Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns What Are Clueful People Carrying?

I don't know how I will react in the stress of a gun fight. I do know it is not unusual for people to forget simple basic tasks when under the stress of do or die. I figure any step that I can eliminate might give me the edge to survive. If the ugliest simplest to operate gun lets me live to stroke my pretty guns at home, I'll take ugly every time. I'd rather not have somebody opine at my funeral, "Well he have got is brains blown out, but he sure went out in style."

So I carry an ugly double action revolver when concerned about large 4 legged miscreants, and an ugly striker fired self shucker when concerned about 2 legged miscreants. I like to keep things simple.

Has a single person here suggested that the thumb safety on a 1911 was in any way confounding? I must have missed that.

If I'm reading you wrong and you have complete faith in your ability to flip a thumb safety then so be it. 1911? I never mentioned one.

Here's a "clue"; thumb safeties suck and 9mm is the universal caliber.

Flipping the safety down on a 1911 is as natural clicking a pen. And I am a Glock guy.

I have said before. During my practice sessions, I incorporate disengaging the safety.

Depending on the gun I carry, the holster and the cloths I wear, I run through my mind what the steps are to get ready to fire. Every time I pack. I continue to run through my head from time to time while I am packing. Always being aware that I am packing and what steps to take. It is not that tough to do.

I like thumb break holsters. If I am using one at the time, that goes through my mental exercises also.

Acceptance of the well documented reality that, for all human beings, muscle memory and fine motor coordination can be adversely affected by sudden and unexpected deadly threats, is a million miles away from saying that the person stating that fact is confounded by how a thumb safety operates.

I have a nice 1911. I have various revolvers. I've shot them all fairly extensively. The Kahr is my primary defense handgun because I can shoot it double action better than I can shoot my revolvers double action. Also, it's light, flat, and conceals well.

The 1911 would be better for knockin' somebody in the head with. But other than that, the Kahr is a much better personal defense tool.

Agreed. It's well positioned to maximize the naturalness of the motion, thus minimizing the chance of flubbing it, even when muscle memory and fine motor coordination are adversely affected by sudden emergency. It lends itself well to intuitive operation. Minimizing isn't eliminating, though. Better, then, not to have that additional step between drawing the gun and having a functioning trigger. You can argue that safety concerns outweigh this benefit, but you can't reasonably argue that an additional step between draw and fire doesn't increase the chance of a screw up at times when fine motor coordination and muscle memory have a tendency to go out the window.

Call it what you want, but when you squeeze the trigger and feel that immovable object behind your trigger finger I'll call you confounded.

I'm not the one twisting words here.

For trh, there’s a chance a meteor will fall through your house 🏡 it’s happened.

If your draw has an “additional step” to manipulate the thumb safety, your draw is wrong.

Of course, I’ve said this before, and posted pics demonstrating why, but he’s not going to listen.

Some people just can't get past the argument against manual safeties.

It simply is not true for a seasoned 1911 shooter that practices proper methods. You can make up all the excuses you want to propagate that plastic gun. The reasons are getting ridiculous. How many times do we have to hear this bu!!$h!t ?

I can't count the number of young shooters that touted the same lame excuses, that after years of shooting they got them a 1911 of some kind. The used gun counters are full of plastic guns.

I bought the 1911 first.

I'm quite sure I could embark on a prolonged practice session which encompassed months of training and several hundred dollars worth of ammunition and learn to shoot the 1911 as well as I could shoot the Kahr first time out.

But the 1911 would still feel like I was carrying a brick on my hip everywhere I went.

I don't have anything against plastic guns - I'm considering a M&P Compact 2.0, and if I go that route, it will probably have a thumb safety. I don't have any reservations about a thumb safety and having one allows me to do whatever I can to improve the trigger.

This. If I could have a lightweight, reliable 13-14 shot .40 with great ergos, a top-notch trigger and a 1911 style safety, I'd consider it an all around farm/woods/carry gun. I carried a 1911 for years so thumbing off a safety is practically autopilot for me.

You're speaking of training philosophy. The physical reality, however, remains that if that safety isn't flipped off between the initiation of draw and the squeezing of the trigger, it ain't going bang. No way around this by reference to training philosophy talking points.

If you like a thumb safety for some reason, and it makes you feel comfortable to believe it's possible to train such as to 100% eliminate any possibility of flubbing it under extreme stress, please be my guest and retain that fiction.

PS As I always say, there's nothing wrong with a thumb safety on a defensive sidearm. It's just that there are better, and more certain, options out there nowadays.

The trigger is an open question, but 13+1, 25.3 oz:

Bless your heart.