More confident in paddle OWB holster now, despite printing.
A few months back I bought a plasitc OWB blackhawk holster that is designed specifically for my Glock 19. However, I've only used it a handful of times and that was when it was colder and had a jacket on. My wife has been too concerned that carrying this way "prints" too much. And I'll admit, it does print through a shirt, no question about it.
But, we've had some discussions on here about what people will actually notice. So I decided to put it to the test last night. I was going to be walking a mile through a bad part of town in the middle of the night with two friends and my daughter. We were going to see the fireworks at the ball park and due to the traffic, the easiest way to get there is to park nearly a mile away and walk.
Well, I put the holster and gun on and my wife was pitching a fit saying it was too obvious and somebody was going to call the police on me. So I went to visit my parents (they just live down the road) and I chit-chatted with my dad for a few minutes, then asked him if he noticed anything unusual about me. He said no. Once he started really looking, he eventually noticed something sticking out under my shirt, and assumed it was my gun. So then I asked my mom. She never could see anything unusual about me at all. Eventually my dad pointed right to the print and she didn't see it. So he stretched my shirt tightly, showing the print very exaggerated and all she could say is "what is that?" I asked her if she really didn't know and she said she had no idea.
So I went ahead and wore this holster with my two friends and my daughter, my daughter being the only one who knew about it. It was dark outside, but we also ate inside a brightly lit McDonald's. When we were getting ready to go home, I asked both of my friends if they had noticed anything sticking out from my shirt that evening and both had said no. Afterwords I showed them what it was and they said they'd never have noticed.
So even though that holster does continually show an imprint of the gun, I've determined that 99.9% of the population is not going to notice. The other 0.1% that does notice, probably won't care. So keeping that in mind, I feel a lot more confident to wear that type of holster now even in the Summer without a jacket. It is more comfortable than the IWB holsters I normally would use and I believe easier to draw should the situation arise.
Anyway, I thought I would post this just in case anyone else has been avoiding using a holster like this for fear of printing.
