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My biggest change has been mindset and preparedness. Sure I have rotated a few different weapons and about a dozen holsters in the past 13 years but the real difference is that I am mentally prepared to use them where as in the first few years I carried and felt like the gun was what made me safe... looking back I was not prepared mentally, even though I was physically.

For me, at first I thought everyone was looking at me, with Superman x ray vision. I could swear the cashier at Walmart knew I was carrying, so did the guy at the next pump at the gas station, and the police officer I ate next to at McDonalds.

But the longer I carried, the more I realized that people aren't aware of details like a small bulge from my side.

So now, I rarely worry if I am printing, because what I consider printing is a "lump" to someone else. Carried my Colt Govt model yesterday, in a OWB with just a t shirt on over it. No one even looked.

I am careful, just not anxious anymore.

I've only been carrying a year and half here in Texas but I have been through two different carry guns and a couple different holsters. I started with a Kahr CW45 so I could have something slim small to carry so I wouldn't print. The Kahr and I just never got along when I practiced at the range.

I swapped for a Glock 30 because I could shoot it well. I worried it would be easy to spot. Yeah, IWB no one can tell. Shorts and a t-shirt and I have the G30 IWB with a spare mag in my pocket. In fact, if I'm wearing a button-down shirt un-tucked or a Hawaiian shirt I'll carry my Glock 21.

I started shooting IDPA. It has given me an object lesson in the realities of shooting under pressure. I have sought out carry training as well. I practice my draw regularly and with the types of concealment I usually wear. It has also given me a reason to buy lots of ammo and make new friends.

I moved here owning one pistol. I now have 4, a shotgun for skeet/trap, and a scoped hunting rifle (going to experience my first hunt this year). I plan on getting more sometime after the holidays so my wife doesn't kill me.

In the 16+ years since I received my first carry license (NC '97) there's be a sea change in available weapons, holsters, belts, ammo, etc. Even over the last few years 9mm loads have improved to the point that I'd choose 9mm if I was buying today. In 1997 I carried a G17. Concealment? By 2004(?) I was carrying a Kahr PM40 and was actually able to carry it 90% of the time, thanks to its small, concealable size. But I hated shooting that thing. Snappy like an angry dog, it was.

Over the past few years, with improvements in Kydex holsters (thinner and lighter and stronger) and belts.... and newer handgun designs... CC today is nothing like it was back in the "olden days". You kids don't know how good you've got it.

RoyGBiv wrote:CC today is nothing like it was back in the "olden days". You kids don't know how good you've got it.

In the snow! Uphill! Both ways!!!

Pawpaw wrote:

RoyGBiv wrote:CC today is nothing like it was back in the "olden days". You kids don't know how good you've got it.

In the snow! Uphill! Both ways!!!

eggzactly.!

First license 6/99. A good friend sold me a G17 for relatively nothing. I had no spare money at the time so I took what I could get. At the time I weighed about 130, so I thought I had to carry it in a fanny pack. Which is still the most comfortable way I have carried by far. I just don't care for the look.

Changes:
Now, multiple guns later I primarily carry the G26 IWB. Occasionally the LCP (hate the thing but it fills a niche) IWB. Occasionally, but more and more often, the G17 IWB.
My apprehension about printing is way down. I'm now looking to try some OWB carry. I'd like the comfort of the fanny pack without the tourist look. Will it be there? Time will tell.
I have shot IDPA some. I need to do a lot more. I think that this can be a great tool to get a person thinking about some tactics, while also allowing for fun games. Slicing the pie, cover, shooting on the move are all great tings for us to ponder on and practice.
I have several other pistols (required 1911, etc) but have never branched out from the Glocks for carry. Not because they are the end all be all but because I now have muscle memory dealing with my Glocks that I think could be invaluable in a pressure situation when stress might be high. I uuess that is not a change then.
Two young boys learning how to handle firearms well and safely. That is the best part of my change.

Pawpaw wrote:

RoyGBiv wrote:CC today is nothing like it was back in the "olden days". You kids don't know how good you've got it.

In the snow! Uphill! Both ways!!!

Barefoot

Where to start?

A few years in, now, on my first round of a CHL license. Started getting re-interested in guns about five years ago when my son had his Berreta and his AR-15 at our house while he was in-between apartments, now with a young woman who was bearing my first grandson. We went sotting a few times, to let his young lady and my wife have some girl time together. And while I had a Colt Woodsman .22 that I used to carry when I was working for the PD on late nights, then when I transferred over to traffic systems to use my electronics experience , I didn't have anything bigger than the pea-shooter. I resisted getting into the AR game, cause when you've had to carry and use one of the for real, the appeal to "play" with one kinda gets dampened, if you know what I mean.

After a lot of research, and renting guns at the ranges around Fort Worth, I talked Momma into letting me spend the money for a Berreta Neos .22, and had a lot of fun with getting my pistol marksmanship back in form. Then, the decision to carry was made, though not inspired by any one incident, but rather by the totality of things happening around the area... Did well with my son's SR-9 on the qualification (249/250), the bought a Walther PPS 9mm.

While I never could get Pam interested in shooting, she became a lot more receptive to my carrying when I could one creepy night when I was picking her up from her school, very late in the evening. Nothing had happened, but she became a lot more aware of what could have gone wrong that night, and learned a lot more of my philosophy of why I carry.

A couple of guns more... Life is going along well, we're planning for our joint retirement in a few years, and WHAM. Life changes in an instant, when she discovers symptoms that would lead to a diagnosis of uterine cancer, and in a little more than a year, she would be dead.

With all those plans we had made gone out the window, I've been making some alternate plans for my retirement from teaching in a couple of years by working on getting my NRA Instructor certification for several disciplines, and getting a Texas CHL Instructor's license -hopefully I'll be in the next class. And I'll work on that part-time till I retire from teaching.

My son, and his now wife of 5years(who, by the way was a paramedic like my son also is, used her time productively and just got notice that the paramedic-to-nurse transition program at TCC worked so well for her that she passed the nursing boards the first time out and is now a Paramedic/RN! Woohoo!), along with BOTH grandkids are trying to find a home with some acerage in the outlands of Fort Worth -or we might just find some land and build something for them and me -hopefully, I can build a business out where-ever we land that'll help keep me occupied after I retire on some land that'll let us set up a nice little range where we could do some classes and/or have some of my son's EMS & LEO friends come out to shoot with us, till it's my turn to go 10-7 for yhe last time.

Oh, yeah. Just picked up my first AR, a Bushmaster Carbon Fibre CF-15 and had Cabellas mount a Nikon 3-9x30mm P-223 on it. So, yeah, there HAVE been a lot of changes here.