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RE: 1911 - How do you carry

Cocked and Locked....

RE: 1911 - How do you carry

Quote:

ORIGINAL: Paul L Mohr

Well there are different designs of the 1911 style pistol. Are you talking a newer generation or an original colt 1911? I believe some of the newer versions have a firing pin block which would make it much safer to carry with the hammer down, or cocked for that matter since the firing pin would be blocked until either the grip safety or trigger safety were activated.

I will be honest though I was not considering 1911 only type pistols when I said that. I was just thinking single action semi auto pistols in general. Most of which are based on the 1911 design.

Paul

There may be differences, for the sake of intelligence on this issue, my info was from what is generally considered the "regular" 1911, and I am no expert (for sure) on the topic (but that is also the reason for the disclaimer of "from what i know")

I woul dimagine things like Para Ordnance DOA and some other 1911-types are surely not the same, and as always, do your due diligence in finding out what your particular brand and model (generation) does as far as safety designs...

RE: 1911 - How do you carry

I carry mine with a round in the chamber, with the hammer cocked and safety on. It is the best mix of safety and being able to bring the weapon into use immediately if needed, which I imagine is the only logical reason for anyone to carry a defensive firearm such as a 1911.

You could carry without a round in the chamber, which might be ever so marginally safer, but good luck chamberinga roundif you have to use one hand to fend off an attacking dog, person or anything else that could reduce you to only having one hand available to manipulate your weapon. It is a bad idea to carry a defensive weapon in a state such that it is not immediately ready to be deployed.

Because there is no decocker, the process of decocking the hammer could cause the gun to go off thereby harming your thumb and putting an unintentional hole in something. I would never decock a loaded 1911.

RE: 1911 - How do you carry

Quote:

ORIGINAL: Pavomesa

Thanks to this, you can chamber a round in a .45, let the hammer fully down on the round resting in the chamber and them smack the back of the hammer with a rock and the gun will still not fire. (No inertia as the firing pin is pushed out of the way by the hammer.)

The catch is if something accidentally pulls the hammer partially back and then slips loose. It could theoretically cause the gun to fire. By carrying the gun "cocked and locked," the hammer is LOCKED in position and the gun is protected by two safeties.

Actually, what prevents this more than anything is the firing pin block present on Series 80 and subsequent Colts and most any 1911 made in the last couple of decades or so. Hence the third safety, which is deactivated by trigger pull.