Is Appendix Carry Safer than a Side Carry?

There are groups of gun enthusiasts that love to appendix carry while another group of shooters thinks its a safety hazard. This group thinks an accidental discharge can occur while you’re drawing the pistol as the line of sight is toward the pelvic area.

Rob Leatham and Rob Pincus goes over some advantages that appendix carry offers such as concealment, speed, and presentation of the weapon.

Rob Pincus explains one advantage that appendix carry shine is keeping your weapon in front while drawing and displaying. Where as the side holstered there is more required motion with your arms to get the handgun un-holstered and on target. With appendix carry positioned its very easy to go to your weapon and puts your body in a ready to fight posture.

With the right technique mastered even a pudgy person can use the appendix carry effectively. See the footage below to get the idea.


Video Transcription
Leatham: You know Rob, I carry an XDX 3.3 in an appendix holster all the time, but you can’t get around the fact that there’s a lot of people talking about the safety of them and stuff; and I feel comfortable with it, but you know I really wonder what your thoughts are.”

Pincus: Yeah, it’s definitely something that’s caused a lot of controversy and a lot of buzz. I think that frankly, carrying and presenting from the appendix position, and re-holstering a lot on the training range, if you’re doing it right, can actually be safer and give you less exposure to covering yourself with the muzzle, then 3 O’clock, 4 O’clock, 5 O’clock. You know we’ve all been on the range, and we’ve seen that guy who brings the gun back from its shooting position and points it right in through his whole pelvic girdle, through his torso, to get it back into the holster. And with appendix carry, we don’t have that. The gun starts out in front of our body, and we can keep it in front of our body, if we think about the angles involved.

Leatham: One of the best things about Appendix is that it doesn’t create a width for

Pincus: Right.

Leatham: So this is a real problem, you know, you skinny guys don’t necessarily see it, but I take up a lot more space than you do, and any time I’m having to work around here, especially in a seated position, it just doesn’t work for me-

Pincus: Right

Leatham: At all! And the fact is, if I point a gun at me, that’s my fault, that’s on me. If I point a gun at everybody else, I have a real problem with that.

Pincus: Absolutely. You know, a lot of guys, because they don’t want to cover themselves, will flag that gun way out to the side, and obviously pose a danger in the training environment, but really end up with a reckless swing of the gun, instead of a presentation of the gun.

Leatham: And that’s a draw, too! That’s a really bad presentation of the gun.

Pincus: It is! Sets you up for a really bad position here because you don’t get that bio-mechanical lock. So let’s take a look at what’s going to happen. If we’re here talking and some guy comes up from around the corner, jumps out, startles us, maybe fires a shot, we’re both gonna go into that athletic, lower center of gravity, orient towards the threat, and this is what everybody sees. They see that gun in appendix carry -and I’m just going to go ahead and tuck in here behind my XDS, when I do this, now that gun is pointed into my body. So what I need to remember is, just like I’m going to remove my concealment garment, there’s other things involved in presentation from the holster, I’m gonna learn that as I reach for the gun, I push my hip forward. By pushing my hip forward, as soon as this gun comes out of the holster, that muzzle’s already pointed out in front of me, I orient the muzzle straight to the threat, I tuck back in so I have my body engaged behind the gun as I drive out and get into my shooting position. Then I can bring the gun back in, I obviously have dealt with that situation, I’ve assessed my environment, I’ve topped my gun off, I’ve got into cover, whatever I have to do, when I go to reholster, and obviously in the training environment, I’m just going to reverse that process. I’m not gonna be in my lowered center of gravity position, I’m gonna push my hips back forward, orient my gun back down just like this, the gun never covers my body, stays out in front of my body between my feet or in front of my toes, and then I can relax. And that just can’t be done from behind the body, and if you watch everybody on the range, I promise you, you see them cover that outside the leg and the foot.

People say that ‘well, if I get a round on the outside of my foot, that’s a lot better than taking a round into my pelvic girdle.’ How about we don’t point the gun at ourselves, like we’ve always preached?

Leatham: Right, and not shoot ourselves.

Pincus: Absolutely.

Leatham: That’s usually the best.

Pincus: So how ’bout this, I’m gonna let you jump up here in front of the target-

Leatham: Ok.

Pincus: and I’ll just step out of the way. And go ahead and just think about that position you’re gonna get into, that lowered center of gravity kind of crouch position. Now as you reach down to get that concealment garment out of the way, you’re just gonna push your hip forward.

Leatham: Ooh. I get it, so I’m basically pushing the gun forward.

Pincus: Pushing the gun forward. Also makes that grip more accessible.

Leatham: Yeah! It actually clears my stomach out of the way.

Pincus: Well as a scrawny guy I don’t have that issue!

Leatham: For you skinny guys it’s not a factor, but for us pudgy guys, that’s always a deal, I’ll have to work around that.

Pincus: Now you come straight out of the holster, the muzzle’s going to be in front of you, you make that rotation, and then you drive out, you take your shots, you come back in, you do whatever you need to do for the aftermath, and reverse the process, hip forward, back into the holster, and relax.

And that’s how you present from the Appendix carry very safely, and in a way that allows you to get a lot of reps without really worrying about covering yourself in a way, that doesn’t happen when you come from behind the hip.

Leatham: Right. Perfect.