Unfortunately, not everyone agrees with youse guys, including these two (who may now be rethinking their position):
The guy whose 1911 bumped against some furniture and shot his girlfriend’s dog in the head (unknown if fatally).
The guy who, while wandering the high desert with his dog and some friends, leaned over to attend to his dog and shot off one of his testicles. Fortunately for him, his friends were able to summon a lifeflight helo to get him to a hospital.
They are out there among us, and need to be correctly informed before they can follow in these fellows’ (bloody?) footsteps.
Bumped against furniture and went off...Yeah, sure it did.
At least that’s the girlfriend’s story. “False Half-Cock,” where the tip of the sear is precariously balanced on the tip of the half-cock notch, can behave just that way (except for the dog part).
In theory, there’s actually nothing wrong with using the half-cock notch as a safety (except that it’s clumsily slow compared to cocked and locked). In practice, however, the potential for mistakes by the average, careless user is just too great.
Since you need to thumb the hammer back either way, wouldn't hammer down with a round in the chamber be safer than half cock? Cocked and locked just looks like an accidental discharge accident waiting for a place to happen. Probably the reason that I tend to carry a double action semi-auto or revolver.
My other auto is a .45
The bitterness of poor quality is remembered long after the sweetness of low price has faded from memory
Since you need to thumb the hammer back either way, wouldn't hammer down with a round in the chamber be safer than half cock? Cocked and locked just looks like an accidental discharge accident waiting for a place to happen. Probably the reason that I tend to carry a double action semi-auto or revolver.
With the 1911 pistol, having the hammer down or in half-cock renders both the thumb safety and grip safety completely useless and ineffective.
The act of loading the chamber on a 1911 pistol leaves the hammer in the cocked position already. So, why go through the risky procedure of lowering the hammer when the thumb safety can easily be engaged immediately instead? The thumb safety would then block both the sear and hammer (and lock the slide), while the grip safety blocks the trigger. Hence the term “cocked and locked.”
In the reports I have seen, there have been more self-shootings while carrying with the hammer fully lowered than with false half-cock discussed above. A chambered cartridge can fire when the hammer spur snags on furniture, clothing or body fat, the hammer is thereby partially withdrawn to just short of engaging the sear in the half-cock notch, and then released. Try it with a primed (but otherwise empty) cartridge case, and see. An extra-strength firing pin spring can reduce or eliminate the potential for such firings, however.
Are we plowing this ground again? This has ben cussed and discussed many times here.
Then why wasn’t it discussed with the two knuckleheads mentioned in the stories?
Because they aren't members here?
So, you recognize no personal responsibility to discuss it with anyone else?
This thread is intended for those who do.
No, this thread is intended so that you can hear yourself talk about the only subject that you want to talk about. All you ever post about is "unsafe 1911s".
Are we plowing this ground again? This has ben cussed and discussed many times here.
Then why wasn’t it discussed with the two knuckleheads mentioned in the stories?
Because they aren't members here?
So, you recognize no personal responsibility to discuss it with anyone else?
This thread is intended for those who do.
No, this thread is intended so that you can hear yourself talk about the only subject that you want to talk about. All you ever post about is "unsafe 1911s".
Well, it certainly isn’t intended for professed mind readers who do not recognize a need to inform the otherwise uninformed about how to safely carry a loaded 1911 pistol.
The message must reach those who need to hear it. And, who better to accomplish that than the (responsible) members here, with a little prodding once in a while.
I've got a personal responsibility to properly instruct younger family members if they are shooting here. Beyond that, I mind my own business.
Charlie's 1911 had the rawhide safety cord added to prevent unintentional interference with intentional discharges.
Used to be some 1911’s outfitted that way in the TX Ranger Museum in Waco, TX. Apparently it was pretty popular with the old time Rangers.
"Allways speak the truth and you will never have to remember what you said before..." Sam Houston Texans, "We say Grace, We Say Mam, If You Don't Like it, We Don't Give a Damn!"
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