[Guest]

We can all learn from others misfortunes. I saw an interesting thread on another forum once that I learned a lot from. This should spark some interesting discussion. Let's hear it. Did your gun fall on the floor of a public bathroom stall? Did a kid at the grocery store, ask his mommy why that man had a gun? Or even worse, have you ever had an AD?

I will start.

I was headed to Vegas with my wife, her sister and BIL. I was carrying a Bulgarian Makarov in an IWB holster. Nevada does not honor Utah's permits so at the last town before crossing the border, I locked my Makarov in the trunk. When we got to the hotel, I took my gun in it's holster into the hotel room and put it in a drawer. I never use the drawers in a hotel. I am a live out of the suitcase sort of guy when I am on vacation. We had a great couple of days in Vegas.

Driving home when the trip was over, we hit the Utah border. That is when I realized my gun was still back at the Hotel in that drawer. Panic set in. I made a quick call to the hotel and asked to speak to the head of Security. I did that because I had noticed that all the security guards were packing heat at that hotel. I figured someone in security would be the least likely to freak out. The Security guy I talked to put me on hold, went to the room and secured my Makarov. Relieved, I told him I would call them back the next morning to work out shipping it back to my FFL.

The next morning I called to work out the details. I was told that they turned my gun in to the Las Vegas Police department. Panic set in again. I just knew that I would be charged with something, or lose my gun. After several calls to the LVPD, I finally found the person who had my gun. To my surprise they were VERY nice about it. They even asked about the nice holster I had it in (HBE of coarse). They asked me to get them a paper from my FFL and they sent it home to my FFL free of charge.

Let's just say that will never happen to me again.

Actually I am headed to Vegas this weekend. The guns are staying home. Funny thing is, Las Vegas is one place that I would very much like to have my CCW on me at all times.

 

[Guest]

Great story! The writing was so good I felt the "jolt" when you realized the Mak was still in the drawer and the anxiety of having to call LVPD about your gun.

I'm guilty of actually being the moron I'm complaining about in another thread on CCW minimum training standards. Back when I lived in FL I carried my 1911 almost every day in a Galco NSA IWB leather holster. I had some bad Mexican one day while out shopping with my wife. In my haste to relieve myself I didn't remove the gun from the holster and set it down on the sink or some other safe place before undoing my belt. As I was undoing my belt and pants while simultaneously going into position, the 40+ ounce gun fell out of the holster about 2.5 feet down to the left of the throne. My guts were already wrenched but they wrenched even more from the horror of the cocked-and-locked 8+1 Hydra-Shoks bouncing on the floor. Thank goodness I was in a single-serving bathroom with concrete walls around it (and it didn't fall in the toilet), and thank goodness for John Browning designing the thumb and grip safeties (also thanks to Colt for the passive firing pin safety improvement).

Needless to say I will never do that again. I also think this scenario should be added to the CCW training curriculum :lol:

Jeff

 

[Guest]

My carry belt snafu

A few months ago my wife and I were getting ready to take off for a shopping trip and a movie. Since we were going to be in the land of freedom (MN) I grabbed my J frame and pancake style leather holster. I was wearing a loose fitting pare of jeans and planning on using a belt holster, so a belt was going to be needed. The problem was I couldn’t find my High Noon carry belt anywhere! Since we were planning to see a movie time was short, so I had to settle for a cheap pressed leather belt that I got at Target. If I hadn’t been rushing around I think I would have remembered that this particular belt was falling apart.

We stopped at Menards first to pick up some lumber and I had to use the restroom. After finishing up in the restroom I buckled my pants and the stupid belt snapped right in two! I was non too pleased, I started running down my options for getting out of there without showing the whole world my gun. I had three options I could put my gun and holster in my front or back pocket, or I could carry it Mexican style. The jeans I was wearing were a little on the loose side so the Mexican carry was out. The rear pockets on my jeans were too small to adequately fit a J frame and holster so I ended up jamming the gun and holster into the front pocket of my jeans. While this option offered the best concealment it did cause a few problems. The first was that extra weight of the gun was pulling my pants down, and the second was I looked like I had jammed a cordless drill down my pants! I kept my pants up by putting my left hand in my pocket and tried to hide the bulge in my pants by pulling my sweatshirt down.

When I found my wife she commented loudly that she thought she was going to have to send a rescue party into the men’s rooms to find me. After I explained the whole my belt snapped off thing to her, she got even louder and started laughing hysterically. In the end I left my gun in the car. I don't think pocket carry is right for that particular pare of jeans.

I guess the moral of the story is make sure you are using a good gun belt, and if you can’t find your good belt, keep looking till you find it!!