On Friday, I received my tax return money. I took my car down and had some routing maintenance done with the bounty, but I had a bit left over. I was thinking about paying off a credit card with it, but GB had a great idea. When we had brought the car back home and entered our driveway, he said “Let’s go to the gun store!” We drove down to Safe Shot Indoor Range. Downstairs they have a lead-free, expensive to shoot at indoor range, but upstairs is a gun store complete with guns, holsters and gun-related clothing.
At the gun store, he heavily encouraged me to check out some of the revolvers there. A friend of his concealed carries a revolver and the grip doesn’t house a magazine, so revolvers might better fit my hands. I was nervous about checking out revolvers. It never crossed my mind to carry one. Aside from the “oh isn’t that cute” glance at a Charter Ladysmith, I never paid much attention to wheel guns. I shot a few at the Gun Bloggers Rendezvous last year, but I never took that experience further and sort of forgot about it.
I wanted to check out the Walther PK380. I have the Walther P22 and they’re basically the same style. The P22 fits my hand perfectly because of its adjustable backstraps, but Gary of Safe Shot said that the .380 wasn’t made with the same adjustable backstraps as the .22. Darn! With my Walther hopes crushed, Gary showed me some of their revolvers.
Gun Bloggers: remember Gary from last year’s GBR? He gave us the great tour of the Cabela’s gun room and arranged for delivery of all of our conference swag. He’s working over at Safe Shot now. Anyway…
I wasn’t hooked on revolvers because of two things: not very many rounds and no external safety. I wasn’t convinced that I could take down an attacker or two in 5 shots. I’m a new shooter, it could be dark, I’d definitely be scared. With no external safety, what if I’m so scared that I shoot myself in the boob drawing from my chest holster? But it couldn’t hurt to hold a few revolvers, so I did and I ran across one that fit my hand perfectly: the Smith & Wesson Bodyguard 38. It also had an integrated laser which made me feel better about carrying with fewer rounds in the gun.
To help me feel better about the lack of external safety, Gary put a pen down the barrel of the revolver and pulled the trigger, “shooting” the pen. Then he put the pen back down there and whacked at the trigger with a marker until the trigger sprung. The pen didn’t “shoot” although the trigger moved. This is because there has to be a certain amount of continuous pressure for the trigger to actually begin the process of launching a projectile. I also dry fired the revolver. The double-action long trigger pull isn’t something I’m going to be able to do by accident!
To make sure I’d like to carry this gun and that having it would shut me up, we went home to get my bra holsters.
GB said that he’s tired of hearing me complain every Sunday morning about wearing my Bersa Thunder .380 PRO UC. I love that gun, but it’s got a fat grip due to the double-stacked magazine, and if I don’t position that gun just right under my left boob or if my shirt isn’t cut generously through the chest there, I can appear as if I’ve sprouted a third nipple. To make sure this gun wouldn’t do the same thing when carried, we grabbed every holster I like out of the house.
I brought my cheap Uncle Mike’s in waistband holster and my collection of Discreet Carry holsters. I have a Discreet Carry DH-1 holster, a Discreet Carry LadyBUG bra mount under arm holster and a Discreet Carry LadyBUG Cleavage holster. This is where the fun begun. I went to a gun store fully prepared to take one of their guns and shove it down my shirt. Haha. (Don’t worry, I had an undershirt on to prevent any “flashing.”
When we arrived back at Safe Shot, Gary was no longer at the counter. I was sorely disappointed in this as Gary’s replacement (the owner’s grandson), didn’t impress me. He took the Bodyguard out of the case and passed it to me without checking it first. Yes, those guns should be unloaded, but just in case… check! He pointed it at me once and at GB once too. Again… the guns should be unloaded, but that’s not the point. The point is safety. Never point your firearm, unloaded or not, at anything you’re not willing to destroy. Period. And when he revealed that he was a concealed carrier, I lost even more respect for the man.
He had his gun tied to his pants and his pants tied to himself with bright red shoe laces. Uh, what? How is he going to draw his gun when his gun is tied down? And if he gets his gun out, where are his pants? Around his ankles? How is he going to be able to move swiftly in an emergency situation with his pants tripping him up?
Get a belt and a holster.
He wanted to wear baggy pants so that solution didn’t work for him. I told him get a belly band and wear it sideways. There’s no rule that says the belly band has to sit your gun in front of your junk. Sheesh. He seemed impressed by that idea, so hopefully he checks it out. At least he wasn’t phased by me sticking the store’s revolver beneath my clothing.
When it was time to checkout, Gary reappeared from the range below and rescued us from the inadequate gun salesman. Thank God! We completed the paperwork and sale with Gary and took the Bodyguard home for the night. Gary and I made plans to add the gun to my CCW permit the next day. Yay!
