Rotating CC guns: What's the deal?

[WrongHanded]

Seems like we have some forum members that like to switch out carry guns fairly regularly ("The G19 is a Tuesday gun, but Wednesdays are for the P365.."), and some forum members who really dislike the idea of doing this at all, and have one carry gun, and only one.

I have a few guns I carry, depending on the situation I am going to be in. Commuting, dog walking, grocery shopping, etc. Some are preferable for the night stand, others for yard work. But I don't have a different one for each day of the week. I do shoot them all, and/or dry fire them all quite regularly, so I'm comfortable with the operation of each one. Therefore, I see no real issue switching between them for different activities; I always know which gun I have, where on my body it is, and how to make it work.

I'm curious what people's opinions are on this subject, especially if you have strong reasoning for your point of view.

 

[earlthegoat2]

I think it’s imprudent.

But...we like guns here. We like buying guns. Some feel the need to justify buying excessive amounts of them with real or imagined reasons such as “This one will be used for CCW”. Pretty soon they have amassed a few or twenty that will be used for CCW. Well, they have to keep the justification alive so they carry the G19 for a week then decide to carry the S&W 340PD then the 1911 then the Sig P232... and on and on.

So I get it but I still think it is imprudent for a number of reasons.

I rotate a few different J frames so I guess I am guilty too.

 

[Hokie_PhD]

I have two carry guns
An XDS45 that’s my EDC and a PF9 that I use when I need something real small.
I’m going to get a M&P 9 Compact and that will probably become my EDC as I want more rounds

So I guess I’m more like you

 

[George P]

My new carry will be my P365s and the Glocks will be going away. Except for my LCP for those times wearing basketball type shorts that have no belt, those will be my ONLY carry guns. I see no reason to mix manual of arms with a wide variety of gun types. That said, if you carry a G26 in the summer and a G17 in the winter, that is something much different. Except for size, the guns are the same.

 

[John_R]

If I could afford more than one car, I'd have a sports car, a pickup truck, and a luxury sedan, all for different purposes.

 

[GEM]

Rotating just to rotate, sounds cool. However, I opine one should only carry a gun that you are skilled and practiced with using. Thus, I carry a Glock for most EDC. For dress limited circumstances, I might pocket carry a J frame or a G42. I practice sufficiently with the latter pair to be familiar with their usage. Practice is not just a box on the range once a year.

Being skilled doesn't suggest a rotation for rotation sake without skill with the guns.

 

[BSA1]

This is one of the reasons why I am such as strong supporter of Open Carry.

A common comment that I read is about the poster carrying a smaller, less powerful gun when the weather is hot. Yet crime statistics clearly show that violent crime increases during hot summer months. The increased likelihood of the attacker being under the influence of drugs or alcohol makes the odds of stopping the attack even more difficult.

It is also well proven that fine motor skills go out the window along with remembering to look sights, etc. when under extreme stress. Trying to remember what day of the week it is so you will know the operation of the gun you are carrying may be difficult.

 

[shoobe01]

I have plenty of handguns, but for optimization purposed (training, practice, accessories, holsters, etc) I do only two. Full size and compact. The rest are range, fun, etc. Or, older daily carry guns I update to.

When I carry one to the range, and just CC it the rest of the day for the hell of it, I feel vaguely worried all day. Do not like.

 

[GEM]

I don't want to divert the thread to an OC debate. If you OC or not, skill with gun is paramount. Rotating them just for grins - nope.

 

[IdaD]

I have three guns I currently consider my "carry guns." An LCP, a 9mm Shield and a 9mm 2.0C. The LCP or some other kind of pocket option is a must for me because you can pretty much always carry it comfortably and it gives me that baseline so I have something. Between the other two, I honestly don't really carry my Shield much anymore so maybe I should trim my official rotation down to two. The 2.0C only prints slightly more and with a good belt it really isn't any less comfortable to carry at 4:00. Since there's not much of a carrying advantage to the Shield, literally everything else favors the 2.0C - higher capacity, easier to shoot, faster to shoot, I'm more accurate with it, etc. A one gun rotation may theoretically be more ideal, but for me to do that it would have to be my LCP and I don't want to make that compromise. In my defense, the LCP and 2.0C are both semi-auto platforms with no manual safeties. The triggers are different as are the grip and sights, but at least I'm in the same ballpark with them.

 

[Texas10mm]

I normally carry a Commander sized 1911 in .45 ACP. Once in a while when I need something to throw in a pocket I'll carry my Sig P365. I do have a OWB holster for the Sig and have carried that way.

I MAY make my ECD a Canik TP9 SF. It's more corrosion resistant than my LW Commander. I can rust a gun in a couple of hours.

 

[Fiv3r]

I work with the public for a living. My busy time of year is the spring and summer. That means a tucked in polo into my jeans and any gun better be pretty much invisible. No I will not dress around the gun. The 2A is super cool, but I like money better, and I need to make sure that I don't upset any potential customers that aren't has hip on guns and being armed as I am.

So, for most of the summer I carry a pocket .380 or a NAA min revolver. It depends on what jeans I am wearing and what I will be doing. The mini revolver handles the most amount of movement without pinching against my leg.

When the weather gets a cooler, my wardrobe moves more toward a casual work attire. Today it actually felt like autumn this morning, so I threw on a flannel shirt over my tee shirt before I went to work. I could carry something larger on my person because I had no sales calls scheduled and the flannel hides my OWB holster. So today I am carrying what I would prefer to carry, a polymer compact 9mm.

