When you carry a Primary and a BUG at the same time, please describe your carry rigs and position on you body for each gun.

For example, Primary OWB holster strong side Hip at 4 oclock, BUG: pocket holster on same side as OWB holster.

Another Example, Primary IWB Appendix, BUG OWB Crossdraw holster.

When I've carried a BUG, being right-handed, I've always carried both pieces on the same side of my body, Primary OWB on my belt at 4 oclock, and the BUG in a pocket holster on the same side of my body.

I never knew if this was a good idea or not, having both guns on the same side of my body.

So when you are carrying both, what are your holster types for each, and the relative positioning of the guns on your body in relation to the other gun ?

Primary: AIWB at 1:00 (12:00 is front and center, or aligned with your navel)
BUG: pocket holster, right front pocket.

My Glock 42 is usually the back up gun. I carry it off hand so I can draw it off hand if my primary is tied up. On duty, it's accessible under my body armor for my left hand.


This works off duty as well, if we're out and about, my kids know they can grab the 42 if the need it. It's usually IWB on my left rear side.

My primary is either hip/iwb or aiwb for my right hand.

That's interesting. Did you train your left hand for shooting or are you naturally ambidextrous, more or less ? Just curious since it sounds very effective.

I'm pretty ambidextrous, even with a pen. I'm guessing I was left handed but growing up, my mom forced me to be right handed.

I do shoot the 42 mostly left handed too.

In my two gun days, my BUG was in a vest holster. Shirt had buttons replaced with Velcro so I could tear open the shirt to access the BUG.

I typically only carry a BUG at work. 642UC in my left front pants pocket, P320 in the duty holster on my right hip. Like Chowser, I want to be able to access it with my off-hand.

Pre-diabetes I used to ankle-carry a G26 and then a P320SC on my left ankle above my boot in a Galco Ankle Glove. That worked really well, but wasn't so great for the circulation in the extremities.

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I used to ankle-carry a G26 and then a P320SC on my left ankle

While I’ve never carried more than one gun or a BUG in any capacity I have ankle carried a G26 on occasion. While you get used to it, I always felt like a peg leg pirate at first dragging that hunk of extra weight around.

I only carry a BUG when on patrol duty.

I used to carry my primary on the strong side and my BUG in the offside pocket.

But nowadays, since my outer armor carrier has a side access zipper, I carry my BUG inside my vest which is a bit more secure and comfortable.

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Originally posted by cslinger:

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I used to ankle-carry a G26 and then a P320SC on my left ankle

While I’ve never carried more than one gun or a BUG in any capacity I have ankle carried a G26 on occasion. While you get used to it, I always felt like a peg leg pirate at first dragging that hunk of extra weight around.

The weight was never really a factor for me, but getting the holster to stay put could be a problem if I wasn't wearing boots. Above the boot it never really bothered me, although it is a bit slower to draw when it's that high up the calf. With short shoes it always seemed a little lose, though, and would slide around, which was concerning from a retention standpoint, and super annoying. I wear boots a lot so it wasn't a huge issue for me, but it's definitely not the solution for everybody.

Only time I regularly carried a BUG was while on duty in uniform. BUG was always a S&W J frame (different models over the years). My wife made me a holster that attached to the vest straps, we had zipper shirts, so pretty easy access to it. Later on, some companies (Uncle Mike's was one) made the same type of holster that would attach to the vest straps.

When I worked in our plain-clothes anti-crime unit, I would sometimes carry the BUG in an ankle rig too. Depended on the situation.

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Originally posted by Chowser:
I'm guessing I was left handed but growing up, my mom forced me to be right handed.

Was this a religious thing?
I have a niece who is left handed but (I found out years later) my lunatic sister used to tie her left arm behind her back to force her to use right because (to her) left handed people are evil.

In fact, that's where the term "sinister" comes from. It's Latin for "on the left".

In certain societies (especially those with strong premodern Christian influence), left-handed people were believed to be evil, or at least unlucky.

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Originally posted by RogueJSK:
In fact, that's where the term "sinister" comes from. It's Latin for "on the left".

In certain societies (especially those with strong premodern Christian influence), left-handed people were believed to be evil, or at least unlucky.

Oh I've very aware of that lol.
Raised traditional Catholic.
Latin mass and everything.
Went to segregated boarding school for high school (as did she).
Four years of latin during that high school.

She drank all the coolaid - I did not.

G45 strong side, G43 left front pocket. Over the years I've also carried a G27,G26 or a G43 in an ankle rig.

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Originally posted by creslin:

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Originally posted by Chowser:
I'm guessing I was left handed but growing up, my mom forced me to be right handed.

Was this a religious thing?
I have a niece who is left handed but (I found out years later) my lunatic sister used to tie her left arm behind her back to force her to use right because (to her) left handed people are evil.

Where I grew up in eastern europe, the Communists used to force left-handed kids to use their right hand to write at school. I didn't move there till '93 (several years after communism ended), but that hadn't stopped yet, and I remember kids getting yelled at for writing with their left by my very old-school teacher in the Czech school. Fortunately, I was not born with that particular genetic defect so I didn't have to worry about it, but I know it made stuff a lot harder for some of those kids.

My left hand is just about useless, but I do put in a good amount of time training to shoot with it. It'll never be equal to my right, but I can get by with it.

Only carry a Bug on duty. Always on my left ankle. Tried inside the vest for a while years ago but didn't work for me. Currently it's a G43 but used to be a J frame of some type.

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Originally posted by creslin:

quote:

Originally posted by Chowser:
I'm guessing I was left handed but growing up, my mom forced me to be right handed.

Was this a religious thing?

No. My parents were fresh off the boat and learned english and did everything right handed because that's how they were taught. I didn't learn english until kindergarten so when they helped me they made me do everything right handed like they were doing.

My middle son is left handed for writing but he shoots right handed pistol and left handed rifle. Weird.

BAH!!! All ya left handed heathens are going straight to hell!!!! Point of fact you are either right handed or WRONG handed!!!!

You know I am laughing at this but it always amazes me the amount of people who REALLY believe this kind of shit or that the world is flat etc. etc. etc.

Back to the regularly scheduled BUG conversation. In an LEO type situation would you not want something like a J-Frame or even a good fixed blade knife/karambit/punch blade etc. since chances are if you are going for your backup you are very likely in the rolling on the ground kicking the shit out of each other phase of the "gunfight" so wouldn't something less likely to be pushed out of battery make the most sense?

Like I said I've never had a need to carry a backup gun professionally or otherwise so I am only thinking out loud so to speak.

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Originally posted by cslinger:
In an LEO type situation would you not want something like a J-Frame or even a good fixed blade knife/karambit/punch blade etc. since chances are if you are going for your backup you are very likely in the rolling on the ground kicking the shit out of each other phase of the "gunfight" so wouldn't something less likely to be pushed out of battery make the most sense?

A BUG serves several purposes in LE.

What you're describing with using it as a "get off me" defensive weapon while defending a gun grab on your primary is only one of them. (And I also carry an offhand defensive knife for that type of situation as well.)

That ability to take "contact shots" is one of the only pros to a J-frame, but it doesn't offset the J-frame's many cons. I carried a S&W 642 as a BUG for my first few years of service, and it's one of the few handguns I've owned that I hated and was glad to get rid of once better options became available.

Whereas a microcompact semiauto 9mm will have better sights, trigger, capacity, and caliber (and ease/speed of reload though that isn't really a concern for a BUG specifically) compared to a J frame, while being the same size or even smaller. And it can still be used in these close range defensive instances, provided you just don't push it into the bad guy's body hard enough to drive it out of battery.