Practice Makes Perfect - Practice Drawing Regularly from your Beau + Arrow Handbag

Education, training and personal responsibility is key whenever you carry off body whether that's in a purse or a range bag, in your locked glove compartment or any other storage case. You should never let it out of your sight or within accessible distance or opportunity to strangers or little hands. In the case of concealed carry purses, we strongly advocate practice. Like any tool, it performs best when you practice with it, take it to the range regularly and draw from it. This is true whether you decide to store any other kind of self-defense tool in our special, separate and secure compartment be it pepper spray, mace or taser.

You don't want the first time you need your self-defense tool to be the first time you draw from it. 

As we speak specifically to firearm concealed carry in this post, we have a few tips and recommendations to best optimize your concealed carry handbag:

• You will want to take your handbag to the range and practice drawing and firing at a target between 7-10 feet away. This is the distance where you will most likely feel in danger. The perpetrator is close enough to quickly close the gap and lunge at you from this distance. You will have a very short amount of time to draw and aim. 
• Many of our handbags have adjustable straps. Try out different lengths to get a feel for the best length for your optimal performance. Once you find it, make sure you leave it at the same place for muscle memory to kick in as you regularly and consistently practice at the range with your bag.
• Due to advice from our expert technical advisor, a former Marine and current range officer and LEO, we created the concealed carry compartment with four inches of velcro on each side. The trigger guard holster is also velcro padded on both sides. This creates an extremely tight hold once the holster is in the place. It will take much effort to make tiny adjustments on your angle of draw. This is deliberate. We wanted to create security once you get the holster in your desired angle so it's in the place you expect every single time you draw from it. The initial difficult effort of getting the holster in the right place will be worth it to provide consistency of draw.

Your goal is to develop muscle memory. In order to achieve this, like with a gun, you need to practice regularly and consistently drawing from your purse. While your environment may change, your tools should stay the same. We highly recommend this method rather than the mindset of "I'll shoot from within the purse if I need to." While there will be the rare circumstance where you may need to shoot through your bag, you will have no line of sight and the bullet trajectory may change from exiting through layers of leather. There is a higher possibility you will miss your target and therefore risk your life. The visual threat of a firearm may also save two lives, yours and your perpetrator's. 

There are many great resources and information on ranges in your area. You may feel more comfortable learning and shooting in an environment of women. We recommend two great national women gun chapters as additional resources for you to set up your practice schedule: A Girl and a Gun and The Well-Armed Woman. If you are in southern Missouri, we highly recommend Maximum Life Expectancy, a high-quality and well-respected training program, founded by our technical advisor Grant Lavelle.

Remember, you've already made the decision to protect yourself and your loved ones. Now make sure you're doing it in the best way possible by practicing regularly with your concealed carry handbag.