TexasCHLforum.com

We're gonna get way off topic if I ask any questions, so I'll send ya a PM. But if I'm correct, all these are new additions within the past year, right?

Oh... And do you need my street address in order to add me to your will?

rm9792 wrote:I work on my own pistols, under watch from a highly qualified gunsmith, and I know the sear, safeties, etc are unlikely to fail but I just dont want it C&L for daily carry... Speaking of the collection, I have picked up several more 1911's I need to show off soon! Kimber DW, Kimber hicap, Springfield Blackened SS Loaded, 2 6 incher full customs, etc.

Gotcha. It was the fact that I know what a connoisseur you are that caught me a little off-guard. As for new additions to your already-healthy stock in the safes, I think I speak for all of us when I say: "Pictures!"

rm9792 wrote:I carry my 1911's hammer down loaded chamber.

I admit my astonishment. Having seen pictures of your collection, I would never have imagined you would not carry cocked-and-locked.

For the record, there is absolutely no way anyone can draw a 1911 from a strong-side concealed carry, manually cock the hammer, and fire as quickly as someone equally athletic and trained can draw, flip the safey, and shoot the gun as intended. Folks who train with 1911s train to pull them out of the holster with their thumbs already on the safety. That's one reason they dominate in the IPSC game: handled as intended, they are no slower to present than "safety-less" firearms like Glocks.

And experienced users are trained to do that little 1/8" thumb movement only when it's absolutely necessary to fire. If you're pulling back the hammer on a safety-off 1911 as you draw, you're buying into whole boatloads of possible trouble. Mechanically speaking, it's possible your gun could discharge into anything from your own leg to the innocent bystander 10 feet from the bad guy. Too, with all that hammer-cocking and regripping activity going on, the gun simply cannot be fired as accurately within the same amount of time.

There is a reason the best 1911 shooters in the world carry cocked-and-locked, as Browning intended.

In fact, you won't even be allowed to compete in IDPA or USPSA if you choose to approach the line with a 1911 hammer-down on a live chamber.

Just my opinion.

VoiceofReason wrote:To skiprr
I appreciate your welcome and your thanks. You are the only person to ever have thanked me for my LEO service.

I am astounded...and disquieted.

That's just not right.

This is off-topic, but our federal, state, county, and municipal law enforcement officers make a profession of going into harms-way. They are professional sheepdogs.

The least we can do is thank them.

VoiceofReason, welcome to the Forum.

I won't try to talk you out of your chosen 1911 carry condition: you've decided what works best for you, and that's that.

Thank you, also, for your law enforcement service.

However, I just want to add--so that folks new to shooting and concealed carry don't come away with a misinterpretation--that only a small percentage of LEOs can be considered firearms experts, and only a minority of those have had extensive training in defensive or preemptive use of small arms. Unfortunately, most LEO handgun practice centers around annual requalification and not much else.

Heck, I'm only a handful of years younger than you, and at an advanced training course in 2008 I outperformed the two active SWAT team members in the class in all pistol disciplines. In some of those evolutions by a large margin.

Just the way it is: very few police departments have the budget necessary to provide for more training than that necessary to meet annual qualification. And I think that's a travesty.

Absolutely no denigration meant to you. I assure you.

You posted your LEO status in relation to this subject, and I just don't want any new members of the Forum to see your post and, because of that, take your description of your 1911 carry condition as a good idea.

I respect your decision to carry the way you choose, but I would never teach or advise anyone to follow that example.

Good post.

flintknapper wrote:IMO, there are no good reasons to carry a firearm without a round in the chamber. None, Zero, Zip, Nada.....

Besides the comments posted above, you might not be ABLE to chamber a round if an attacker has struck first and caused a crippling blow to your support hand/arm.

Don't give up any tactical advantages (especially time).

Yep. We have to keep in mind that action is always faster than reaction. As civilians carrying for protection, the vast majority of possible scenarios that occur outside of our home mean that we're defending--reacting--and the BG is the actor, the attacker. We're behind the OODA Loop right from the start. Any carry method that robs you of time is not a good thing. By the time you decide you need to clear leather, you're already a half-second or more behind the curve.