nightstand handgun with one in the chamber?

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kirby

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At some point, I decided I didn't like safety levers. The idea was I'd always keep the safety off. I keep the nightstand defender with a full magazine, decocked, nothing in the chamber. I practice this way, my wife practices this way. At the range we charge the magazine, put in the mag well, set the gun down and "practice" walking up to it racking the slide, aiming and shooting.

Then, I read a post about someone "brandishing" by racking a slide in public. The overall opinion was that you should carry with the weapon ready to use. It got me thinking that the same applies to a nightstand defender. Ok, I can see that. But, this makes me a bit more nervous. Maybe I need to get just get over it and trust myself. I'm not nervous about the gun just sitting there loaded. What makes me nervous is that I manipulate this gun a lot. It goes to the range once a week or once every two at the worst. I'll unload it and practice trigger control at home by dry-firing. Yea, I know, if I don't break any of the four rules, no one gets hurt. But, I originally thought by keeping one out of the chamber I was adding another level of safety. No I'm beginning to think not keeping it not racked is going to bite me at the worst possible time.

So, what do others think? Is a "nothing in the pipe" nightstand gun worthless?
 
The shotgun that is under my bed isn't cocked, but there are shells in the tube ready to go. I once heard they did a study on what burglers found to be the most intimidating sound once they had broken into a house; it was a shotgun being cocked:what: . I probably would use a handgun though but I don't have one yet.
 
Unless you have young kids in the house or something of that nature, it seems to me you would do fine with one in the honey hole. Less to worry about if the time ever came to have to use it in a hurry. Some people say the sound of a shotgun racking is the biggest intimidation, but to me that is your home defense weapon (if I am not mistaken) and I do not plan on "intimidating" a home invader. However, if you are going to lose sleep every night because there is one in the chamber, I would'nt say it is worth it. As you said, you practice it this way, so I am sure you and your wife have become quite fast at this method. That eliminates the 'time is precious' argument I was thinking of giving at first. All in all it comes down to what you are comftorable with.
 
To be clear, I sleep better having the gun accessible at night (I'm a newly minted gun nut) :p Also, no kids.


The debate I'm having now is about how to direct my over-thinking anal nature.
- Extra bit of safety. Since I'm handling the gun about once a week, I'm taking a loaded gun out. If I think about this, I can't imagine not having good trigger discipline, and my has show good trigger discipline and safe handling from the time she first handled the gun. She's a natural. But, a backup safety measure seems reasonable

- One less thing to do if I really need the gun. Sure we train this way. But I won't fool myself into thinking I'm going to act like I do at the range. This is a home defense weapon. I would only pull it on someone if I needed to stop them from killing/hurting my wife or myself. I hope I never know what that feels like. Given that this would be an overstressed situation, removing one step (racking the slide) seems like the right thing to do.

See both sides are about overhinking safety.
 
If I pick up the gun I want it ready to go, whether it's on my belt or in the night stand.

There's all kinds of scenarios and one is you are fighting off someone while trying to get your gun. Having the time and two hands free to rack the slide might not be possible.
 
Mine stays holstered, full magazine and round chambered.

My carry gun is the one in the nightstand, leaving it holstered and chambered also reduces the opportunies for a AD/ND since I'm not frequently loading and unloading it. Some other people have posted stories of sleep-walking, if you have a history of that I'd follow their lead a get a quick access safe or some other means of protecting yourself from yourself.
 
You and your wife have trained together and are comfortable with keeping your gun in condition 3. No reason to change. You'll just be adding another level of complexity that you will have to train to, and maybe never feel comfortable with.
 
I don't like safety levers either....

that is why my carry guns are Glock, Steyr, and Kel Tec. I don't have kids so having a loaded gun around is no problem. In addition, the pump shotgun has the slide open with a full magazine. The sound of a shotgun being racked closed should send the message that your time on earth might be very short...........chris3
 
You and your wife have trained together and are comfortable with keeping your gun in condition 3. No reason to change. You'll just be adding another level of complexity that you will have to train to, and maybe never feel comfortable with.
Click to expand...

So I wasn't totally up front when I said "we train this way". We "have begun training this way" is more accurate. The gun is new. It's early enough to re-train at this point. Since we've only been to the range a few times in the few weeks we've owned it.

To put it another way, I think we're both still relatively clean slates. I originally decided on the "empty chamber" storage before bringing the gun home, so the training we did do naturally followed that. Since it's really been only 4-5 times. I'm not too worried about re-learning.

I guess I'm leaning towards keeping one in the chamber now and just wanted to check in with this group in case everyone shouted "No! That's a horrible idea you haven't thought of X, Y, and Z!"
 
