What's up guys? Welcome back to the channel. This is Miles with Tier Concealed and today we're going to go over 10 concealed carry mistakes that are pretty common, particularly with new people, but let's get real. All of us have probably done at least one of these.
Number one might be a given coming from us, but a big mistake people often make is having a bad or the wrong holster. We make great holsters. You should buy one. When you're looking at holsters, you want something that doesn't have sloppy fit. You want to make sure it's comfortable and most of all, you want to make sure it functions how you need it to. Whether that's adjustable ride height, adjustable can't, whatever the case may be, you want it to fit you, your gun and your needs. We do have a lot of options whether you're looking for inside the waistband, outside the waistband, appendix, four o'clock, whatever the case may be, just make sure everything's accessible and then you've trained up on the positions and products you're carrying and you can use them effectively.
And number two, clothing. This one's kind of a multi-pronged point. There's a few different things to consider with clothing. First of all, you want to have a good belt. A mistake a lot of people make is getting a belt that's not rigid enough. We carry core products. We even actually have a collab buckle with them because we liked them so much. These are nice and rigid. You want to have a stiff belt. Obviously there's exceptions for body type or for me, back issues sometimes I can't carry with a stiff belt, so we'll carry with something like our EDCS instead, but in general, you typically want to have a pretty rigid belt when you're carrying to support the weight, not sag, not creating weird lumps, bumps or hotspots while you're carrying. Another big portion is tactical clothing. We all have it. We all like to wear it at the range is one thing, but if you're going to Walmart, maybe you don't want to be dressed, so tactical and overtly gun industry guy, if that's something you're concerned about or want to consider, maybe a little more low profile gray man esque type of clothing could help you blend into the crowd a little better.
The last issue about clothing that I'm going to touch on, and obviously all of these things are objective, circumstantial, et cetera. Take everything with your own grain of salt. Put your own influence into it for what you need, but for me, pants that are too tight or too baggy and baggy in particular for me being the shirt, if I am going from a shirt I wear all the time and then I put on something that's a little longer or some people wear tallies, et cetera, your draw is going to be completely different. The amount of travel you're going to have in clearing your garment is going to be different, so you want to consider that and make sure you're practicing with a clothing you're wearing.
Number three is going to be comfort and this kind of plays to both sides. Some people lean. I just want really comfortable so I'm getting this tiny gun that I really suck at shooting. You don't want to go too far that direction because obviously you don't want to suck at shooting whatever gun you're carrying. Other people want comps, huge lights, all the bells and whistles and that might push the gun so far that it is too uncomfortable and you carry less and less. Because of that, you kind of need to find one equipment you actually need and you want to find the middle ground between comfort and what you think is functional necessary stuff for you to have and you want to find that middle ground. It is a delicate balance. You just got to, again, as with everything else, figure out what works best for you.
A side note from comfort is going to be off body carry. This one for me is circumstantial. If you're going hiking and you're in the middle of nowhere or you're dirt biking or you're snowmobiling, you want to wear a chest rig or a backpack that has something bigger like a rifle in case you see some coyotes or whatever the case is, that's up to you to decide where you're comfortable with the speed that you lose, if that makes sense. When you're carrying off body, your jaw is not going to be as fast For me, if I'm going to a buffet where I know I'm going to be very full after or if I'm going to the movies where I'm sitting in one spot and I'm just going to be there for a while, I personally take a fanny pack if I'm doing something like that. It is something that you're going to have to go through your circumstances, your scenarios, your weapons platforms, et cetera. Figure out what you're comfortable with and whatever you choose, make sure you're competent and trained up on it. There is certain scenarios where the comfort of off body, I personally would probably choose over on body, but like I said, there are few and far between, so make that decision for yourself.
Number four is carrying without a round in the chamber. There's a lot of arguments back and forth. You can make your own decision, but I personally always carry with a round in the chamber because if I am in a situation where I might need to use my gun, I do not want to have to remember to take an extra step, take extra time. It's just a lot of variables that get introduced that I personally don't want to deal with. If I am ever in that situation, I just want my gun to be ready to go. For someone that's new to concealed carry, which a lot of you might be, I do understand that that could be something that is potentially scary for you to do, but with training, which we'll touch on a little bit later and a great holster like we offer at our store, tier one consult.com, it won't be an issue at all.
Number five, like I just mentioned, training, carrying without training is a big mistake that tons and tons of people make. This isn't just training with your gun, dry fire at home. This is shooting, this is bags, this is clearing garments, this is medical. There's all sorts of training you can get to make yourself an effective member of the concealed carry community. You don't want to hit people in the backdrop and throw shots if you ever have to use it, if you do need to use it or realistically, even if you don't, you want to know medical, you want to have that with you and know how to use it. There's tons of training you can get and should get to keep yourself from being a liability because the last thing you want is to have a bad situation be made worse because you didn't know what you were doing.
