Appendix carry safety: drawstroke finger error and reholster ritual

Key points: Appendix carry safety drawstroke

• The mechanism behind the discharge: on a fast draw the index finger drags up the side of the holster with real downward pressure, and the moment the trigger guard clears the holster mouth there is nothing under that finger any more, so the pressure lands on the trigger.
• His fix is to hyperextend the trigger finger completely off the gun until the muzzle is coming up and he is starting to present, rather than indexing it the instant the gun clears the holster — slower, and deliberately so.
• Draw practice with a loaded gun runs at 70 to 80 percent speed; full-speed reps to failure belong at home or on the range with the gun unloaded, ammo out of the magazine and the magazine out of the room.
• The reholster is the sloppy part for most carriers: shirt up and look inside the holster, because a drawstring, shirt tail or belt edge inside the holster is a trigger press waiting to happen.
• Muzzle goes in first, the support hand pushes the holster forward and away from the body so a discharge goes into open air or the ground, then the gun seats slowly — nobody wins a gunfight by holstering fast.
• His safety ranking, ego aside: empty chamber at three o'clock is safest, loaded on the hip next, appendix with a chambered round and no holster is the worst thing a person can do, and appendix in a holster with one in the pipe — where he carries — is tolerable rather than safe.
• The incident under discussion involved a shooter with 15 years around firearms and four years military including a year as an armorer, who fired into his own body on the draw in under half a second; three degrees of muzzle angle separated the injury from a femoral hit.

About this Tactics and Training video

Appendix carry safety, worked through a real accidental discharge: Colion Noir responds to a shooter who fired into his own body on the draw during timed training, then walks the mechanical cause. The trigger finger rides the side of the holster under downward pressure as the gun comes up, and the instant the trigger guard clears there is nothing left under that finger. His counters are a hyperextended finger held off the gun until presentation, draw reps at 70 to 80 percent, and a reholster ritual done looking, muzzle first, holster pushed away from the body.

Transcript: Appendix carry safety