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?