MinnMooney
Member
I keep hearing that police departments and training "camps" either highly discourage or ban cross-draw holsters. Some training facilities won't even let you take the class if you insist on wearing your weapon x-draw!
For what reason?
Speed? : Getting that 1st shot on target is exponentially more important & speed is a situational/individual factor. (See the next few paragraphs.)
Longer vertical target while raising the gun from stong side vs less horizontal target while swinging the gun from a x-draw? : This is only the case if your target shooting or shooting at someone in the ol' West style... a duel. Most real life, documented, "caught-on-video" scenarios are while one or both shooters are running for cover & shooting 1-handed.
Concealment? : CrossDraw is as concealable or more so depending on your build.
Accessability? : CrossDraw has a huge advantage while in your car, in a booth at a restaurant, on a couch watching TV or any other place where your elbow has a backward movement obstacle.
A huge group of us are baby-boomers and sometimes our shoulder mobility isn't as fantastic as it once was. "Strong-side" draw is difficult at best due to trying to swivel and twist our shoulder joint in ways that it protests - a lot, sometimes!
Easier for the BG to snatch it from the x-draw position? : I can hold onto my x-draw position weapon much more securely and it's definately not as suseptable (sp?) to anyone approaching from the rear because - in most cases - it's canted more forward that most stong-side holsters. Not only that but while holding onto my weapon with my left hand/arm I'm free to hit or defend from the attack of the BG. I can hit MUCH better with my strong side/right arm.
O.K. - I've had my say now let's hear some rebuttal..... but before you do, maybe you'd want to read this artical that I found that probably says better how I feel than I am probably doing.
http://www.gunweek.com/2005/feature0101.html
For what reason?
Speed? : Getting that 1st shot on target is exponentially more important & speed is a situational/individual factor. (See the next few paragraphs.)
Longer vertical target while raising the gun from stong side vs less horizontal target while swinging the gun from a x-draw? : This is only the case if your target shooting or shooting at someone in the ol' West style... a duel. Most real life, documented, "caught-on-video" scenarios are while one or both shooters are running for cover & shooting 1-handed.
Concealment? : CrossDraw is as concealable or more so depending on your build.
Accessability? : CrossDraw has a huge advantage while in your car, in a booth at a restaurant, on a couch watching TV or any other place where your elbow has a backward movement obstacle.
A huge group of us are baby-boomers and sometimes our shoulder mobility isn't as fantastic as it once was. "Strong-side" draw is difficult at best due to trying to swivel and twist our shoulder joint in ways that it protests - a lot, sometimes!
Easier for the BG to snatch it from the x-draw position? : I can hold onto my x-draw position weapon much more securely and it's definately not as suseptable (sp?) to anyone approaching from the rear because - in most cases - it's canted more forward that most stong-side holsters. Not only that but while holding onto my weapon with my left hand/arm I'm free to hit or defend from the attack of the BG. I can hit MUCH better with my strong side/right arm.
O.K. - I've had my say now let's hear some rebuttal..... but before you do, maybe you'd want to read this artical that I found that probably says better how I feel than I am probably doing.
http://www.gunweek.com/2005/feature0101.html