Think of the gun first and then everything else around it. Your purse just had a role change. By concealed carrying in a purse, it is no longer just a “thing” carrier. It is a gun carrier and should be treated as such. The goal is to set it up properly to ensure a safe, quick, and easy draw. Once your purse is set, leave it as it is and practice. Let’s get started.
Choose Your Carry Side and Fit
In order to be able to draw from a concealed carry purse, you have to be able to reach your firearm. Take the time to adjust the shoulder and elbow straps to find a comfortable level for pistol-pocket access. To easily determine where the purse should sit, take your strong hand and simply reach across your body – That is a great place to start. Holsters should be ergonomic and intuitive.
You also need to determine what side you will carry on such that it will not result in you flagging yourself with your gun. Styles of purses and your draw preference will determine this. I prefer to carry on my weak-hand side so the support hand can more readily support the purse during use.
What to Carry With Your Gun
Other than the gun, I recommend carrying extra magazines, but whatever the additional items are doesn't matter as much as how they actually fit inside the purse and the added weight. Be conscious of how the pockets surrounding the pistol pocket are affected when loading in items. You do not want something to trap or move your gun around. A pistol is also heavy. It will most likely be the heaviest item in your bag. This weight can cause shoulder and arm fatigue when coupled with other heavy items.
Gun Size
The gun has to fit the holster. That just makes sense, right? With a concealed carry purse, overall size does not determine pistol size. Examine the pistol pocket and test (unloaded) what size gun will be able to both fit and draw easily. Remember, you also don’t want to be stuffing extra items around your gun in the pistol pocket. That is a recipe for trouble if you ever need to actually access your firearm quickly, and extra items can interfere with the safe carry of the gun itself.
How to Install the Holster
This is perhaps the most important part of setting up a concealed carry purse. Most purses come with a soft holster with Velcro, which then attaches to a Velcro interior pistol pocket. First, make sure your gun is unloaded and insert an empty magazine. This should be the magazine you intend to carry in the gun when it is in your purse. In order to fit a gun properly, we need it to have the exact dimension it will normally have when being carried. The magazine can potentially affect things quite a bit.
Insert the pistol into the given holster, and here’s the tricky part. It is easiest to try and create as much space as possible in the pocket by spreading it open with your free hand. Note what side has Velcro (it might be both) and slide the holstered pistol in without attaching it quite yet. With your hand maintaining a proper grip on the firearm (the same you would use to draw) determine what angle will work best.
Try to place the pistol as close to the exit as possible without it interfering with the zippers. You don’t want to have to draw through a lot of material if it’s avoidable. Also, make sure to zip up the pocket and see if it zips up and down easily with the gun installed. This might take some trial and error. The holster might stick before you want it to, but be patient and make sure everything feels right.
Let’s Talk About That Zipper
For most purses, the zipper is the entry to your pistol pocket, which makes your setup very important. Styles vary greatly but always position the zipper so that your hand can quickly rip the zipper down and get a grip on that gun. Make sure to leave a gap so that you can get your fingers in there and initiate the opening.
Conclusion
Spending some time with your new purse is important. Just like a gun belt, it should be set to one position and kept there. After setting it up, make sure to do dry-fire training and hit the range for practice. When you first start using the purse, adjustments might have to be made. It is all part of the process. This method may seem easy, but it comes with its own learning curves. The key is to start the setup right and learn from there!
