Carrying a 1911 without the safety on?

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matheath, Unfortunately for him and others around him you are probaly right. Merry Xmas, orchidhunter
 
matheath, Unfortunately for him and others around him you are probaly right. Merry Xmas, orchidhunter
 
matheath, Unfortunately for him and others around him you are probaly right. Merry Xmas, orchidhunter
 
matheath, Unfortunately for him and others around him you are probaly right. Merry Xmas, orchidhunter
 
matheath, Unfortunately for him and others around him you are probaly right. Merry Xmas, orchidhunter
 
So good you said it 6 times!

I know the 1911 is perfectly safe cocked and unlocked but remember, when holstering, you palm will presumably press on the grip safety and if anything touches that little trigger (like a holster strap) as you push the gun in with a master grip... KABOOM!
 
Jest be happy his keyboard holds only 6 rounds and is not one o' those 30-rounders!

If he lived in my state, he can get up to 10 rounds in his keyboard or more if his keyboard does not have the evil black plastic keyboard features like a detachable key magazine and keyboard grip in the front for the off-hand.
 
What skeers me is I'm worried that now he's outta rounds, I have disturbing visions of him loading his new 250-round keyboard drum Santa left him.

HE'LL BE BACK! :what:
 
Military Carry?

Um, whenever I carried a .45 in the Army I carried it cocked and locked - and I was stationed stateside. :scrutiny:

The sad truth is that my officers weren't 'gun savvy' even though I was in a combat unit. Not once did an officer challenge me over it. I did rack it once when I was issued ammo - and the supply sergeant (in charge of the weapons) just gave me an annoyed look and said "Go do that OUTSIDE, okay?"

I agree with the sentiment that it's not at all difficult to train yourself to wipe the safety on the draw. IMHO if you're going to carry at all, you owe it to yourself and anybody in the vicinity to practice how to draw to the ready SAFELY. If you can't do that, maybe you should be armed with a sharp stick or something:eek:

That's just my two cents.
 
As long as you are using a holster I don't see it being especially dangerous. However if the safety was accidently turned back on would you realize it in a pinch? I think if its there you should use it. As long as you train to turn it off on the draw, make it instinct, there should be no problem. Sit back and enjoy the extra safety for either your ass or your pecker. :)
 
Wow, lots of replies here..

Just to clarify, I was talking about carrying it with a round chambered, the gun cocked, but with the manual thumb safety OFF.

I am competent with all of my firearms, and I fully understand what I would be doing here. I was just curious to see what you all thought about it. I see that most of you don't recommend it, but I still can't see why it is any worse than a Glock with no grip safety at all. Some of you see it the same way I do, but most of you still think it's a bad idea.

I know training is the key, and I have no problem training myself to flick the safety off during my draw. I have already practiced this, and it already feels pretty natural. When I own a gun, I always know EXACTLY where all the controls are and how to use them. I own a Glock, an H&K USPc40 (V1), and now a couple 1911s. So as you can tell, I am familiar with several different firing mechanisms.

Training my body and mind to instinctively flick off the safety while drawing it from a holster will not be a problem. The problem is that I don't fully trust myself to do it if I were faced with a real threat, no matter how many times I practice it. Having time to do it is one thing, but let's imagine a little scenario here...

Let's say you are held at gunpoint by someone who looks like they are all messed up on drugs. Imagine you just left an atm and put your wallet away, and find yourself staring down the barrel of his gun. Obviously, you aren't going to draw your gun, pull it out, and challenge him to a duel. He says, "give me your wallet." At this point you are thinking, "This crackhead might shoot me even if I give him my money." So your next thought might be to act as if you are going for your wallet, and pull out your gun instead. Now, in my eyes, just knowing that my gun has a safety on it is going to make me hesitate. I'd probably just give him the wallet at that point and hope he didn't shoot me.

On the other hand, if I knew there was no safety to fumble with, I'd probably have the guts to try and take the guy out before he saw it coming. In other situations (ie: school/mall shooting sprees), you would have plenty of patience and time to flick off the safety before stopping the bad guy from shooting anyone else. But in a scenario like I just described, do you all really have that much confidence in your abilities? Have any of you ever been in dangerous situations or been surprised to the point where you jump and your adrenaline starts pumping? I have, and boy let me tell you how weird it is. You freeze up, you can't hear anything due to your ears feeling like they popped, and you usually just stand there until you figure out what just happened. I don't want to assume I would instinctively flick off the safety in a similar situation. That's if I even remember that I have a gun on me!

I think the people who say, "then go back to your Glock" aren't getting it. First, there are many reasons why people choose one gun over another for concealed carry. A manual safety is just one of many factors to consider when choosing your carry piece. Considering not using the manual safety on a 1911 shouldn't automatically rule out carrying one.

Again, the grip safety on a 1911 is a very good safety mechanism in itself. If I were to holster the gun BEFORE attaching it to my belt, while making sure not to depress the grip safety the whole time, would this not be considered "carefully" holstering the gun?
 
Hmm, well I guess it really is up to me after all. I just wanted more opinions before I went ahead and did it.

I'm still not sure if I will. The safety really is comforting as far as not shooting myself goes, but I'd be more confident in a real-life situation without one standing between me and pulling the trigger!

There's the saying "Why worry about what can kill you tomorrow when there are so many things that can kill you today"

Maybe I'm just being paranoid here and assuming I will get mugged in the worst way possible. Maybe carrying a handgun with a safety on is better than not being armed at all...
 
I don't get what's the big deal. If I had a safety feature that is as easy to use as the 1911 thumb safety, I would have it on and flick it as I draw. What's the big deal? Why does it have to be all or nothing and go unarmed or have a condition 0 gun?
 
Why does it have to be all or nothing and go unarmed or have a condition 0 gun?
Who said they were going unarmed? I made this thread to discuss whether or not condition 0 is considered "doable" or not by most folks...don't know where you got that idea.

By me saying carrying a gun with a safety on is better than not being armed, I simply meant that maybe it doesn't matter whether it's condition 0,1,etc. so long as you have a gun to give yourself a chance if SHTF.

I still feel that condition 0 isn't a big deal as long as you are careful when holstering the gun. I mean a M&P or Glock w/o a grip safety vs. a 1911 with a grip safety...just think about that for a second. It doesn't matter how long or short the trigger pull is. When you're talking a trigger pull weight of < 6lbs, a gun with a grip safety is always safer than a gun without one because it ensures that you have a proper, firm grip on the gun before it can shoot. After that point, the only safety left is your brain!
 
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Hmm, well I guess it really is up to me after all. I just wanted more opinions before I went ahead and did it.

I'm still not sure if I will. The safety really is comforting as far as not shooting myself goes, but I'd be more confident in a real-life situation without one standing between me and pulling the trigger!

There's the saying "Why worry about what can kill you tomorrow when there are so many things that can kill you today"

Maybe I'm just being paranoid here and assuming I will get mugged in the worst way possible. Maybe carrying a handgun with a safety on is better than not being armed at all...

Okay, maybe I misread your last statement out of context but that's what I thought you said... being cocked and locked is better than being unarmed.
 
but I still can't see why it is any worse than a Glock with no grip safety at all. Some of you see it the same way I do, but most of you still think it's a bad idea.

Glock has a "loooong" trigger pull. You have more "time", so to speak, to back off if you shouldn't be on trigger. With a 1911, it would have fired.

Would you carry a DA revolver in a holster with the hammer cocked...and believe it's safe?
 
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