Pa. Open Carry ~Responsible carry, in the open.

Just curious what your favorite carry guns are and what type of holster you use for them?
I have 4 guns I use for open carry depending on where I'll be or what I'll be doing. To show that I'm not prejudice one way or the other, I use two wheelguns and two auto loaders. First is a 4" S&W Mod. 19-5 in .357 in a Bianchi Accumold thumbsnap, second is a Citadel officers mod. 1911 in .45 acp that I carry in a Don Hume high rise thumbsnap holster, third is a .45 acp Taurus 24/7 compact in a Don Hume which is also a high rise thumbsnap and lastly my favorite that I use for long car rides is a 5.5" Taylor & Co. Smoke Wagon in .45 Colt. It's custom tuned by Cody Conagher and I wear it in a C. J. Crackerjack shoulder holster made by Mike Keenan at Timely Accessories.
Don

I use a Stoeger Cougar 8000 in 9mm. I carry it in a Fobus paddle holster.

Very nice Cougar! The rotary design is something we don't see too often. They say lock and unlock times of the action are much shorter and the design also reduces muzzle flip. You can definitely see a Beretta influence. How do you like yours?
Don

I carry a Para Ord P12 .45 in an uncle mike's kydex paddle holster.

Ops, thats better

racerxone,
Very nice. I only ever owned one Para. It was their P14-45 limited. A beautiful handgun that functioned flawlessly, but boy was it a heavy gun.
Don

(12-11-2010 06:58 PM)BigBlue Wrote: [ -> ]You can definitely see a Beretta influence. How do you like yours?

The Stoeger Cougar is the Beretta Cougar...hence the Beretta "influence." Since Beretta couldn't build it cheaply enough to compete in that segment, they moved all of the machinery to their Stoeger plant in Turkey. Instead of a well-paid Italian pressing the start button on the machine, it's a underpaid Turkish guy. Otherwise, it's the exact same gun, same quality, same materials.

I absolutely love my Cougar. I'm a fan of the rotary action. It's not nearly as "snappy" as many other semiautos. It's quite accurate for a compact - I've hit plates at 75 yards fairly easily. It cycles well, feeds well, shoots well. It can be a little picky if you're shooting a boatload of ammo (I use Federal FMJ), so I keep a small can of Rem Oil with me. Carrying it isn't bad at all - the aluminum frame is heavier than polymer frames, but not to the point of being a burden. As with most guns, it's the ammo that weighs it down.

Ultimately, it's hard to beat it for the price. I'd recommend it to anyone for a starter, a carry piece, a night stand weapon, a range toy. I've never shot any matches with it, so I can't speak about it in that regard.

Don,
Thanks. Its worked beautifuly for me, but like you said it is on the heavy side compared to other .45's I've carried especialy with the double stack and steel frame.
,Brian

Glock 17, Serpa. Every day.