You are not the only one to find that thumb safety off, when you thought it was on. And sometimes shooters find it on, when they thought it was off.
I went to the local Cabelas in Dec 2017 and saw these RIA GI pistols on sale for $399 so I had to play with the display model. The thing was tight and the trigger was good. It took several more days to talk myself into buying it, plus I had a $100 gift card, but I did. Cabelas let me pick the best out of three, the one I picked was amazingly tight, no play between slide and frame, barrel hood tight, barrel bushing to barrel tight. I wish the barrel bushing was a tighter fit in the slide but, my Les Baer was $1000 more, so, I can't complain. The trigger is short, like the original, and that is what I want. I have short stubby fingers and I replaced most of the long triggers on the 1911's I own.
I was looking for a thumb cocking M1911. I want to carry my M1911 with a round in the chamber and the hammer down. This was the way the pistol was designed, this was how it was carried, round in the chamber, hammer down, in the flap holster. I do not like that thumb safety. Too many times with extended safeties and ambidextrous safeties I have found the safety "off" when I thought it was on, and, worse of all, firing my Les Baer, the safety bumped to "On". I watched one of those Top Gun shows and that happened to a Delta Force/Cop/Competitor types. He accidentally bumped the safety on and it took time for him to puzzle out what was going on. A Bullseye bud of mine, has seen this a number of times at the indoor range he manages. Accidental discharges caused the Army to change the condition of carry from round in the chamber, hammer down, to round in the chamber, safety on, pistol in flap holster. There were still too many accidental discharges and you find that the SOP by the time you get to Vietnam was that you were not allowed to put a magazine in your M1911 until your boots were on the ground in the drop zone! I put my middle finger between the hammer and slide when lowering the hammer. I put my index finger on the hammer spur and my middle finger in front of the hammer. I jam the hammer with my middle finger and pull the trigger. I slide the middle finger out, like a wedge, lowering the hammer, at some point the middle finger is completely out and I use my index finger to lower the hammer all down. I do not use my thumb to lower the hammer because I have had a hammer slip off the thumb.
Anyway, the early 1911 configuration, which was before this 1911A1 version, had wide hammer spurs and a virtually non existent grip safety tang. The pistol was designed to be thumb cocked and those features made it real easy, like Colt SAA easy, to thumb cock a first generation 1911. After WW1, the grip safety was elongated and the spurs disappeared, but still, the 1911A1 version is a lot easier to thumb cock than this, with its beavertail, and I don't cut my fingers on the Bomar style rear sight.
I am of the opinion that these late model configurations have these long thumb safeties, and the beavertails, not to improve combat efficiency, but to improve shooter speed in quick draw games. And as you have found it, sometimes, you are carrying one of these late model quick draw McGraw M1911's, fully loaded, cocked, aimed at your butt, and the thumb safety is off!
My RIA is in the holster, round in the chamber, hammer down, strap over the hammer. If I need it, I have to pull it out and thumb cock it before firing. That is not a problem for me. I practiced a lot of thumb cocking with my SAA, and I think I can remember to do it in a stress full situation. You know, if you could reload the SAA quickly, it would make a very compact, powerful, self defense pistol. I consider the 45 L Colt an even better round than the 45 ACP.
The US Army, particularly the horse Cavalry were familiar with thumb cocking their Colt SAA's, and did not consider it dangerous. The horse Cavalry wanted a safety so they could make the pistol safe if the horse got uncontrollable, and a safety that could be applied "On" or "Off" with only one hand. But, since the Leatherslap days of the 1950's, American's have been indoctrinated to carry these pistols cocked and locked, and that is something I don't feel safe doing with this mechanism.