Other times, I simply whistle past the graveyard and hope that the universe doesn't plan on killing me in an ironic way like sending 6 meth-ninjas to assassinate me when I only have a 5 shot revolver. However, grave of a mistake as that may be, the little mini revolver rides in gym shorts better when my family and I walk through our subdivision down to the local greasy spoon for breakfast on Sundays.

I don't pick out a gun like my wife picks out shoes to wear...that is a "knife" thing However, I do pack the amount of gun I can carry based on my restrictions.

 

[GBExpat]

IMO, if you are familiar with your handguns and comfortable shooting them well, I don't see anything wrong with alternating among several choices.

 

[edwardware]

I heard that airlines rotate pilots between airframes day to day because it's better for skillset and reliability. . . right?

If it's jewelry, change up for variety. If it's a tool, focus on learning to use one or two very well.

 

[jar]

If you take time to practice with what you will be carrying I see no real issue. Humans are an adaptable multi-purpose tool.

 

[jmorris]

I am fastest and most accurate with my open pistols but I don’t carry them for various reasons. I have other pistols that have had hundreds of thousands of rounds fired from them and won I don’t know how many matches, I don’t carry any of them either.

I carry different firearms but not a “day of the week” reasoning. One thing I don’t do is carry a firearm that won’t run or I don’t know how to operate.

 

[Trunk Monkey]

I don’t rotate carry guns. There are two guns that I carry based on my concealment needs, a Glock 26 and a 19 which are essentially the same gun or at least close enough that I can switch between the two with no learning curve.

All the training I’ve been able to take since I started carrying has emphasized simplicity and I do everything thing I can to keep things simple.

Oddly enough the most notable advantage I’ve seen so far is the time I no longer waste deciding which gun I’m going to carry.

 

[Spats McGee]

I don't 'rotate' guns, though I have called my carry guns the "rotation." (Inaccurately, apparently.) I have had as many as 3, but am down to 2 carry guns, and I simply choose the one that suits my needs of the moment best. One S&W Shield for the belt and one LCR for the pocket.

 

[JR24]

I don't rotate on a daily basis or anything but I will occasionally switch between some flavor of Glock and some flavor of SAO.

I tend to only shoot the style of gun I carry during my weekly range days and spin up a range day of familiarization before I switch.

Within style I might pick a smaller version (Glock 26 or CCO 1911) in warmer weather vs a larger option in cooler weather but that's about it.

 

[.455_Hunter]

A "Man of Arms" should be proficient and lethaly effective with all platforms. As Emerson said, " ... a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds...".

 

[film495]

Maybe they just like to go into their safe and pick that one that speaks to them on that particular day and feel like spending some time together...

 

[JohnKSa]

I have 3 carry guns. I carry the largest one I can conceal based on the required mode of dress and the scheduled activities. Today it was a subcompact single-stack 7+1 shot 9mm with a spare magazine.

When I can manage it, I carry a full-sized 9mm double-stack service pistol. I don't carry a spare magazine with it.

The manual of arms on the two 9mm pistols is identical as is the carry location.

When I can't manage to conceal either of those, I carry a single-stack .380ACP 6+1 pistol with a spare magazine. Because it is not carried in a hard holster that protects the triggerguard, this gun is carried in a different location and has a different manual of arms. That is unfortunate, but at this time I haven't come up with an acceptable solution.

I do not rotate carry guns just for fun because I don't carry guns just for fun.

A "Man of Arms" should be proficient and lethaly effective with all platforms. As Emerson said, " ... a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds...".

Well, obviously there are folks out there who are more of a "Man of Arms" than I am and who have bigger minds.

I have managed to achieve a level of proficiency with my carry guns that satisfies me and has passed muster in the professional training courses I've taken. Some people may have enough time to learn to be unconsciously proficient with all the guns they have available to them, but I don't, and even if I did, I wouldn't do it. I would spend my time getting better with the guns I carry to save my life rather than trying to learn to be a "Jack of All Guns".

 

[Old Dog]

The whole "carry rotation" thing comes up as a thread topic every year, it seems. As the OP noted, people are either onboard with the concept or think it's silly, useless or dangerous. Others note that training with whatever one carries is the key, whether one is a dedicated carrier of only one gun, or multiple guns.

I don't really see the need to employ sarcasm in reference to statements of those who support the concept or those who denigrate the idea.

I am one who rotates carry handguns fairly routinely. However, with the exception of the odd occasion in which I whimsically decide to pack a 1911, every pistol I carry (whether steel, alloy or polymer framed, DA/SA or striker-fired) has the exact same manual of arms: draw, point, pull trigger. No manual safety, and consistent POA (mostly SIGs, typically, which have the sights zeroed the same way on each pistol).

Why do I do this (carry different handguns)? Perhaps because I have more than a few handguns I like.

Maybe they just like to go into their safe and pick that one that speaks to them on that particular day and feel like spending some time together...

Pretty much.

Why should it matter to anyone else, so long as I practice, train and am safe with whatever I choose to carry on a given day?

Perhaps I also have more time on my hands than others, since I don't give a thought to "wasting time" when choosing what gun to carry each day. I even kinda enjoy choosing what wardrobe items to wear out when I go into my closet every morning ...

 

[Duster340]

My "rotation" is more warm season, cold season.

 

[Jack Ryan]

I think changing guns is a good idea, for everyone else. Every day, every hour for all I care, once a month is better than nothing. Guns of every different type and color is awesome, match your shoes, coat or hair color. Got to be styl'n bro.

I wish EVERYONE did that.

I don't.