EDC (Everyday Carry) Tips & Recommendations

The EDC for you might be different than your buddy's everyday carry but what should you consider when choosing the best handgun for your EDC setup? Josh Froelich, competition shooter & firearms enthusiast, came to Gearbox Talk to explain what he carries everyday and how he decided which handguns were best for his EDC. Josh answered several EDC questions like, what precautions do you take to ensure that you're carrying safely while still maintaining quick and easy access if needed, do you have a few different EDC setups or do you truly carry the same items everyday, does the weather ever impact what you carry and if it does, in what ways and how do you tweak your setups to fit, what did you take into consideration when choosing the firearm(s) you like to carry, what ammo is best suited for EDC and self defense than others, do you prefer an optic on your pistols and if so, what is it, If not, why not, do you have an EDC holster recommendation that you’d like to share, do you carry the same style holster for every firearm you carry or do you pick different holsters for different pistols, is there anything you’ve tried to carry but decided to stop carrying, and what’s the weirdest thing you carry? 

Join a community of hunters, anglers and outdoor enthusiasts.

 

Checkout the best and consistently in stock ammo on the market with Federal ammo.
Use code GOWILD15 to save now! 

Staccato C2  
Staccato XC
Weber Tactical Holsters

Shop All Firearm Accessories

More Gearbox Talk Episodes on EDC's

Tim Kennedy's Everyday Carry | Special Forces EDC Gear Dump

Jack Carr's Everyday Carry (EDC) 2021

Erin Crooks: Everyday Carry (EDC) For Women

Safe Storage for EDC & Hunting Firearms | Melissa Bachman from Deadly Passion

Join a community of hunters, anglers and outdoor enthusiasts.

Transcription

Brad: Today we have a man who can do it all Josh Froelich is an elite level competition shooter and he shoots all the things pistols shotguns rifles potato guns okay scratch the last one although if anyone knows about competitive potato gun competitions do send that Josh's way let's see if we can fill his inbox on that starchy subject anyways enough about the french fry freedom flingers this episode is actually about Josh's everyday carry we're taking a look at what this pro carries for protection and when he changes his go-to to something else we'll get his thoughts on his favorite ammo for edc talks about how weather actually dictates his firearm we hear about the weirdest gun he's ever tried to carry and he unveils his favorite pocket potato pistol just kidding this is gearbox talk with Josh Froelich

Josh Froelich there's a lot of content of you out there man but I'm excited to get you on my show and answer some really beginner level to intermediate level to maybe maybe we'll squeeze in a couple advanced things on this show we'll see here how we going or where it goes but how's it going man 

Josh: I'm doing really good I'm good good thanks for having me on the show 

Brad: yes sir all right let's dive in I want to you know first kind of dive into talking a little bit about what precautions you recommend somebody taking to ensure you're carrying safely while also being able to you know get have that quick and easy access that people want with edc 

Josh: yeah so anytime somebody's talking to me about safety and carrying first and foremost you got to know your platform so you've got to spend some time with the pistols that you're planning on carrying make sure you understand how they function where the controls are all of the ins and outs of the gun so just become an extension of your body and then beyond that right just all the basics of firearm safety right we keep our finger off the trigger until we're pressing out on the target things like that to make sure that the last thing we want to do is have a negligent discharge or something like that so what we're doing is getting familiar with our guns making sure we fire or carry follow the firearm safety rules of treat every gun as it's loaded make sure we keep our finger off the trigger like the big stuff right and then beyond that I want people to realize that their clothes are going to be in the way and so when you're talking about working with a pistol and you're walking talking about concealed carry what I like to do is spend a couple minutes every day when I'm getting ready to go out and I put my pistol on my person I have the gun unloaded I point in a safe direction and I dry fire a few draws and walk through the movements with the clothes that I'm wearing that day with the gun that I'm going to wear to make sure that I don't have something hanging up that would cause me an issue a safety issue should I need to get to that pistol quickly so those are some of the things that I talk with individuals about in regards to making sure you can get to that gun safely and quickly 

