Gun World - POINT OF AIM

Tackling the Challenges of Summertime Carry

Some like it hot, but I’m not one of them.

Every season introduces a whole new set of pluses and minuses, whether it is the end of a particular hunting season, the beginning of football season, Spring Break for those of us with kids in school, etc. When I was younger, I welcomed summer each year, because it meant vacation time, but as I’ve gotten older, it’s become, perhaps, my least favorite time of year due to the heat factor. At the same time, I must admit, some of my favorite activities can only be enjoyed during the summer. So, we take the good with the bad.

Summertime also poses challenges to those of us who carry concealed. We must dress in lighter clothes, for starters, and that can place limitations, not only on what gun we carry, but also where we carry it and what we wear. With that in mind, we devoted a considerable amount of editorial coverage to the subject of summer concealed carry in this issue.

Two of the gun tests featured in this issue are superb for summertime carry. Kimber’s new Ultra Crimson Carry II is a compact 1911 with some serious stopping power. It holds seven rounds of .45 ACP in the magazine and features rosewood Crimson Trace Lasergrips. Field Editor Dave Workman reviews this gun (see page 56), which happens to be the same gun we recently awarded in our sweepstakes gun giveaway.

Another gun we tested for this issue is Ruger’s LCP, which was first introduced in late 2011. But the feedback I received from Field Editor Dr. Martin Topper, who lives in Daytona Beach, Florida (where it’s summertime year round), was that the LC9 is not only light and compact, but it is also virtually absent of any edges that would allow it to print—even under very light clothing. It also packs eight rounds of 9mm standard-pressure or +P ammunition. These factors combine to make the LC9 an excellent choice for deep concealment in summer, which is why I decided to run Topper’s test in this issue. Check it out on page 82.

Field Editor Jerry Ahern, who pens the “Concealed Carry” department (page 26) devotes his column this month to concealed carry in the summer months. Ahern addresses gun models and the materials from which they are constructed, along with cover clothing, weight and size considerations, holsters, and dos and don’ts of summer carry. It’s a great article.

Summer does present some challenges for concealed carry, which is why we made it a central theme in this issue. Hopefully, the aforementioned articles will nullify those challenges.

PULL QUOTE:

“ … we devoted a considerable amount of editorial coverage to the subject of summer carry in this issue.”