I finally broke down and bought a pocket holster after hearing Joel and a bunch of other people talking them up. I was doing drawing drills with an unloaded weapon this morning.

It took me forever to get the gun out of the pocket holster, no matter how much I practiced. The OWB, thumb break and all, is way faster. Even when I started with my hand on the butt of the gun, I couldn't draw out of a pocket holster anywhere near as fast as from an OWB, even considering the time to pull back a cover garment.

Yeah, I know, situational awareness, but still...

What gun and what holster?

I like pocket carry or coat pocket carry and I don't have any speed problems.

-Get a fireing grip on the pistol with your finger outside the holster.
-Wear pants with pockets that have wide openings. (i.e. like 5.11 pants)
-Pull the pistol strait out

You should be able to draw in 0.25 of a second or less from this position. Maybe 0.5 if you are a bit older.

Great thing about a pocket holster is that you can walk around with a fireing grip on a pistol and it doesn't look the least bit odd.

I carry an LCP in a pocket holster (for church and other places where I have to be REALLY discrete). Coming out of dress slacks it's mucho fasto. The holster just stays behind in the pocket.

With a pocket holster you don't necessarily even have to remove it from your pocket before firing.

I bet that's where the term grapeshot came from.

I've ran the Back_Up Gun (BUG) IDPA matches at the Faribault Rifle and Pistol Club for about 5 years now. The BUG match is a side match after each of our IDPA league matches.

One of the guys shoots his SW 642 from a pocket holster exclusively. (Actually, several do.) I reviewed his scores from the last couple years. He finished fourth in 2008 and fifth in 2007. The difference in scores from first to fifth place was less than 5 % of the first place score. In 2008, he placed first on one night. In 2007, he placed first on two nights. This is amoung guys that are very good shots.

Starting position, for all holsters, for 2007 & 2008 was hand outside the pocket. That is, hands relaxed at side. One of the years before the above scores, I allowed pocket holsters to start with the strong hand in the pocket. This was too much of an advantage and went back to starting with strong hand outside the pocket the next year. I have always considered it an advantage to using a pocket holster, is that I can get a grip on the gun without drawing a lot of attention.

As always, proper holster selection is important as is having the pocket loose enough to allow the draw. Skin tight jeans don't cut it, but regular to loose jeans have always worked for me.

As a disclosure; my normal carry method is SW 642 in a DeSantis pocket holster in blue jeans. My gun for the BUG matches the last 2 years was a Springfield EMP in 9mm for the sole reason to try to better my placement against the guys that always beat me. It hasn't worked. For the years prior to that, I shot a SW J-frame from a pocket holster. My gun for the regular IDPA matches is a 4 inch 1911 from an inside the waistband holster.

The way I see it, even a slow draw is faster than a walk back to the car.

If your circumstances are such that you can carry in a speed rig, go for it. If not, you have to make tradeoffs.

You gotta stop wearing those tight polyester disco slacks.