Drawing From Concealment: Building the Skill Safely

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June 11, 2026 · Dan Ribacoff, NRA-Certified Instructor

Why this needs to be taught properly

Drawing from a holster is the single highest-risk routine action in firearms handling. The muzzle is close to the body, the hand is near the trigger, clothing is involved, and the whole thing is done at speed.

Done correctly, it is safe and unremarkable and millions of people do it daily. Done by improvisation, it is how people shoot themselves in the leg — which happens far more often than the internet's confidence about draw technique would suggest.

This article describes the process. It is not a substitute for supervised instruction, and drawing from a holster should not be attempted with live ammunition until someone qualified has watched you do it dry, many times.

The four-count draw

Breaking the draw into discrete counts allows each to be learned and checked independently. Practise each count until it is clean before combining them.

1. Count one: grip and clear. The support hand sweeps or lifts the cover garment clear and holds it. The firing hand establishes a full firing grip on the holstered gun — web high, fingers wrapped, trigger finger straight and outside the guard. This grip must be complete before the gun moves, because you cannot fix a bad grip later in the sequence.
2. Count two: draw straight up. Pull the firearm vertically until the muzzle clears the holster, then rotate the muzzle toward the target. The gun is now at roughly chest level, close to the body, elbow high. From this position you could fire if the threat were at contact distance.
3. Count three: join hands. Bring the support hand to the gun and build the full two-handed grip at the centre of your chest. The gun does not extend before the hands meet.
4. Count four: press out. Extend the firearm straight toward the target along your line of sight. The sights should arrive already aligned. The trigger finger moves to the trigger only during this final extension, and only if you have decided to fire.

What the support hand must do

Underappreciated and important. During the draw, the support hand has one job: clear the garment and get out of the path of the muzzle.

A support hand that drifts across the front of the body during counts two and three puts a hand directly in front of a loaded muzzle. This is a genuine, common error and it is why instructors watch the support hand as closely as the firing hand.

Practise the support hand motion separately: sweep the garment, then pin the hand flat against your chest or sternum until count three. Deliberate and exaggerated at first.

Reholstering: the more dangerous half

More negligent discharges occur during reholstering than during drawing. The reasons are structural: the muzzle is pointed at your own leg or pelvis, the trigger guard is entering a confined space, and people rush because the exciting part is over.

• There is never a reason to reholster quickly. None. Slow is the whole technique.
• Look the gun into the holster. Physically turn your head and watch. "Looking is tactically unsound" is internet advice that has cost people femoral arteries.
• Clear the garment completely with the support hand. Drawstrings, shirt tails and jacket cords are the classic culprits.
• Finger indexed high on the frame throughout.
• If anything feels wrong, stop. Withdraw, look, start again.
• For appendix carry, consider shifting your hips back and angling the muzzle away from your femoral artery as the gun goes in.

The training progression

1. Stage one: unloaded, no garment, no live fire. Four-count draw with an empty gun, in front of a mirror. Two hundred repetitions before adding anything.
2. Stage two: add the cover garment. The garment changes everything and needs its own repetitions. Practise with each type of clothing you actually wear.
3. Stage three: add a timer. Introduce mild time pressure in dry fire. Watch what degrades — usually grip quality at count one.
4. Stage four: live fire, supervised, from count four only. Present from a low ready and fire, without drawing.
5. Stage five: live fire from the holster, supervised, slowly. One round, then reholster deliberately.
6. Stage six: gradually compress time. Never faster than you can perform every count correctly.

Rushing this progression is how people get hurt. There is no shortcut, and the entire sequence can be compressed into a few weeks of daily dry fire plus two or three supervised live-fire sessions.

Positions and realistic contexts

Once the standing draw is solid, extend it. Seated in a chair. Seated in a car with a seatbelt on, which is genuinely difficult and worth discovering in practice rather than in an emergency. Kneeling. Moving laterally. With the support hand occupied, as it would be if you were holding a child or a phone.

Each of these is a distinct skill and each will be worse than you expect the first time. That is exactly why they are worth training.

Many facilities in Palm Beach and Broward County prohibit drawing from a holster on public lanes, which is a legitimate safety policy and also a real obstacle to practising this. Working with an instructor solves it — supervised holster work can be arranged at facilities that permit it, safely and with someone watching every repetition.

Carrying is a habit set, not a purchase

The most common failure mode among new license holders is not a legal one or a marksmanship one. It is simply not carrying — buying the gun, buying the holster, carrying for two weeks, finding it uncomfortable, and quietly stopping.

Preventing that is mostly about setting the system up properly at the start. Buy a rigid gun belt before you buy a second holster; most holster complaints are actually belt complaints. Expect to spend money on two or three holsters before finding the one that works for your body and wardrobe, and treat that as a normal cost rather than a series of mistakes. Dress around the firearm rather than trying to make the firearm fit an existing wardrobe, which in South Florida means thinking carefully about lightweight untucked shirts and about what happens when you sit down in a car.

Then rehearse the boring parts. Drawing from concealment in dry fire, slowly. Reholstering even more slowly, with eyes on the holster, because that is the more dangerous half of the motion. Getting in and out of a vehicle. Using a public restroom. Removing and securing the firearm when entering a prohibited location. These unglamorous mechanics are what determine whether carrying is sustainable, and they are almost never covered in a license course.

Train with a certified instructor in South Florida

Reading about shooting is useful. Being watched while you shoot is transformative — because the faults that limit you are, almost by definition, the ones you cannot see yourself. Delray Firearms Training provides private, NRA-certified instruction with Dan Ribacoff throughout Palm Beach County and Broward County, including Delray Beach, Boca Raton, Boynton Beach, West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Coral Springs and Weston.

Lessons are one-on-one by default, arranged by appointment seven days a week, and shaped around your experience level rather than a fixed script. Whether you have never fired a shot or you have carried for twenty years and want a specific problem solved, the starting point is a short conversation.

Call 516-315-2809 Request a Time

About the instructor

Dan Ribacoff is an NRA-certified firearms instructor, licensed private investigator and career security professional who has spent decades in investigations, executive protection and private security. He teaches handgun, rifle, carbine, shotgun, concealed carry, home defense and maintenance courses across South Florida. Read more about Dan →

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