What I'm Carrying Now EDC pocket dump
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Tom writes . . .

I’m retired in my mid 70s and living in a semi-rural part of the state. My EDC hasn’t changed with the current madness and I always carry when I leave home.

My EDC varies depending on where I’m going, what I’ll be doing when I get there and what I’ll be wearing.  Around our local area it’s usually either the Kimber Aegis Elite Pro or Colt Commander (both in .45 ACP).

When in one of the larger cities in our area I’ll carry the SIG P320 XCarry in 9mm for the extra round count. For deeper concealment I go with the Kimber Micro 9.

I always carry an extra mag for whatever I’m carrying along with a knife and flashlight. I don’t go for name brands on the knife or flashlight, but both have proven totally reliable. I always have my US Law Shield card as well for access to a lawyer should it ever (hopefully never) be necessary. Holsters vary depending on the gun. Usually it’s a Crossbreed or Alien Gear. Occasionally I’ll use a Bravo Concealment.

 

This post is part of our series, What I’m Carrying Now. If you’d like to submit a photo and description of the gun, holster and gear you’re carrying in the new world in which we live, send it to us at [email protected] with WICN in the subject field.]

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56 COMMENTS

    • some of us have the luxury of carrying whatever we want….something small….possibly very small… on your person…something larger close at hand…that seems to suffice….

  1. I thought I read that he carries Depends. Some areas are scary enough that it could be a great idea…………

  2. 2 1911s and a smaller 1911, with redemption in the form of a modern wonder 9mm? That’s a toughie. I award you…Four “Back in my day”s and one and a half “Kids are so entitled now”s. Decent showing altogether

  3. Outstanding EDC. I too carry different load outs depending on… well, whatever. I pulled out this morning at 0500 hrs. for a little surf fishing. EDC was a Galco butt pack w/HK P7M8, spare mag, Spyderco, Surefire, extra batteries, Leatherman, wallet, etc. Tomorrow?

  4. 1911 still makes a great carry gun. It’s not just for old timers, I carry one and I’m in my 30s. Out of 5 different platforms I’ve tried the 1911 is my favorite.

    • Ron, damn skippy a 1911 makes a fine carry pistol. I’d have to open my safe to count how many I have. Really. No shit. Carried one professionally for 23 1/2 years. Still the finest fighting handgun ever made.

        • Star PD…(.45)…with rubber grips…..quite a handful because of the light weight…optional 15 rd mag helps with controlability……former neighbor loves that gun…always asks me if I want to sell it….

      • Glock 30…with a trigger block…always a good choice….for up close and personal…stick to ball ammo…hard to explain those black talons in court….

  5. Mid 70’s and still using only iron sights?
    A laser or a red dot helps a lot with getting hits on target with aging eyes.
    I’m only 62 and I have optics on all my edc guns.
    I do like that load out. Full size 1911 and a micro 9.
    Same manual of arms, single action only.
    Nice!

    • Adding an optic is not always a great idea for handguns even if you can afford it (with rifles I think they’re a different story). They take a lot of training and practice to get used to so that you can draw and present the pistol in such a way to acquire the dot quickly. Without that sufficient training and practice you’re much better off with iron sights where, if your aim is off, you can get an idea of whether you’re high\low etc by the position of the sight alignment and adjust. With a red dot if you’re not in the right place you’re not going to see anything but glass. Not to mention you’re adding some complexity that wasn’t there before. Fogging, snagging, breakage, malfunction… all things to worry about and mitigate.

      Red dots are great for accurate shots at medium or greater distance and changing targets quickly. So… pistol competitions.

      Not necessarily for self-defense unless someone is willing to put a lot of time and money into it (including the optic and ammunition costs).

      • I see it as something that makes the gun bulky and heavier in something that I prefer to be sleek and light. I really don’t get the concept behind taking a compact 9, then put a light, laser, optic, extended mag, and god knows what else, by the time they’re done with accessories they might as well be toting around a full size Glock 21 or MP5K.

        • It makes a mockery of the “too big to carry” meme. You can trick out your pistol to 1911 weight and claim that 1911 is too big and heavy to conceal.

      • During a gunfight I don’t think you’re going to try to figure if you’re high or low, or whatever.

    • “I’m only 62 and I have optics on all my edc guns”

      Are you on your original-issue eyes?

