I've been thinking lately about training and practice.  Part of this has been trying to come up with a training plan that will fit my wife's lifestyle and our needs, as well as her temperament.  No problems there, but along the way a couple of thoughts occurred to me that might be of some interest to others.

When we originally decide to become CCH, we went through process of (among other things) selecting a personal weapon and a means of carrying it.  If we were serious, we then practiced drawing our chosen weapon from our holster until doing so became muscle memory.  (Some experts say this is about 3,000 times). 

Okay, so far.  But, it occurred to me, what if along the way we became disenamored of our choice of weapons or (which is much more likely) our holster.  I for one, have had a ton of holsters. 

Over the years, I've been fickle enough to have had love affairs with revolvers in .38 SPL, .357 MAG, .41 MAG, and .44 MAG.  During this same period, I also went through a military affiliation with both the 9 mm. Browning HiPower and the 1911A1 .45 ACP, but maintained my love affairs with my revolvers. 

Later in life I discovered that I had developed a deep respect and appreciation for flatsiders and then started having my little flings with 9 x 19, 9 mm Kurz, .357 SIG, .40, 10 mm., and .45 ACP.  Over the past fifteen years or so, I've been monogamously faithful to my 1911 pattern .45 and for the past 5 years of so to my Para Ord 14-45. 

For fifteen years, or so, I've also pretty firmly settled into a deep appreciation and comfort level with a shoulder holster (muzzle down) rig.  As I'm a tad older than I used to be (aren't we all) I became quite settled in my ways. 

Recently, though, I've had to look to other means of carry, as my shoulder rig finally disintegrated.  I'm now using some OWB and various IWB holsters, and some fabric shoulder rigs.  I keep saying this is pending finding a good fitting, good feeling shoulder rig to replace the last one. 

Actually, there is a level of miserly reluctance to buy something for a big chunk of change that I may not like once I've bought it.  I've been pretty lucky that I've been able to dispose of my old holsters, particuarly since I'm left handed, and don't have "too" many of them, but I'm still pretty frugal (my wife says cheap). 

In the meanwhile, my draw time has become slower, largely due to the fact that I am having to do something physically different that I haven't had to do for a long time and the usual physical act of drawing my weapon is now not the same. 

How much is this slowing me down? 
How much is this likely to affect my survivability?
Will I go into automatic shoulder holster draw when I should be doing an IWB or OWB draw, and look like I'm just fumbing around? 

Of course, the most important of these questions is the survivability one. 

The question I have for all of you is:  Do we do ourselves a disservice by continually switching from gun to gun and from carry rig to carry rig?   Or, should we be very careful when we think of doing so? 

The answer, if for no other reason, should spark in us the concept that making such a change is not something we should take for granted but rather something to view as a very serious undertaking. 

Or, am I overthinking this? 

I'm interested in your thoughts.