing works visually to accentuate the body, and so they just wear whatever is comfy or what they have in their closet for CC. Here's a little trick--busy patterns will cover up weird lumps or curves on your silhouette and make "printing" much less likely to be noticed by most people. A trained eye can spot a CCer in a crowd no matter HOW well their clothing camouflages it, or no matter how well-designed his holster is, but the right clothes will keep your CCed firearm "invisible" to about 99% of the general public.

Hawaiian shirts are sort of the "unofficial uniform" for male CCers in the US. Their bright colors, busy patters and random designs serve to confuse the eye's pattern-recognition circuits and will optically slim you down a little, as will camouflage the irregular bumps and lumps created in your body's otherwise symmetrical profile.

Checkered or plaid shirts work well too, but not as well as random patterns.

Light solid color shirts are probably the worst because every little ripple, crease, and bulge caused by a CCed gun will cause a shadow to appear on the surface of the shirt, and make it obvious that you've got SOMETHING on your hip.

Get some Hawaiian shirts. Get a decent holster, and get a smaller pistol. And slim down if you're heavy. That's pretty much the best solution...
 

Brass Magnet

Founder's Club Member
Joined
Apr 23, 2009
Messages
2,818
Location
Right Behind You!, Wisconsin, USA
Dreamers post is excellent.

I would like to point out though that I wouldn't be caught dead in a Hawaiian shirt.

That being said, I'm a little thick; not obese mind you but I've got a little "toad back" going on if you follow. However; I can conceal my HK-USPc (which is really not very small) quite well in a Crossbreed Supertuck. This was done, for me, in one of the ways Dreamer mentioned but I'd like to put a little more emphasis on it. Cant angle made a HUGE difference with my body type and firearm. It was literally the difference in between hardly concealed at all and nearly invisible. I've got mine canted one notch away from full forward and sitting about 4 o'clock. If you don't get it away from 3 o'clock you can really see your pants and waste appearing lop sided. At 4, I find that when standing up, you can't see that from the front view or side view.

Anyway, after the adjustments I'm quite happy with the concealability. It will print only when I bend all the way over with a tucked in shirt, or a shirt that's too tight.

Lastly I'd like to point out that you can conceal almost anything in the winter in Wisconsin! Poor southerners. :p I'd like to see even a professional try to pick a guy concealing a pistol out of a crowd when it's 30 below! In the summer, we're stuck with doing the best we can, same as you guys.
 
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