Your first time

[Sonora Rebel]

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bomber wrote:

wolfman90 wrote:

I am very new to the whole firearms world. I was wondering how you all out there finally got the courage to finally open carry for the first time. I know that there will be some out there that will say that they have always had the courage, but as of now I am not. Any words of wisdom would be appriciated.

just do it. forget about the consequences. peoples reactions may or may not come, but f*** em, they're just people. i open carry every chance i get, and i have not had any problems yet. one lady got huge eyeballs when she saw my gun on my hip in the bank, but in 6 months, thats the only reaction i have gotten so far.

'be nice to add your location Bomber... at least what state.

 

[petrophase]

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My first time OCing was at a regional, midsized hardware store.

Three employees helped me, and they all saw I was carrying. Two of them tried hard to ignore it, and treated me like a first-class citizen. The third was a little old lady at the register. Her eyes widened so much I thought they were gonna fall out! The worst thing about it was that I had a handful of 10' PVC pipe that wasn't properly labeled, so we had to manhandle it around and around to find the barcode. Not exactly the low impact, in-and-out scenario I'd hoped for. We found it after a while, I paid and left. Aside from the bug-eyes the little old lady was very,very polite. No one asked me about the gun. I assume nobody called in MWAG; I was out in the parking lot for 10 minutes trying to load the pipe on my truck, no cops. Overall it was a very positive experience.

 

[groats]

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Vipersx911 wrote:

   I can honestly say I have only open carried a few times in my life as I haven't been old enough to own a handgun for very long. Being from California (Which I have yet to carry in) it is tough. Law Enforcement watches you like a hawk and often times will approach in all of the stories I have heard.

This is going to make you feel bad:

I grew up in So. California back before people there got too much sun and fried their brains.

It was not unusual at all to see ranch hands with holsters and loaded revolvers walking down main st, eating lunch, shopping - whatever. No SWAT teams were called out, no MWAG reports made.

I used to ride a motorcycle with a gun on my hip. Got pulled over for speeding a couple of times, no mention at all was made about the gun one time, the other time the officer said "you going shooting" - "well, have fun".

 

[open4years]

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I knew it was legal to OC with my permit, but it isn't common in my state. I thought it would be best to ask the Chief of police and the Sherrif if they and their officers were okay with it. I was surprised that they didn't have a problem with it.

I've OCed since 1985 and I've only had one LEO who felt I should carry concealed. It really seemed more of an ego issue with him as it was obvious he felt only LEOs should OC, even though he was aware it was legal to do so.

I did feel nervous to begin with and it showed. As my confidence increased, the less I was bothered. It has been two years since anyone questioned my carrying. The rest of LE has been great about it. Oh, the LEO who had a problem was eventually fired due to the way he treated the public.

 

[SouthernBoy]

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open4years wrote:

I knew it was legal to OC with my permit, but it isn't common in my state. I thought it would be best to ask the Chief of police and the Sherrif if they and their officers were okay with it. I was surprised that they didn't have a problem with it.

I've OCed since 1985 and I've only had one LEO who felt I should carry concealed. It really seemed more of an ego issue with him as it was obvious he felt only LEOs should OC, even though he was aware it was legal to do so.

I did feel nervous to begin with and it showed. As my confidence increased, the less I was bothered. It has been two years since anyone questioned my carrying. The rest of LE has been great about it. Oh, the LEO who had a problem was eventually fired due to the way he treated the public.

Forgot who his boss was, eh?