      I just had cataract surgery on both eyes and discovered something – My 55 year-old lenses had turned yellow-brown over the years, as I discovered when seeing through my new lenses. The world is now quite a bit brighter and bluer in appearance, but the blue is going away as my brain re-calibrates to what the color white actually looks like.

      if you notice the world appearing dimmer to you as you age (like it did me), it could be your lenses are naturally darkening your vision…

      • happy to hear you’re doing well after cataract surgery 🙂 did you get multifocal lenses? otherwise focusing on your front sights can be a challenge…as a disclaimer I am a cataract surgeon😘

        • I was fortunate enough (by surviving nearly being killed last year) to get the Alcon (AcrySof IQ PanOptix Trifocal IOL) lenses.

          The front sight of my guns are in-focus with no problem.

          Over most ranges it focuses fine, but I lost the extreme close-up vision I had before, but reading glasses will correct for the most part.

          There are vision artifacts with bright point-source lights creating staggered ‘rings’ around lights, I’m guessing that’s a result of the concentric rings on the surface of the lens creating the ‘tri-focal’ extended depth-of-field, but you would know far more than I on that. Old lens extraction was done via Femtosecond laser, and recovery has been fine excepting the annoying ‘floaters’ that are common with that type surgery.

          I was 20/400 uncorrected before, and am now 20/25 after, about as good as it gets.

          I’m seeing sharper than I have ever been, so the cost of the upgrade lens was worth it to me…

        • …and eye surgeons are worth every dollar they earn, even when I paid for the whole thing out-of-pocket … 🙂

      • I have my range glasses, known in the optical industry as Quadrifocals. A Trifocal segment at the bottom and a bifocal segment at the top, powered for arm’s length. Tipping my head down slightly is more natural than tipping your head back to engage the lens area that brings the sights into focus, but they’re a pain in the butt to wear every day though, so they’re resting in my range bag. They’re also notoriously expensive. The whole reason I changed my EDC nearly 2 years ago, was that I’ve always practiced with my carry gun (a Walther PPK/S), either with regular ED spectacles or contacts, and it reached the point where I could no longer see the sights in low lights conditions. So a switch to a SIG P365 was a big step up. The sights might be blurry wearing ED specs or contacts, but the night sights glow enough to line up.
        I sure miss the younger days when nothing interfered with my shooting. As they say “Getting Older Ain’T For Sissies.”

  6. I swap around for certain activities and sometimes depending on where I’m going too.

    Never understood the concept of always carrying the same gun for every situation. Some just fit certain circumstances far better than others.

    • “Never understood the concept of always carrying the same gun for every situation.”

      Yeah, but I could see it. I suppose there is sense in making one gun your most instinctive one to use, when you are most panicked, you can be on full auto-pilot mode with no fumbling.

      I could see how some folks could choose that…

      • Or you could train and select firearms with a bit of forethought…

        My main gun has a manual safety that I carry “off”. But it can be bumped on, so I’ve trained to swipe my thumb on the draw.

        If I do that with a striker, who cares? I swipe past a switch that doesn’t exist while drawing. The effect is identical regardless of the pistol.

        People make this way harder than it needs to be.

      • ….always keep one close…like every room in the house…keeping them all in one place is never a good idea….

  7. Well, I suppose we’ve reached the pinnacle of the “What I’m Carrying Now” series. All anyone needs to do now is line up all their various handguns & holsters in one pic and say “er, it depends…” 😉

  8. I’d have to say I agree with 50% of your choices, both the K’s. Pro size 1911’s are excellent, and so too are the Micro 9’s. I enjoy mine more often than any other handguns I’ve owned. The round heel (butt) makes the fun size 1911 extremely comfortable. Mine is a Super Carry Pro HD, which is a steel rather alloy frame like the regular Super Carry; they do not make the HD version any longer 2014?, and recently discontinued the Super Carry 2018/19. So the Aegis is the closest design available to the Super Carry line.

      • always a situation you want to avoid….a good idea to think through scenarios…and how you might respond…keeping a non-lethal alternative also a good idea…

        • Agreed. Train and think through scenarios enough that you even dream about such things. I view the dreams as the Lord’s training.

  9. Gun(s), Spare Magazine, Knife and Flashlight. That’s all the bases covered. You’ve got some nice Hardware there Sir.

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