Carrying with a Backpack in Public

Do you travel daily with a backpack? Is it digging into your firearm during normal activities? Has your backpack relieved you of your firearm?

I love the outdoors, especially when we do family events. During the summer, there is many fun activities to do and I am always finding myself carrying a backpack for the family. I store food, water, pet bowls (if any pooches are tagging along with us), sunscreen and have empty space in the pack for items purchased on our little trip.

I have run into the problem while doing activities and having that backpack on where it rubs up against my firearm while it is in the 4-5 o’clock position. Those who are left-handed would experience the same while in the 7-9 o’clock position. If you carry your firearm in the back, you would have some serious problems since the pack would be sitting right on top of your firearm. If you carry appendix style, no problems here. Since old gramps here is packing a little weight around the midsection, appendix style would not work for me.

On one of my mini-vacations, while moving around with my backpack, it kept hitting my firearm and after a while, it moved part of my holster off of my gunbelt. While I was standing in a crowd of people, I had that feeling of something was wrong, so I quickly found a bathroom, pulled out my firearm, laid it gently on the window sill and readjusted my holster that was partially hanging out. I would hate to imagine it falling out and hitting the ground in a crowd of onlookers. I have talked about this in my book “Way of the Concealed Carrier”, When things are not feeling right with your firearm/holster, you need to check yourself. It may feel off to you, the angle may seem different, or something out of wack. If you get this feeling, immediately check yourself, because 99% of the time, you’re going to be correct in that something is wrong. Go with your gut feeling on this. Don’t prolong it and then be surprised that your firearm is dangling from your hip or hitting the floor.

So I decided to make adjustments to my backpack after I left that bathroom. I didn’t want this happening again since we had several more hours at this event. Since I am a righty, I tightened the backpack straps on my left shoulder side and loosened the right side just a little. Now my backpack was hanging at an angle, away from my firearm. The pack was still secure and it was still comfortable. While walking, the pack did not move much so it did not hit up against my pistol grip.

I tried this for 2 more hours and did not have a problem. I could still reach my firearm if something happened, it was still secure and my pack wasn’t causing any problems for me.

Be safe out there, be the responsible firearm owner and always follow the “Concealed Carry Creed”!!

Grandpa “G”

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