My Five Seven fits my carry vest, but the front sight snags and makes drawing pretty much a joke. Are there collapsible or folding front sights available?
Okay, first off, I'm not mad at anyone. People have their own styles, especially behind a keyboard where we're all anonymous. This thread is very useful to me, because it's getting me thinking more about the entire carry question.
One of the problems as I approach it is the lack of objective, empirical research. At least I haven't found it, hence my request for links. Let me give an example from the gun world: Which caliber handgun is the best for self defense? Most gunners, who are predominantly men, will recommend 9mm, .380, or .38/.38+P/.357. In fact, if I don't use my Five Seven as my concealed carry gun, one other choice is to use my .357 Ruger LCR snubby revolver. Now, if I should happen to mention that I might also use my .32 Colt Police Positive revolver, I'll immediately hear disparaging remarks about that pea shooter, and if I muse about a .22 caliber gun, soon enough I'll hear remarks about my manhood. It will do relatively little good for me to reply that shot placement matters more than caliber, even though there is actually good research showing that, all things considered. a .22 magnum may well be the best choice -- or that at least it deserves serious consideration, because the lack of recoil makes it more accurate.
http://www.buckeyefirearms.org/alternate-look-handgun-stopping-power
One rejoinder will be: "Most gun battles happen at 10 feet or less, so you really don't need to worry too much about recoil and its effect on accuracy, so pick a bigger caliber in case the assailant is wearing a lot of clothing." That's a good argument to me, but at least along the way we can point to actual research on the handgun caliber question. I don't know of any rigorous, neutral research on concealed carry issues: Which holster and carry style, or the dynamics of gun battles. At what distance? How long did the concealed carrier have to draw? Plenty of questions, not many real answers. So it's left to our imaginations and opinions.
This leads me to ask myself: Okay, so what's your reason to carry concealed to begin with? In what situations would you be most likely to need to use your gun? Research would help, but it's lacking.
As for training and practice, at the moment I live in a big city. It's a 50-mile round trip to the nearest range, through heavy traffic. But by next summer, I'll be living on 40 acres in the country. I will be shooting every day, and I have shooter friends there, one of whom is an experienced NRA-certified instructor and trainer. So these questions will get addressed over time. My style is to ask people who know more than I do, and then listen; to read a lot, with the proviso that some stuff you read is full of it; and to practice as much as possible. It could well be that, in the end, my carry gun will be either the LCR or the Colt, or that I won't carry concealed at all. Time will tell.
So the Nazis developed the 9mm Luger. Who cares? They also developed the Autobahn, and by extension, the Interstates.
As for the rest, no one is steering me anywhere. I'm the captain of my own ship. By the way, my NRA instructor friend agrees with you about IWB/OWB carry. As for former military instructors, well, I had a lesson from one of those guys. It was very basic and quite useful, but the guy turns out to be a paranoid whackjob right out of central casting. So I don't think I'll be returning. I really don't want to get a knock on the door from the Men in Black because they got hold of his client list.
I'm pretty sure that, when it comes to the carry gun, it'll be the Five Seven, the LCR, or the Colt. Nothing whatsoever against a Glock or other 9mm, but holy cow, I already have nine different calibers in the ammo dump if you count the 12ga shells. I was hoping the Five Seven would be my carry gun, but IWB/OWB with that thing is a non-starter. It's too big. Same for the Colt, which has a 4" barrel and is almost as big as the FN.
In any case, I've got plenty of time to think about it.