Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Another Good Reason Never To Carry With Empty Chamber

This.

Double action revolver, double action auto, or Glock-style striker fire trigger are all good choices for defensive concealed carry. I've come to the belief that a safety on a concealed carry defensive handgun is unwise. Can it work? Sure, but you can also usually do just fine defending yourself at home with a bolt action .30-06 rifle if that's what you have on hand. That doesn't make a bolt action rifle a particularly good choice as a home defensive weapon. The fact that a manual safety equipped handgun usually works out just fine in the role of defensive concealed carry handgun doesn't make it a good choice for defensive concealed carry either, if a handgun without one is available to you.

There is a place for a safety on a defensive carry gun. Clothing, zippers, draw strings etc. can (and have) enter into the trigger guard while holstering and discharge the firearm. Once properly holstered in a holster that isolates the trigger, there is no danger. A striker pistol with a safety that can be engaged (like most Shield models) while holstering and then disengaged once the trigger is isolated is safer. Also, it is safer to engage the safety when holstering/unholstering/handling the gun at a range. For carry, take the safety off, once secured. Accidents, such as I outlined, can be averted by using extreme care in holstering your firearm, but, sometimes, we all can have a momentary lapse.

As for the 1911, it can be safely carried cocked and unlocked in a holster that, again, isolates the trigger and has a thumb break strap that rides under the cocked hammer. Again, the safety can be employed while holstering and disengaged once the trigger is isolated or hammer blocked in the holster.

I don't have an issue "wiping" the safety on a 1911 as it comes up. Neither do I have a problem with striker pistols.

I haven't read the whole thread, but just on the first page alone there were people agreeing with this.

I was a deputy in Texas for 17 years, and you couldn't be more RIGHT if you tried. You can extend the urgency of needing a firearm to folks who carry using the variety of modes of concealed/open carry available, depending on the state you have your CC license in. When you need a firearm you need right NOW. I carry with one in the chamber and the magazine topped off.

Always.

Mack,

You and Scott would be among the last persons someone with a warped sense of reality would try and label as "incompetent".

Wow! Hard to believe you typed that and posted it.

Differences of opinions and not permitted here.

I'm in the group that always carries with a loaded chamber. That includes both CCW and when hunting. My reasons are, well, my reasons, and they have worked for me over the past 60+ years.
I really have no issues with folks that do it differently. Their reasons are most likely well thought out, and work for them.

Not BULL CRAP. Well, perhaps for Yankees, they do all sorts of stupid shiet.

I lived there, carried a rifle damn near daily, and I can't recall a time it had a round in the chamber. I can't recall my pards having one chambered either.

just a personal opinion, but an observation. It seems as if some people are living in an environment where they are walking down the streets of tombstone to the ok corral or facing matt dillon in dodge city.
i have never carried a rifle with a round in the chamber unless i was ready to use it right now. it doesn't take that much time to jack one in.
I carry handguns with one in the chamber if i see the situation warrenting it, otherwise not. I have never found a safety to be an issue, subject to the handgun, certainly not on a 1911 style firearm.
i can still remember this guy with a remington 1100 walking behind me in heavy brush flicking the safety on and off. After i cleaned my pants and switched positions i asked him if he thought quail carried switch blades. Never hunted with him again. he had one in the chamber too.

I would be too worried constantly if I carried a 1911 style pistol locked and cocked that didn't have the trigger enclosed in a sturdy holster AND a thumb strap, buckled, between the cocked hammer and the rear of the firing pin. I'd be a nervous wreck. Striker fired pistols are different...they are never "cocked" and the length of pull is a lot longer than a 1911 style semi-auto. Even so, for my carry gun I've gone to a striker fired Smith&Wesson M&P Shield (in .45 - waiting for the inevitable 10mm model) which and as an option you can chose to have a 1911 style frame mounted safety on frame, which I had added. I can stick that gun in my front pocket inside a simple leather pouch to prevent printing and to cover the trigger. I feel comfortable carrying that one loaded.

The only type of hunting I carry with one in the chamber is turkey hunting; the birds can see you move hundreds of yards away. I get seated, load one in the chamber, and start calling. If you have to reach up and jack a round into the chamber as a bird approaches the bird will hear and see you move, and will simply leave the area to the nearest cover. If turkeys had a sense of smell like a white tail deer no one would ever kill one.

nope. they'd hunt them from trees and over feeders....

Not in Illinois.

I'm sure it depends a lot on the terrain and/or distance one must walk/ATV in to the hunting area.. Out west where one can take a couple hours to walk (or ride a horse) in to the area it makes perfect sense to carry empty.. But in the upper Midwest where the woods begins at the ditch, taking "that much time to jack one in" will result in whatever deer you might have seen to be in the next county, post-haste..




He was a dumbass.. M1100 with safety on AND ALWAYS pointed away from any other hunting partner is the way it should be done.. But quail, around here, are GONE in about 1.5 seconds - and NOBODY is gonna 'jack a round' into the chamber, mount and shoot a quail that way here..

BTDT.. Used to do a bit of quail hunting - and the little bastids are danged FAST... But again, it's mostly woods here - not open prairie..



FWIW.

Actually, many striker fired pistols do ride fully cocked - specifically the M&P series. That long trigger pull in an M&P is not cocking the striker, it's just creep.

Glocks are different, they sit at about half cock at rest, and the long trigger pull completes the rest of the striker's rearward travel.

Not sure about XD pistols, been too long since I owned or worked on one.

Stopped in at a pawn shop today. They have a stainless .357 LCR Ruger revolver, much lighter and smaller than my .38. They are asking $429.00 and accept trades. No exposed hammer either. May have to see If I can swing the upgrade. No visible wear at all to the .357.
Is that price about right?

If they'd take $400 you're in there like swimwear.




Dave

Appreciate the feedback

I am contrite.

"Epitaph"

John liked to carry with no shell in the chamber

He thought he could rack it if he was in danger

when he met with a bad guy, he came out second best

Now here lies poor John with a hole in his chest