A part of particular importance with training is knowing your weapon platform. That one should be a given, but there's variances between guns If you are switching around or changing a gun for the first time, if you go from a striker fire to a double action, obviously you need to remember to decock that double action before you put it in your holster, in your pants. Little things like that that maybe don't seem like a big deal, but they do matter, so make sure you are trained on your platform. There's tons of information out there, tons of good instructors for you guys to learn from. Whatever you end up deciding to carry or carry in or carry with just to make sure you know how to use it really well.
Number six is not carrying medical. It is more likely that you will use medical equipment than it is you'll use a gun. Bare minimum, you should be carrying a tourniquet because if you are going to start a bleed in somebody with a gun, you also need to be able to stop that bleed. We recommend having a bigger medical kit. Adjusted tourniquet is kind the bare minimum. We have some great kits on our website that you can pick and choose from. When it comes to medical, you want to make sure it's easily accessible, something that even if your left arm's down, you can still reach it with your right arm, et cetera, and you want to know how to use it. Practice with your tourniquet, get a training tourniquet and know how to use it. Know how tight you actually have to get it because a lot of people won't have experienced really cranking down on a tourniquet before. Know how to use your gauze and when or not to use chest seals and honestly know what level of medical care you're comfortable giving and trained to give because I'm not going to give anyone a chest decompression needle at this point in my life, but maybe you're someone that has more experience and that's something you're comfortable with. Regardless, get training, know how to do some medical and keep that gear with you.
Another super, super common mistake we see is not maintaining your gear. We have made that number seven on this list. Gear does not mean gun, it means gear that is holsters. You're tightening down your screws, you're lock tightening them in the places you need guns. You're keeping them lubed. You're keeping batteries fresh in the optics. You're keeping tourniquets updated because they will break down with uv so you're making sure that those aren't fraying or wearing out or anything like that. Just kind of everything that goes into your everyday carry you want to maintain and make sure that when you go to use it, it's actually going to work. This is all equipment that is potentially saving your life, so you don't really want to neglect it.
Number eight is going to be not understanding your sighting systems. We all pretty much these days are running red dots and I dunno if you can see the height here, but these irons are witnessing with this red dot. There's a couple little mistakes people make with red dots in particular. One is a lot of people will get a dot and zero it on their irons, if that makes sense. They'll co witness it to their irons and call that good. That's probably close enough for you to go to the range and be on paper, but that's not something I personally would trust. Having to make a critical shot at a critical time, you want to go to the range, you want to zero your dot on paper and be absolutely 100% positive that your zero is on. If you're carrying a gun and you have to use it in a real life situation, the last thing you want is to have your zero be off.
Think you're sending shots in the right spot and really they're going off into the background into who knows what, so want to make sure you actually go to the range zero your dot. Don't just trust that putting it on the irons is going to be perfect. While we're on that subject, your red dot and your irons are two completely independent siding systems. I've had several new shooters come to me when they get their first red dot and they think that the dot has to line up with the front site so that when they press out basically the.is what they're putting on the front site instead of using the rear sides, and that is not correct. your.is a completely independent siding system. You're going to zero that on its own. You're even going to zero your iron sight. Believe it or not, a lot of people don't think that, but we have had guns show up where the rear side is pushed left or right, the windage would be off, so you want to make sure you zero your irons and you zero your dot. They do not need to correlate because they're siding systems independent of each other.
Number nine, this is a mistake that every single one of us has done, myself included. It's following trends or cool gear or Instagram influencers that you like and making decisions based off of what they're using or talking about, et cetera, products, training, et cetera. Influencers don't always have the right answer, especially since so much of this stuff is totally objective and your scenario might be different than their scenario. You don't need to have crazy gear. You don't want build out a crazy gun. You don't know what half the parts do and then when it comes time to use it, they're actually detrimental to its function. You don't want to necessarily go off of random training. You see that may or may not actually be good. You want to make sure you're vetting trainers that they're trusted, they're teaching good information, and you want to know that your equipment is going to run.
So if you do make an upgrade, go function, test it, make sure it's something you can count your life to, so make sure you're seeking out good information, good reviews, et cetera. You're doing your research and on your end you are vetting your equipment, vetting your tactics, et cetera. Just because some product has tons of hype around it doesn't mean it's great, so just make sure you do your own, looking into reviews, whatever, however you want to do that, but don't fall into the trap of there's tons of hype around something, so it must be good. That's not always the case.
Last but not least, maybe least number 10, know your local laws. That could be state, that could be county, that could be city, that could be the apartment building you live in. Everyone is going to have different laws depending on where they live. At the end of the day, it's up to you to know the laws in your area and which ones you're going to follow. So be smart, be competent. Don't be a liability and don't make these 10 mistakes. Well, that about wraps it up. Let us know in the comments what other mistakes you made that we might've missed. Buy a good holster, subscribe to the channel and we'll see you on the next one.
YouTube Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mv8hlHTlqBE&list=WL&index=3&t=263s
Credit: Miles of Tier1 Concealed