Brad: yeah those dry fires with the clothes on is an interesting tip it's one we've done a lot of edc shows and I don't think I've heard that one so that's interesting advice you you kind of alluded to this next question here it sounds like you have some varying edc setups I was going to ask you like do you have one favorite or do you kind of vary your carry a little bit 

Josh: well I'll tell you I i like to be familiar as familiar as possible with platforms that I carry and so you'll notice a trend if we talk some of the guns my favorite is my it's a staccato c2 right so it's a nice fairly compact pistol with 15 plus one nine millimeter gun shoots awesome and I i carry that whenever possible you know in the summer with shorts and a t-shirt on it becomes a little bit more difficult or I'm a business guy so during the day if I'm wearing slacks and a button up like that doesn't necessarily fit the bill so I've got some other options there as well but that's my go-to if I'm in a hoodie or if I'm in you know a flannel or something like that running around with jeans on like I'm in the c2 all day long 

Brad: nice how does weather impact what you carry you know I'm kind of curious to hear your answer on this we kind of joked a little bit about it before the show but I mean it does impact what you're wearing so I'm kind of curious to hear how you kind of think through you know your clothing and the weather 

Josh: yeah that's how it plays out so depending on whether I'm wearing more clothes I'm in minnesota man so up here you talk about cold we get cold and in the winter I've got layers on right and so the more I'm wearing the bigger gun I can get away with carrying without printing I know there's all kinds of conversation out there online about should I care if I'm printing should I open carry should I do all these things I'm of the opinion that I would prefer no one knows that I'm carrying so that I'm not the first guy that's the target should something go down around me yeah and I'm just a family man I'm with my kids and with my family if like I don't want to be the the first person everybody's looking at should there be a reason for me to take my firearm out and and use it and so I i like to I like to stay as concealed as possible and so what that means is lots of clothes means bigger guns all the way up to like I'll take the magwell off of guns like this so like this is a staccato xc so it's a full size nine millimeter this is actually my race gun which I shoot three gun with it it's got a red dot on it I can run a 27 round mag as a backup mag in my back pocket so you start talking about something you could carry with a lot of rounds on it super capable you know we shoot these things out to like 200 yards in competition like if I'm shooting at it I can hit it with that gun and so lots of clothes on means I can conceal a pretty large pistol should I want to 

Brad: you talk about blending in this is why I just go everywhere in full camo no one ever 

Josh: oh is that what you do one strategy 

Brad: it would actually make you stand out in a lot of different situations right you're like in church just wearing full camo get the mask on all right man you know you've already kind of laid out several different firearm options and I for somebody that is is really looking for that first gun you know they're hearing you know you've talked about a lot of different capacities even already what do you take into consideration when you're choosing that firearm that's right for you what are some of the other things that we should we should talk about here 

Josh: yeah so a couple big ones can you conceal it effectively can you shoot it effectively and will it have stopping power no I mean people talk stopping power and knock down power today's modern ammunition you know like I carry in all of my guns the federal hst line rock solid so you're talking about really cool technology and ammunition so I can run 380 or I can run nine millimeter and feel confident that the ammo should I need it will do its job and so it takes out some of the old school concerns that I need like a 45 acp in order to like really be safe like forget that I want capacity I want to know that I can shoot it well and I want to know I can conceal it and so those are the big ones that I'm thinking about when I'm picking a gun 

Brad: yeah man that's that's something that comes up every time and I just call it out for people that are maybe new and are trying to find that edc I've had a lot of edc shows so far and the one that comes to mind I think the last time this came up was with tim kennedy and I brought up stopping power because it's something you see people argue over in forums and he's like dude yeah no no we're not talking about that like that it's not a thing like we just focus on something you can shoot so if you really enjoy this show we'll put a link to the tim kennedy show on there just give you some variety of opinions but that is something that like the pros are aligned on is like find something you're comfortable with you know I'll put a full disclosure here we both work a federal love those guys I love the federal team but I want to I i imagine we're going to have some bias here towards a federal product because you you are a fan but I want to ask you like what ammo is best suited for edc you know how do you in self-defense and other purposes maybe but I'm kind of curious on in the cdc conversation you know what what is your go-to round and and you know yeah maybe even like a couple rounds people could evaluate when they're if they're trying to find their adc gun 

