New sign available from Gunsite Pro Shop Rob Leahy, Simply Rugged Holsters, shows the DEFCON-3 Holster – a pancake rig provided with IWB straps and hardware. The DEFCON-3 rides close and high, like pancake holsters tend to do. Concealable, comfortable, secure and quick – it's a grand old design, nicely updated. The aluminum-frame SR1911 "Commander" type pistol was the handgun used during the event. DoubleTap 230 grain ball ran through the lightweight SR1911CMD without problems. Both guns and ammo were reliable and accurate. The Simply Rugged adjustable AR pouch and leather dump pouch were handy additions for the rifle component of the event.

It was an interesting trip to Gunsite Academy. Pre-trip, I'd gone to a local café and the owner related a tale about "open carry." It seems a person saw a customer wearing a gun when he came in to pick up a carry-out order. "You need to keep "those" people out of here," he was told. He replied that it was in compliance with state law and that he ran a beanery – it's not his business to tell people how to dress. The complainant told the owner that he just lost a customer. I told him about the new sign available at the Gunsite Pro Shop and he seemed interested – as he prefers having responsible armed citizens as customers. As to the trip, various members of media, industry and an enthusiast group were present at the invitation of Rob Leahy, proprietor of Simply Rugged Holsters, located nearby. Industry attendees at the Gunsite Academy event included Ruger (provided handguns and rifles), DoubleTap Ammunition, NFUSED metal conditioning and KDM -- Killebrew Design & Manufacturing, LLC, maker of firearms suppressors. Rob had us there to try his DEFCON-3 holster – a pancake holster with improvements. These include a reinforced holster mouth to keep the rig from collapsing when the gun is drawn, three 1.75" slots to fit appropriate belts on his Chesty Puller Straps (chest field rig) and a raised tab to keep the gun off of your hide. The holster is provided with a pair of straps that screw onto the holster and allow wear inside the waist. It has the foot print of the currently fashionable hybrid holsters but is a leather rig. I only tried it OWB but Simply Rugged Manager Travis Roundtree wore his sample inside his waistband throughout our stay and trained with it that way – a smart move. Likewise, Rob wore his IWB during the event. The Dual Defender double magazine pouch and Rob's superb belt completed the leather goods for handgun wear. He provided an adjustable magazine pouch for AR – the adjustment allows some cell phones to fit. The AR pouch and Dual Defender are snap-on pouches. Rob also issued leather "dump pouches," handy as a place to stow AR magazines that are depleted, especially during training or long engagements. Simply Rugged Holsters The gun we used was the Ruger SR1911CMD-A, an alloy frame, ca. 29 ounce .45 Auto. The guns were provided with Ruger seven-round magazines of the new format – instead of the standard slanted feed lips, these featured straight feed lips with a sculpted release point. The original would allow a round to fly free if the magazine was inserted forcefully with the gun out of battery. Thin stocks with the requisite short screws and stock screw bushings round out the package. SR1911CMD-A The alloy frame is hard anodized in black. A titanium feed ramp is fitted, preventing nicks from hollowpoint rounds striking aluminum. Like the regular steel SR1911CMD, it's a real "Commander-" style pistol. The barrel is 4 ¼", with the slide to fit, a shortened Commander-type bushing/recoil spring plug and guide arrangement. Real Novak sights are atop the slide in the three-dot format. I blackened out the rear white dots on the gun I used, leaving a white dot up front. The ammo was from the new DoubleTap Ammunition Target line: 230 grain FMJ loads. I didn't get to shoot but around 150 rounds or so, but the ammo was trouble-free and the gun ran without stoppages. Interestingly, the sights shot dead-on out to around fifteen yards (and likely further) with the three dots aligned over the point you want to hit. I use the top edge of the front sight, leading my strike to be low. The magazines with the flat floorplates can let you push some palm into the magazine well, creating an interesting blood blister. It quits hurting when you quit doing it and magazines with extended floorplates are available at Shopruger.com and Brownells. The DoubleTap 230 ball ammo was nothing special, aside from the great accuracy – it's just as good as other maker's FMJ loads which means it's an analog to the round that's done the job for around 114 years so far. It tended to penetrate both doors on a 1975 Ford pickup truck. Mike McNett's company makes some other ammo that pushes limits on performance without pushing into non-SAAMI compliant pressure ranges. Magic bullets? No, but it is smart tweaking of ballistic technology to provide powerful, accurate and safe handgun (and rifle) ammo. We'll discuss that more in an upcoming feature.