Why not a 1911 with no thumb safety?

I mean, now days, the shorter and lighter the trigger, the better with a lot of folks. Glocksters brag about the 4 lb trigger with hardly any take up. All they have for a safety is that doohicky thing on the trigger. Why do you need THAT if safety is between the ears and you just keep your "booger picker off the bang switch?" Springfield Armory adds a grip safety, a good thing. But, seems to me, if you want the shortest, lightest trigger on you gun, the 1911 is the ultimate. You could pull the safety off, give it a sub one pound trigger break, and you'd basically have an improved Springfield XD!

I mean, I prefer the thumb safety on such triggers...actually prefer a true DA....just sayin'..... I don't really understand the clamor to near single action triggers with no safeties. If you need a single action, buy a 1911, redundant safeties and not just the one between your ears. Helps with Murphy's law. I learned to shoot a DA revolver accurately YEARS ago and I'm pretty danged good with 'em even today. There are autos out there with DAO triggers that are more revolver like, but people shoot 'em and complain about the "terrible trigger". Those DA triggers are there to keep you walking without a limp. Learn to shoot one and you'll be plenty accurate and fast. Heck, I've shot expert times with a Kel Tec P11 in IDPA competition just to see how I'd do. I turned some heads with that little thing. My go to IDPA gun at the time, in a sea of Glocks, was my Ruger P85. I guess I am a contrarian, swimming against the popular tide.

Wouldn't bother me so much, but whole lines of autos are now basically Glocks. The hammer fired DA or DAO choices are getting scarce.

I've always liked the grip safety. Don't have to think about it as when you grip the gun, it's turned off. The thumb safety is the one that takes training and muscle memory. People seem too lazy to learn DA shooting, why would they want to bother with a thumb safety? This is the reason everyone is building "safe actions" anymore, no thumb safety, no grip safety, only the "one between the ears" to rely on, which for most is probably more unreliable than not, especially under stress.

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It's the grip safety that isn't needed.


Not so.

The grip safety is a drop safety...made necessary by the straight-line trigger. It's not as critical with low-mass/lightweight materials that many of today's triggers are made from...but still important.

If the gun is dropped, it's more likely to hit the ground muzzle up than muzzle down. If it fires muzzle down, it doesn't present nearly the danger that it does if it fires muzzle up.

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But, if it's a series 80..... I like the 1911 redundant safeties, personally. I feel, if you're going to commit to carry one, you should only carry one and commit most of your practice to one. One should commit the thumb safety to muscle memory.

I won't give up my revolvers, though, and find myself carrying one more often than not and practicing with 'em more. I like my autos to fire DA on the first shot just like my revolvers, less for Murphy to mess up. I like my Kel Tec P11, little square revolver that it is. I like my now extinct KP90DC, decocker only decocks, ready for another DA shot when activated without having to remember to push it back up. Might sound a bit stupid, but hey, I'm only human.

But, more and more, hammer fired DAs with decockers of ANY kind are going the way of the do do bird. Soon, there will only be "safe actions" and 1911s. I'm glad I already have what I like, but Ruger no longer produces the P90. I had a mag release spring break on me, probably the ONLY part on the P90 that isn't overbuilt. Ruger had me another one in my mailbox within a week, but there will come a time when there are no more parts for the P90. At that point they'll offer me one of their striker fired guns in exchange or maybe a SR1911. At that point, I'll just have to cough up the money and buy a Sig 220 or something, I guess. I always liked the placement of the decocker on Sigs, just that they're pricey.

I noticed in a gun rag the other day, even Sig Sauer is going to striker guns. Could the hammer guns be on the endangered list? Sheesh! See, this is my REAL gripe with this thread.

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But, if it's a series 80
The Series 80 firing pin works off the trigger.

If the trigger moves backward far enough to trip the sear, it's moved more than enough to let the firing pin go.

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Oh, yeah, quite true....duh.

I snicker, too, when I read people who think DA or DAO autoloaders' triggers are too heavy. But, I'd bet that most of those with such complaints are from a much younger generation of shooters who do indeed have little or no experience with the venerable old DA/SA wheelguns, with which I was first trained and equipped, the "Glock generation", if you will. That's why, when I was in the market for a service-sized Ruger 9mm a few years back, the P95 came home instead of the more-handsome-looking (to me, at least) SR9.

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A kindred spirit. I did have that P64 Radom that had a terrible DA to it, but a Wolf spring kit at least allows me to hit in DA with it. The transition to SA is awful, though, involuntary double taps. But, hopefully, there'll ALWAYS be revolvers. I don't have many years left to worry about it, though, 2/3s or better already under the belt being optimistic.

I have owned and competed with a couple of worked over 1911s in the past, well before there was legal concealed carry in Texas. I know the routines with 'em, just won't wanna carry one less than totally practiced and brain fart when the adrenalin hits. There's so much less to remember with a DA revolver or DA/DAO auto, but main thing, revolvers is what my usual practice is done with, if for no other reason than picking up brass is hard on my back.

You know, with all the Glock leg incidents, I've often wondered why the tort lawyers don't pounce on "safe action" guns. I don't think they're really lawsuit proof, myself. I feel safer with a cocked and locked 1911, personally. YMMV of course.