Josh: yeah yeah you got it so you want something with expansion plain and simple you want something with enough juice or enough go like decent velocity that will expand and so the two lines that I'll run are like the federal punch and the hst line so the punch is more of a budget friendly round so it's I mean when you're talking about carry ammo it's not like you go through a lot so you can you can spend a couple bucks on ammo and not worry about it because it's not like you're plinking hundreds of rounds at the range with it you just load eight rounds or 15 rounds in the mag right and then a year later like on your birthday go out and shoot it and swap that stuff out right so like it's not doesn't matter if it's a little bit more money as long as you know it's going to do its job but the punch is a great option for pretty darn affordable that I'll run in my guns as well and it both of them are super accurate both of them are soft enough to shoot well and both of them have terrific expansion 

Brad: awesome and we have a go all code with federal so I'll put that in the link for anybody that's interested in this I don't there's some rounds it doesn't apply to so I'm not sure on what people are shopping for we'll drop that in all the gear that Josh is talking about in the show notes too you kind of talked about an optic a second ago and you did a lot of competition shoots I was just kind of curious talk if you could expand a little bit on your approach to optics and and you know especially with the edc like how that interferes or doesn't with your carry 

Josh: yeah so for me I will carry with the dot I love a dot I think a dot allows target focus which allows us to shoot better without worrying about maybe squinting an eye to get that perfect lined iron sights like dots are great I can take new shooters I've never worked on a dot and I can turn them into like just shock them in like half hour of just working through that target focus versus front sight focus so I like them I like dots but for my carry gun same reason that I we talked a little bit about something I could conceal I like the gun to be as small as possible I like to forget I'm wearing it and for me in most of the scenarios that I can imagine needing to shoot in my carry pistol they're pretty up close and personal likely you know I'm not out there looking to like you know defend the world I just I'm trying to get home safe and get my kids home safe and stuff like that I've never needed to deploy a pistol to date so I don't have many carry pistols with dots but like I said when I'm wearing a lot of clothes sometimes I'll wear a full-sized gun and in that case I'll have a dot on it 

Brad: nice one thing that I've I always find interesting is people's approach to holsters and you know I think it might have been melissa bachmann that kind of talked about like her approach just go try a ton of them you know really you need to just kind of see how they all operate but I'm curious on the the holster that you've found most comfortable or you would like to share and then I'm also curious if your holster kind of varies per gun or if you have like a brand you really like 

Josh: sure yep so I like I like to carry up front where I can get to it quickly whenever possible so I have a single clip you can see this is a weber trifecta holster and it's just super simple it doesn't have a bunch of wings on it or anything it just does have a little lever on it that allows it to at least not cant on your waist right that just goes right up front single clip and I've tried the ones that are really wide and I just felt like I noticed them too much and then even that up front was a little uncomfortable for the first maybe week that I wore it but I was like I'm wearing it all week I don't care I'm gonna wear it all week around the house I'm gonna do that and like a week later I was like oh yeah like I am carrying a pistol this is good so you just get used to it we talked about carrying in slacks and so like I've got this little option so just a little pocket gun that I'll rock when I'm carrying slacks and I wear a little pocket holster with that so obviously different tech super low tech super easy but like I can have that in swim trunks and a t-shirt and I'm good right so like that's my what am I going to carry that nobody will notice gun and then and the holster set up and then if I'm really on the farm or I'm out in the country I'm on a hunt you know I'll carry a full size outside the waistband on my hip holster just so that I can lean over work run a chainsaw run do whatever I need to do around the farm super comfortable and have that pistol really easy to get to 

