There's being consistent, and there's being silly.

Consistency has been a big part of my approach to carrying concealed. While I've have several options for carry handguns, they are all the same brand and style. Not so much because I'm a fanboy of one particular brand, but because it made since to me to stick to one style. Same grip, same controls in the same location, same sight picture, same same same. One set up to learn, one set up to remember. I even took it as far as having the same style of after market night sights. All of which I still stand by.

I have nothing against the folks who carry a 1911 on day, a 9mm Glock the next and .38 pocket revolver on Sundays. If you can keep proficient with multiple setups, keep at it as it works for you. I'm just the type who wants to keep it as simple as possible. But I did take it too far for a while.

When I finally decided to take concealed carry seriously, I had a full size Gen 2 Glock. With this not being an ideal choice for a concealed carry beginner, I bought a compact Gen 3 Glock to be my everyday carry.

Not long after I started carrying the Gen 3 Glock I was introduced to Talon brand grip tape. Since it was an inexpensive, easy to install and completely reversible modification I ordered some for the Gen 3 Glock just to try out. Within about three minutes of installing them on the Gen 3 Glock I was on the Talon website ordering a set of the Gen 2 Glock. While I didn't really have any complaints about the grip of the Glock, the grip tape made the gun feel like an extension of my hand. The bonus feature was by adding the grip tape to the Gen 2 was it made the two different Glock's feel almost identical in the hand. This fell right into my consistency mindset. Now my carry options not only have the same same functions, controls, and sight picture; but the grip feels the same.

All was going great in my everything is consistent format, until one day I brought home a Gen 4 Glock. The more aggressive texture of the Gen 4 grip was a huge improvement for me. I think it feels better in my hand than any other handgun I've handled before and the adjustable back straps were an outstanding addition. On my Gen 4 Glock 19 I found that not only it felt great in the hand without any grip tape, but with the large back straps installed the Glock fit my hand better and I could shoot it a little better.

Now here's where I went silly. Even though I liked the way the Gen 4 Glock's grip texture and it performed better for me with the larger back straps, I put on the smaller back straps that gave it a similar size of the Gen 3 and added the grip tape so it had the same feel. That way, even though I liked it better and shot it better in one configuration, I set it up in a different configuration so it was like my other Glocks so it was consistent. Let me repeat that to make sure the stupidity soaked in: even though I liked it better and shot it better in one configuration, I set it up in a different configuration so it was like my other Glocks so it was consistent. That's right; I purposely made a carry option of mine slightly "worse" so it would feel more like other carry options.

I'm much better now. I still want consistency in my carry options. I will still only carry striker fired handguns with similar controls in similar locations. Just now I no longer go to the point of limiting the potential the handgun has. There's being consistent, and there's being silly.