Carrying a 1911 .45 With 8+1

[dairycreek]

I'm 74 years old. Can't tell you just how long I have carried 8 + 1. Never a problem!

 

[yeti]

I'll admit to usually just stuffing in an 8 round mag, chambering the first round, and calling it good. Then again I still can't break myself of only putting 28 rounds in a 30 round AR mag.

 

[medic15al]

7 +1 and 7 x 2. Seen too many problems with 8 rounders in the 1911 I have owned.

Original Colt Made 7 rounders and Wilson 47 Black 7 rounders.

 

[nwilliams]

I never carry +1

 

[mongo4567]

I always top off the mag....never had a problem with the 8 rounders. My carry 1911 is an officers sized with 7+1...same difference.

 

[orionengnr]

With a lower-capacity pistol (spelled any single-stack) I always do +1.
I shot my Kimber Eclipse Pro II in a number of steel plate matches last summer, and plan on doing so again this summer. I also take it to the range about once a week and carry it a fair portion of the year (on my hip as I type).

I have never had any difficulties with the +1, and plan on continuing using that method. Mostly stock Kimber mags, plus one Wilson 47D.

 

[saltydog452]

I prefer Dr. Pepper, Red Wing boots, Thurlo socks, Lee jeans, Budweiser ( or whatever someone else is willing to buy ), an occasional taste of whiskey older than my oldest grandkiddo, and 7 round magazines.

None are perfect, but, so far, they seem to suit me.

salty

 

[Water-Man]

+1 on the Lee jeans and whiskey.

 

[Vern Humphrey]

I consider the magazine the weak link in an automatic pistol, so I carry two spares. And I go 8 +1.

 

[SSN Vet]

I always top off, regardless of what model semi-auto I'm using.

I just picked up my first ever 8 rounders last summer and had a few intermitant FTF at a USPSa clinic with them. So I don't totally trust them and am sticking with 7+1 for now... as these have proven 100% reliable.

Need to spring for some Wilson's one of these days.

All of this being said, 1911 is not my EDC anyways.

 

[Smaug]

I'm not so sure about it on a 1911 if carried IWB

It seems like the thumb safety could accidentally be switched off if carried IWB.

Then, you're cocked and locked with only the grip safety. Seems risky to me. I'd probably carry it loaded with the chamber empty to be on the safe side. Wouldn't want to blow my foot off by accident.

 

[1911Tuner]

It seems like the thumb safety could accidentally be switched off if carried IWB. Then, you're cocked and locked with only the grip safety.

As long as you don't hold the gun in a firing grip and pull the trigger, that's not as risky as most people think it is. The first eight pistols that were submitted for evaluation didn't have manual safeties. Browning and the Army were satistfied with the grip safety. The US Cavalry asked for the manual slide-locking safety...and the rest is history.

Why did the cavalry want a manual slide-locking safety?

So that a mounted trooper could reholster the pistol when he found himself trying to hang onto a frightened, bucking horse...without shooting himself or the horse. Slide-locking so that the slide wouldn't be pushed out of battery, possibly failing to snap back into battery when the pistol was re-drawn. Even in those unenlightened days, the Ordnance Board think tankers understood that a man under stress might forget to remove his finger from the trigger before jamming the piece into a holster. The thumb safety was added for reholstering...not carrying. The 1911 wasn't designed with the intent to be continuously carried cocked and locked. It can be, but it wasn't designed specifically to be.

With the pistol cocked and unlocked, the grip safety still blocks the trigger, and the half cock notch will still grab the sear should the hammer hooks fail. The thumb safety does not block the hammer, nor even impede its fall very much. If the sear should suddenly crumble into dust, the hammer will fall and wipe the safety off faster than you can do it with your thumb.

 

[Vern Humphrey]

It seems like the thumb safety could accidentally be switched off if carried IWB.

That's why I make my holsters with a leather cam that positively engages the safety lock.

With one of my holsters, you can take an empty, cocked but unlocked M1911, shove it in the holster, and when you pull it out, it will be locked -- the cam forces the safety lock into engagement.