For the month of November, I carried a Beretta 92FS, and nothing else. Here’s what I relearned and had hammered into my head. You absolutely can carry a Full Sized automatic handgun for Concealed Carry. At first it was unusual because the gun was larger and heavier than what I was used to packing. When Adams Holsters sent me the new Sharkhide Crossroads rig, all the sudden packing that beast of a Beretta became much easier and comfortable for all day carry.
When I say all day carry, what I really mean is “If I’m wearing pants, I’m wearing my gun”. And the Beretta, once I got used to it, was really no problem.
The Crossroads rig is a nice wide pancake style outside of the waistband type holster. This distributes the weight and the profile and really is the most comfortable type of holster you can use. The big 92 just became a part of me for the whole of November.
By week 3, I was very much enjoying the big gun.
There were a couple times when having a big service auto was indeed a greater comfort. There was a moment when I came out of a location late at night and walked across the parking lot to my Bike. A couple large, thuggish looking guys were parked not very far away, leaning on their truck, drinking beer. I make no judgement on their poor choice of domestic horse-piss, or their choice of Brokeback music they were playing. But what concerned me was their increased level of attention to me as I approached. Having the Beretta almost whisper to me “We can take them”, was a great assurance. The other time was when I came home, and through the shadows, a brief flash of red Eye Shine caught me by surprise. In the story I wrote, “UPRISING USA” and “UPRISING UK”, I have evil characters called “Red Eyes” which are demonically possessed zombies. And here at Ogre Ranch, I just saw red eyes shining in the shadows along the side of my house.
I jumped off my bike, drew the Beretta and covered where the eye shine was. I could see something there… but I didn’t know what it was. My flashlight… I had one with me… was in my backpack, doing me not a damn bit of good. The Beretta in my hand allowed me to stand my ground when a more sane man would have backed off. Just then my wife drove up in her Explorer and the the sweep of her headlights illuminated the creature that I was damn near ready to light up.
It was Mule Deer Buck… Just standing there, looking at me, sniffing at me. It turned and bounded off as the car passed.
Having a large creature breathing and standing there… and you don’t know what the hell it is… it can be disturbing. Bears are in the mountains just behind Ogre Ranch… and I hate bears. Pooh even makes my trigger finger itch. The idea of having a bear here did not make me happy. We had one before, about seven years ago. A small black bear. No big deal, but still… it’s just the bear that mauls more people than any other. A 15 round mag full of PDX1 backed up with a couple 20 rounders was plenty enough for a bear. Even a shadowy nightmare bear. Nightbears. I hate Nightbears. We also have Cougars out here. Lots of them. Older women and the Mountain Lion types… Both are highly dangerous… And their are the Coyotes and Feral Dogs that come around too. But the eye shine was much higher than cougars and canines.
I had to laugh a bit as the big buck deer bounded away and disappeared. It’s the unknown thought made that brief moment rather scary. In that brief moment, the big service auto was a comfort and a half. Of course, I’d rather have had one of my 12 Gauges, but I didn’t feel like I was holding a squirt gun.
November is now passed and that means I have the option of not wearing my Beretta 92FS. December First, I put on my Glock 23L and instantly appreciated the lighter weight of it. But as the day went on, I found myself missing the Beretta. The heft of it. Pulling it out, the Glock just didn’t have the pleasing lines and good looks of the Beretta… it was disappointing. I’ll be rolling with the Beretta more often now.
