For CCW purposes:
1) Do you carry your 1911 "cocked and locked"? Yes, only way I feel safe doing
Why do you feel safe with it cocked and locked? Is that based on what other people told you, or what?
2) Do you leave the safety off; with one in the chamber and plan to cock the hammer for the first shot? Hell no, that's how people shoot themselves
Cult Cocked and Locked has modified the military 1911 so far from its original configuration, I assume it would have taken John Browning time to recognize the thing. Specifically, to win quick draw games, Cult Cocked and Locked has added extended safeties that could double as diving boards in a pool emergency. These long safeties provide such a lever arm that it is easy to bump them off holsetering, unholstering, between the belt carry, shirt tail snag, etc. And it is easy to bump them on when firing. This has lead to the creation of beavertails that are high on the 1911, so the safety can be "ridden" with the thumb.
I want to point out an older style of beavertail, that is the
Clark 180. Which is on this 1911 of mine
This grip safety was designed for Bullseye shooters. For decades, Bullseye Pistol shooters (depending on the range) were required to hold the hammer back with their thumb, when they released the slide. Enough accidental discharges occurred with hammers following the slide due to worn GI sear/hammers and trigger jobs, that matches required this practice. Notice where the tip of the hammer is in relation to the later beavertail. You cannot get your thumb under the slide of a pistol with a later beavertail as there is no room. However, this point is more or less moot as metallurgy is so much better, the practice of holding the hammer back has been forgotten except by the real old timers.
The original 1911 was designed to be easily thumb cocked.
My GI configuration RIA, the hammer hits the grip safety here, the A1 grip safety does not block access to the hammer either.
Here is the extremely limited access to the hammer on the quick draw beavertail
There is very little hammer spur exposed to a thumb or finger, about half of the hammer is actually inaccessible at full cock. And, the spur is short to begin with. If Cult Cocked and Locked wants to claim that cocking is dangerous, I would agree on their mangled 1911's. This is something Cult Cocked and Locked did to themselves, they added non military parts, re arranged distances, changed geometries, so by design, Cult Cocked and Locked altered the 1911 so the safest way to carry the thing, is nothing in chamber, magazine in the gun.
3) Do you leave the safety off; and plan on manually racking the slide to chamber the first round and cock the hammer, such as the Israelis do? I'm not Israeli, so no..
I do think that is how the early, pre 1911 pistols were carried. I have asked this again and again, how were these carried?
I know from Man at Arms Magazine, that the Navy still had these in inventory up to WW2. The Navy never allowed round in the chamber carry for the 1911, I assume no round in chamber was a standard procedure with early automatics. And that is probably a smart thing to do with striker fired weapons as they are so prone to accidental discharges. I remember the cheap 25 ACP Ravens
and still have a cheap Jennings 22lf
men would buy these cheap pistols and give them to girl friends, and I heard a number of accounts when one of these pistols went off when a purse was dropped. I knew an Airline baggage handler, and before 2001, there were lots of baggage handler accounts of striker fired pistols firing when baggage was tossed into the plane. The gun owner had chambered a round and left the pistol chambered in his luggage.
Over time, I have developed a profound distrust of striker fired weapons, and the increasing number of self shootings just reinforces my fears. It also took me time to realize that a cocked and locked 1911 is more likely to shoot its owner than a bad guy. After 50 years of listening to the experts of Cult Cocked and Locked, I consider them experts in quick draw games, but not the history, nor the design of the 1911.
By the time WW1 rolls around, so many discharges have occurred, the Army is positively worried about a round in the chamber. The first accidental discharge I found in print, was during the 1917 National Matches. A civilian lowered the hammer on his 1911 in his tent, and the hammer slipped, the pistol discharged, and a Major 200 yards away was hit. It is a bad practice to decock the 1911 with the thumb.
Manual of the Automatic Pistol, Caliber .45, Model of 1911
By United States American Expeditionary Forces (WW1 Army to France)
Page 20
(2) Do not carry the pistol in the holster with the hammer cocked and safety lock on, except in an emergency.
If the pistol is so carried in the holster, cocked and safety lock on, the butt of the pistol should be rotated away from the body when withdrawing the the pistol from the holster, in order to avoid displacing the safety lock.
page 30
To avoid accidents, individual men out of ranks barracks or camp, will first withdraw magazine, then open chamber whenever the pistol is removed from the holster for any purpose. Accidental discharges will not occur if the above rules are always observed.
page 31
25. In campaign, the pistol should habitually be carried with a magazine in the socket, loaded with seven ball cartridges, chamber empty, hammer down.
page 34.
(b) Do not load the pistol until the moment of firing unless there is a probable necessity for its use.
(c) Always lock the pistol when loaded, unless you are going to fire immediately.
https://books.google.com/books?id=ICtEbBvbdq0C&pg=PA7&lpg=PA7&dq=Manual+of+the+Automatic+Pistol,+Caliber+.45,+Model+of+1911&source=bl&ots=OOGPHi4XL_&sig=ACfU3U2s89E2JO2sJ17XmbEEikFq5Ik-cQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjvnbL9guzpAhViZN8KHdxCC-E4ChDoATAGegQICxAC#v=onepage&q=Manual of the Automatic Pistol, Caliber .45, Model of 1911&f=false