My nightstand pistol is also my daily ccw. It always has a round in the chamber. I normally carry with a pocket holster so when I get home at night and change into a pair of shorts, etc I put my ccw on the dresser. I don't have kids and my wife doesn't have a problem with it so there it stays. Like posted above, I feel more comfortable with it being there but when I have kids I need to make changes. I also keep a shotgun in the bedroom as well. That has a mix of 00 buck and slugs in the tube, but not one in the chamber. Figure if I have to get out the shottie, the Cha Chunk sound of loading it may work in my favor! :D
 
All of my defense guns can be operated without doing anything other than pulling the trigger, whether it be a revolver or pistol. I don't want to fumble around with any extra maneuvers if I should all of a sudden be woken up from a deep sleep and need to use a gun immediately. I know there are lots of people that don't feel this way but in my opinion operating a gun at the range is no where near the same as being in a life and death struggle with the disadvantage of being startled and half asleep.
 
All of my defense guns can be operated without doing anything other than pulling the trigger, whether it be a revolver or pistol. I don't want to fumble around with any extra maneuvers if I should all of a sudden be woken up from a deep sleep and need to use a gun immediately. I know there are lots of people that don't feel this way but in my opinion operating a gun at the range is no where near the same as being in a life and death struggle with the disadvantage of being startled and half asleep.
Click to expand...

I'm seeing things that way as well now. I have a few concerns:
1) If it's in condition 1, will I remember the safety? I guess I could easly say "will I remember the slide?" now.
2) Is there a problem keeping the hammer cocked for long periods of time? I guess the CCW guys stack up as evidence saying "no"
 
I prefer a revolver as a nightstand gun because I never have to worry about a failure in the magazine springs.
 
There are prescription drugs available for the "anal, overthinking" problems. :rolleyes:
 
kbyrd-

At this time I only employ revolvers as defense guns, however I do have a couple of DAO (double action only) pistols that don't have any decockers, safeties etc. on them. You just point and shoot and it works for me, YMMV.
 
I keep a Berretta 9000s for my nightstand tool.

Before bedtime its loaded with 1 in chamber & 10 in mag. the hammer is down (de-cocked) and the safty is on.

When I go to sleep I just take the safty off and it is a double-action .40 for the first shot with ten more in single action. An extra benefit is if a round doesn't fire you don't need to rack it out right away it has second strike ability (many times a round that doesn't fire the first time will on a second).

I have single action .45's but I like the double action first shot and if I am waking from a sleep and can only fire with one hand on the gun I like the lower recoil of the .40.
 
A note of caution...

There was a similar thread to this a few weeks back where a bunch of us were telling our stories of how we woke up with the bedside table handgun in out hands :eek: before we realized that we had just been dreaming.
In my own case, i used to keep my BHP in the nightstand, hammer down, with a full mag. & one in the pipe. Since the night i woke up with the thing in my hand and only became fully awake after the fact :what: the one in the pipe is no more for moi.
That was about 15 years ago now and nothing similar has happened since. I still keep a full mag. in the handle, but needless to say, that one time was enough to scare the snot out of me, good & proper.
Your Results May Vary...
 
couple of points to ponder

1. If you wake up and someone has his hands around your throat, or the BG's first shot (or knife, or what have you) incapacitates one hand, or you are struggling with him...your none-in-the-chamber means you have a very short, very expensive club.
2. If you are handling the firearm frequently (weekly) then you can either gain familiarity (which may breed contempt), proficiency, or complacency. No one but you can evaluate your actual mental outlook better than you.
3. In an extremis situation, the more of your attention that is consumed by fine motor details and remembering which pre-requisite actions must be performed (chambered? safety off?) the less attention you have to focus on the situation at hand. KISS principle...

Whatever you choose, I salute your committment to practice, and your serious consideration of the variables involved.
 
I would be distrustful of keeping a bedside handgun in Condition 3 (no round chambered, loaded magazine in gun).

In Condition 3 there's that slight chance you'll fudge racking the slide, get a failure to chamber, etc. -- not likely, but much more likely than it would be if all you had to do to fire that first shot was to drop a safety lever and trip the trigger (in Condition 1). The point of having a handgun at the bedside, instead of walking to the closet/reaching under the bed for the more effective rifle or shotgun, is convenience and speed of response. Rather than keep a handgun in Condition 3, I'd just as soon reach under the bed for a long gun. That's simply my personal view -- and yes, I never sleepwalk!

My bedside handgun is kept in Condition 2. It is a revolver.
My shotgun is kept in Condition 1 -- round chambered, manual safety engaged.
 
DURAMAXIMUM said:
I once heard they did a study on what burglers found to be the most intimidating sound once they had broken into a house; it was a shotgun being cocked
Click to expand...

You can rack it again if you want the intimidation factor and just let the first shell hit the floor.

IMO, the only way to keep a defensive firearm is condition one. All of my bedroom gun and my CCW have a loaded chamber every minute of every day. I also only use DA handguns kept with hammers down for defense so as not to have to bother with any safety levers.
 
I suppose a loaded revolver counts as several in the chambers, and that's usually what I have. Not cocked, though.

jmm
 
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