Brad: and what are the brands that you were carrying there specifically we'll put a link to that gear in the show notes 

Josh: yes so these are both weber tactical they just make some pretty darn nice kydex with good attachments that have held up for me and then this little guy's just I think it's a desantis yep desantis little pocket holster so again none of them are none of them cost an arm and a leg they're both you know options are super affordable yet they work great 

Brad: awesome I'm kind of curious you know we talked about firearms but you know edc is a little bit of everything that you're carrying is there anything you've tried to carry you know every day and you just you just couldn't do it or you stopped carrying for whatever reason 

Josh: yeah well I live in the river valley way up in minnesota and we've got all the critters right so we've got wolves and black bears and everything else and I'm in the woods a lot and so there are many days where I'm in town and I'm in the woods and I'm in town that I'm in the woods and so for a while you know when I'm in the woods I want to carry a 10 mil and so I had a 10 millimeter barrel fitted into this staccato xl 40 cal gun so I can have 10 mil I just wanted a bigger caliber with some actual penetration in case I had you know billy black bear charging me or something like that well try this this monster inside the waistband on appendix and it's like you know you're getting in and out of the car it's like okay okay this is silly you know you feel like the joker when you drive you know it's coming up so lesson learned I'm like okay okay so that gun goes outside the waistband on the hip other the smaller versions can go in the appendix 

Brad: and and then and this may be kind of along the same lines I'm kind of curious last question here like what's the weirdest thing you've carried for any kind of edc it could be firearm or some other kind of weapon but like what's the weirdest thing you've carried either on the farm in city or whatever 

Josh: yeah so I'm a trapper right so I trap beaver and muskrat and coyote and all that stuff in the winter and really love it well I've got a suppressed quartzon like little race gun it looks like it's from outer space right because I got a vortex dot on top of it the whole nine yards I got a holster set up for it and so like the suppressor sticks out the end of the holster like that far and you know I'm out there with you know I'm trapping so I've got like a big bomber hat on bright orange like overalls a lot of stuff and then I've got the space gun and neighbors you know look at me like you know like what what is that oh yeah that's the trapping gun like that is not a trapping gun you know a trap and gun's a hundred dollar little revolver in case you drop it in the creek I was like well this is my trapping gun 

Brad: yeah yeah it sounds like it's almost like a cowboys versus aliens you know you got some kind of like a weird mashup vibe there yeah all right man well this was awesome really fun look at some of the gear you're using we're gonna have Josh on for another episode but for today man thanks for coming on 

Josh: yeah thanks for having me yeah 

Brad: oh and before I forget let's tell people where to find you you know youtube instagram whatever whatever your social channels are let's make sure they can find you to keep in touch with your content 

Josh: sure so on instagram it's just Josh underscore Froelich you find me there for all kinds of trap and hunting shooting kind of stuff and then on youtube I have a channel called Josh froelich addicted where we do hunts we do some higher end content and all kinds of things that you might find interesting 

Brad: awesome man we'll put links to that in the show again thanks for coming on 

Josh: thanks sir

Brad: all right I really enjoyed this show with Josh if you did too please make sure you subscribe the button's down below make sure you go ahead and hit the bell icon so you get notified when we have new episodes we do drop new episodes every single week on wednesdays 7:30 p.m you can also listen to it as a podcast but I really like the youtube show so I think you should just do that reminder all of the gear mentioned is in the show notes if you buy any of that gear we probably make money if we make money we donate one percent of our proceeds to raise em outdoors raising my doors is a camp that teaches kids and often their parents to shoot hunt fish it's all the stuff that we love and if you really want to give back and you're gonna buy this stuff anyways please do buy it through the links it supports the show it supports a camp that like I'm a big believer in I'm on the board love what raise em outdoors is doing you can help make sure you find Josh go subscribe to his youtube channel otherwise you have to wait until he comes back on he is coming back we've got one more show with Josh Froelich coming up but not today for today I'm out

Join a community of hunters, anglers and outdoor enthusiasts.