How big of a deal is printing?

Hiking shirts from eddie bauer or LL bean make great cover shirts in the summer. Light weight and airy. Add a black or dark color t-shirt underneath and you can barely notice the gun. The only time I am conscious about printing is when I'm at the playground with my son. I'm generally a little more reserved when going to the slides when I'm carrying
 
kalash said:
Start buying t-shirts a size up from what you normally wear, preferably in dark colors and/or patterns. In the summer, I like casual short-sleeve button-downs over a t-shirt. In the fall, sweaters and sweatshirts are great at concealing.
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Or pocket carry in a well made pocket holster.
 
As others have said, 99.99% of the people are clueless. When I started carrying I told my wife but not my 2 teenage sons. After 3 months of daily carry around the house, some days not being at all careful, I had to have a long talk with my boys about situational awareness. They never noticed.
 
zetta99 said:
I'm a big guy 6'1" 250/260lbs I have tried a few holsters from alien gear to rawdog with my XD-E 9MM . All conceal well but the butt prints a bit on my back. I usually end up around 4 oclock position. Am I worrying too much about some printing?
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The people who would recognize printing won’t care, and the snowflakes would never notice unless you wave it in their face.

But I worry about it cause I have little kids, so most places I go are places where people will lose their minds if they see a gun.
 
enbloc said:
5256_source_1505158213.jpg

No way!
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My kids would be like, “I want the iPad!”
 
I'm totally onboard that it's generally not a big deal and that 99/100 people won't notice. But the point of concealed is that it's concealed, especially if you might run into that 1/100 person. You're carrying a gun; you might as well not half-ass it.

Varmint said:
The people who would recognize printing won’t care,
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I mean, I care a little bit, because it suggests to me that someone is carrying a gun that they don't know how to conceal. It's not that much work to figure out how to not print.
 
enbloc said:
5256_source_1505158213.jpg

No way!
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Rob Boudrie said:
I just got a Sneaky Pete holster for my G43. I got the gray nylon one labled "Power Pack".
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Fixxah said:
Go with Hawaiian print shirts. They hide everything.
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Cool idea on paper and would be fun to wear at a NES shoot, but NOT worth the laughs from Mrs. Mountain for EDC. I will never hear the end of it, LOL. Hawaiian shirt not much better. To give you some background on Mrs. Mountain- she has her own pink AR, thinks .460 Rem Mag pistols are fun to shoot, and bounces back from 1 lb. Tannerite shrapnel hits.

Nope!

As far as something that might help the OP, with a decent custom leather holster I can carry a P220 .45 without printing, assuming untucked shirt. In fact my friends who know I carry do not notice it. Mine is made by R Grizzle, similar in function to a Milt Sparks and the like.
 
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TheRoland said:
I mean, I care a little bit, because it suggests to me that someone is carrying a gun that they don't know how to conceal. It's not that much work to figure out how to not print.
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I don't care at all, since we should be able to open carry.
 
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For me less printing is:
  • IWB (vs OWB)
  • 4 o’clock (vs 10-11) as people are less likely to look at your back and my gut is not pushing the gun out. The only exception is I carry at 10-11 when riding motorcycle, but my jacket covers it well
  • Sturdy belt, as Hank’s belt
  • Bonus: I’m lefty, so carry at 8 o’clock. People who look for CC are likely looking at the wrong side. :)
 
I stressed initially but as others have said I've settled into it now.

I'm 5'10" 165lbs and carry a G30 AIWB in a 508 kydex holster with a hanks belt. Big thing I think is that you are comfortable with your setup so that it's not shifting etc causing you to want to adjust it and draw attention.

To my knowledge I have never been made, I've spotted a couple people before. One guy really bad at Market Basket in Leominster, he was small of back carrying a 1911 and was wearing a t-shirt that only came down to his belt line. Kept bending over to get items and the shirt would ride up and get caught on the wrong side of the handle lol.
 
I never worry about printing. I never understood the tiny microgun craze. People are justifying carrying mouse guns because they're easy to conceal, instead of carrying a decent gun in a powerfull caliber. But unless you're a deep cover spy or you're carrying where you're not supposed to have a gun I just don't see the point in worrying over someone catching a glimpse of what might be a gun.
I'd rather have a .357 that "prints" than a .380 that I can hide in my speedo.
 
The asymmetrical gait caused by ankle-carry can be defeated by carrying identical back-ups on each ankle, Symmetry achieved... [rofl2]

fah3y2ft2pujwxauk83g-jpg.236385
 
TheRoland said:
I'm totally onboard that it's generally not a big deal and that 99/100 people won't notice. But the point of concealed is that it's concealed, especially if you might run into that 1/100 person. You're carrying a gun; you might as well not half-ass it.



I mean, I care a little bit, because it suggests to me that someone is carrying a gun that they don't know how to conceal. It's not that much work to figure out how to not print.
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lol I think there are varying degrees for printing etcetera. Like for example I've spotted people that I was about 65% sure were carrying but it's not an incontrovertible print. Honestly I don't care if they were open carrying quite frankly. Maybe if i owned a restaurant and took money from tons of pant shitting moonbats I'd care, but I would just encourage my customer to conceal a little better and give him or her a free meal so they know I'm not being a prick about it.

-Mike
 
drgrant said:
lol I think there are varying degrees for printing etcetera. Like for example I've spotted people that I was about 65% sure were carrying but it's not an incontrovertible print. Honestly I don't care if they were open carrying quite frankly. Maybe if i owned a restaurant and took money from tons of pant shitting moonbats I'd care, but I would just encourage my customer to conceal a little better and give him or her a free meal so they know I'm not being a prick about it.

-Mike
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Totally agree there are degrees.

But I don't think 'not scaring the moonbats' is the only issue here. If we were talking about open carry, we'd be talking about retention; for concealed carry, especially if we're talking a holster position that's literally behind you and not under a coat, concealment is part of your retention strategy.

I'm in no way saying that if you don't conceal perfectly you'll get killed on the street or anything like that. But dressing around the gun is worth buying a different shirt or holster or belt or whatever.

I don't think I'd ever say anything, but I hate talking to people, sooo...
 
I was driving home from a match couple of years ago when my wife called me and told me to buy eggs or something like that. So I parked and walked into a convenience store wearing a shirt over a G34 in an OWB holster. Naturally the damn thing printed like crazy. Two Newton cops that spent at least 5 minutes immediately behind me in a checkout line DGAF.
 

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