rugerman07
Member
I have a Rock Island 1911 A1. Is it safe to carry it with a round in the chamber on half cock with the safety in the off position, or would it be better to carry it on full cock with the safety on?
I wondered also if this would be a safe carry with a round in the chamber. Forget the safety, just cock the hammer and fire?Hammer all the way down against the slide.
(Inertia firing pin is too short to reach the primer)
The manual safety that we now know was the last significant modification to the Browning/Colt design, and is the distinguishing external feature between the Model 1910 and Model of 1911 pistols. The manual safety was added at the Army's request so that a pistol that had been fired but was not yet empty could be made safe for reholstering, and that a pistol being held by a trooper on a fractious horse could make his pistol safe until he brought the horse back under control.
The manual, or "thumb" safety, was a Browning design patented (#1,070,582) in 1913. Browning clearly understood thumb safeties; the FN Modele 1900 in 7.65mm was the first production Browning design to be so equipped. Why the Colt .38 ACPs and .45 ACPs right to the Model of 1910 lacked a thumb safety is an interesting question.
Once the thumb safety was introduced and demonstrated on modified Model 1910 pistols, The Ordnance Board reported in part, "The Colt pistol had a grip safety and in addition a slide lock safety which prevented the hammer from being let down on the firing pin when both the trigger and the grip safety were manipulated, thus allowing the pistol to be carried with perfect safety in a holster at full cock."
So it turns out that neither the grip safety nor the thumb safety were part of the Model of 1911 by Browning's design, but rather were the results of the Army's field testing from 1900 onward, and to satisfy the needs of the Cavalry at that! Once both were incorporated, the concept of "Condition One" was born... in November of 1910.
Ol' Charlie also had the grip safety tied down with a strip of rawhide I believe.the 1911 carried in the waist band by Charlie Miller
More than once I've had the safety come off on a 1911 while being carried cocked and locked... result... a pistol with a relatively sensitive trigger that once gripped has no safety. It doesn’t happen often, but once is too often for me.
A good quality holster or a safety replacement should take care of that. I have a Kimber with a safety too easily disengaged. If it were my carry, I'd have the safety changed out. My Colt XSE, other Kimbers, etc are different. The engagement is much more solid on all those 1911's.More than once I've had the safety come off on a 1911 while being carried cocked and locked... result... a pistol with a relatively sensitive trigger that once gripped has no safety. It doesn’t happen often, but once is too often for me.