Left handed 1911's?

[Rotorflyr]

Dlask makes a lefty 1911.

Actually, they won't be starting production of them until next year according to Josef Dlask (president of the company)

 

[pwrtool45]

larryw: Jeff Cooper aggreed with you. He stated that the index finger is faster at releasing the magazine.

If that were the case, then every action pistol sport would be awash in right-handed people shooting 1911/2011 pattern guns with the mag release on the other side.

Furthermore, he prefered the slide release to be on the opposite side from the thumbs to avoid accidentally hitting it saying that it was "rarely used and so should be tucked out of the way."

It isn't infrequently used in IPSC. It gets used quite a bit.

I am a lefty and find the 1911 design perfect for left handed fire with an ambi safety.

Well, this is improvement at least. I seem to recall that years ago the conventional wisdom was much the same, save the bit about the ambi safety. You can just flick a standard safety off while it's still in the holster, ya know. Or wrap your thumb around the back of the gun and flick it off that way. It's good to see progress. S&W's new M&P and the H&K P2000s have ambi slide releases as well as ambi/reversible mag releases. Interchangeable backstrap inserts are nice, too. Since not everybody is a right-handed 5'10" male. One size fits all is being relegated to the dustbin of history. And it's about time.

The 1911 design can be finessed well enough to be operable left-handed, but it is far from optimal. Unless you're plinking on the square range or taking a class where the instructor specifies certain techniques (such as slingshot instead of using the slide release) which happen to match up to how a southpaw has to run a 1911. It'll do fine under those circumstances. Personally, I'm not real big on splitting hairs (e.g. saying tungsten guiderods or fiber-optic front sights are a necessity) but I'm not going to handicap myself with a design that has major usability issues right out of the gate, either. YMMV.

 

[larryw]

As shocking as this may be to some, IPSC =/ real life.

As to flicking the safety off, anyone who shoots a 1911 a lot knows the thumb is kept on top of the safety during fire; it's not something that's just flicked off during the draw and forgotten.

 

[pwrtool45]

As shocking as this may be to some, IPSC =/ real life.

From the guy who started the thread:

The reason I ask is that I have an idea of trying some IPSC shooting

I was addressing the question the guy asked.

As to flicking the safety off, anyone who shoots a 1911 a lot knows the thumb is kept on top of the safety during fire; it's not something that's just flicked off during the draw and forgotten.

Well, yes, it is if you're shooting left handed and the pistol isn't equipped with an ambi safety. There's no way to shoot left handed and keep your thumb on the single-sided (right-hand only) safety.

However, note that I wasn't talking about the safety being "flicked off" or "forgotten." I was talking about the outdated conventional wisdom that once said it was "good enough" for leftys to disengage the single-sided, right-handed thumb safety with their left thumb (or off hand) through various contortions. This is relevant based on your comment about the need for an ambi safety. Eventually, I'm sure we'll get to the point where people acknowledge the need for all the pistol's controls to be ambidextrous if you're going to actively use the pistol left handed. To go a step further: Releasing the slide through any other means than with your strong hand thumb is slower than it needs to be. Hence, the need for a left-handed slide release. Hence the complaint about the 1911's usability when used left handed.

If you feel the need for snark, please at least have the courtesy to read my post.

 

[larryw]

You first, Pal. Try it left handed...