Full Conceal
https://www.fullconceal.com/
I can’t say that I agree with the thinking behind Full Conceal, but it’s kind of neat to see someone take a new idea and run with it when it comes to the gun market. Will this one succeed and come to fruition? It’ll be a lot harder in the 2017 gun market than it was in prior years, but you never know.
The “Model 1” design from Full Conceal.
The concept of Full Conceal starts with the idea that you are somehow better off with a folded in half full sized service length pistol than you would be with a true pocket pistol and extra mags…against an AR-15 and an assailant with a purpose. er, is true never.
A true pocket pistol, like the Springfield XD-S that I carry, has a smaller sight radius, so long shots are harder to aim than on a full slide, but at gunfight distances that isn’t a factor. Likewise the lesser velocity of a slightly shorter barrel. As explained in our now famous “Center Mass Myth” article, if you don’t hit the central nervous system with a pistol round, the guy is going to keep coming anyway.
The “Model 2” design.
But anyway. The fold down trigger idea is pretty cool. To think that Glock stormed the world back in the 80s with their trigger design and internals, and now Full Conceal is flipping that right on its head and replacing that with it’s own fold down trigger, well that’s really something. I guess the “engineers” at Full Conceal decided it didn’t need that silly safety paddle, and I’m sure they’ve put it on a machine to fold it up and down and pull the trigger thousands of times to see when it fails.
Or maybe they just sitting around at night watching Magnum PI reruns and keep a running count of flipping it up down rack pull click. Fold it up fold it down rack pull click. Tom Selleck was so young then.
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What the Model 1 looks like with the mag inserted.
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The Model 1 comes with two magazines.
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I thought it was funny that he got the idea from the Aurora shooting. You know, the one with the bloody footprints walking the wrong way… This product is about as real as that shooting, and I can’t in good conscience encourage anyone to put their own money against it.
If you do decide to do that, at your own peril, they are at least “guaranteeing” that you’ll get your money back if things don’t work out, or in the case of the Model 2, if they decide to put your model off indefinitely.
Explaining what the difference is between the first and second model is not easy, but I’ll try.
The Model 1 is essentially a magazine holder that mounts on your front rail. You cut your Glock’s trigger guard and the mag well, and a standard 10 round magazine fits in the magazine holder, sliding down to just in front of the trigger.
I don’t know about you, but that scares the hell out of me, if I were to carry a round in the pipe. The magazine is like a giant pushbutton for your trigger. There is a “stop” there, but everything is of course made of plastic, so I think the product is ill conceived, and a lawsuit waiting to happen.
The Model 2 is really a newly designed actual firearm, and you should think of it as such. The design is similar to the Mod 1, where the magazine is mounted to your rail, but it is made to hold a full length 17 round mag, with a 3 round Full Conceal extension. This inserts to a hole in the mag well of the firearm. The magazine travels under a foldup trigger, similar to the 1836 technology of the Colt Paterson. I question how robust that mechanism will be under use.
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Detaching the magazine from the Model 2.
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Inserting the magazine into the Model 2.
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The most interesting thing about the project is that he doesn’t know which firearm slide will fit the first Model 2. It will depend on how many deposits they take, and which firearms people want to fit on the Model 2. I know it sounds convoluted and it is.
What I can say is that in my experience, “fully funded” means that someone has agreed to put in seed capital to get through the production process, but the checks come in as needed, not in one lump sum. It could be that they already have all of the money in hand, and I wish them luck. But if they don’t, the investor could pull out any time if the business model does not seem sound.
What are your thoughts about Full Conceal’s offerings?
This year is going to be sobering for the entire gun industry, that has been on a drunken spree for 8 years, and especially since 2012. Ill-conceived projects like this used to have to be able to tap the over-the-top demand out there, and succeed for a time, but I doubt this one will even get out of the gate. If they do, we’ll try to get review product and show you how it works. You can reach Full Conceal in Las Vegas (big surprise) at (702) 563-4466.