Well, I used to carry a 1911 that way for a very good reason. I was an MP and that was how we were ordered to do it, and I really prefered to not get in trouble with the Army by breaking their rules. They get kind of sticky about that.dac1842 wrote:Why would you not carry with one in the chamber? You may as well not carry at all if you do that. "Excuse me Mr. Bad Guy, wait 5 seconds for me to draw and chamber one first". Yep that would be real effective. May as well name your beneficiary.
And what we did as MPs was learn to rack the slide as we drew. It meant a two-handed draw though, with the weak hand coming back over to pull the slide back as the strong hand was pushing the weapon forward to a shooting position.
I also leanred a way to pull the weapon partially from the holster, twist it almost 90 degrees, push it back in and rack it against the inside of the holster itself. I was not as quick that way as the two-handed method and only got it to work with some holster designs, but I know other MPs who got pretty good at it. Lots of hours of practice on the midnight shift in a guard shack in the middle of nowhere can do that for you.
But given the choice, such as now, and I always have one in the chamber.
The funniest rule I remember on thsi was when i was in SAPD. When i first joined, the issue weapon was a revolver and no one had a problem with carrying six rounds in it. The rules allowed you to carry condition one if you were not in a police station. But, it specifically said that an officer could not carry a semi-automatic pistol with a round in the chamber if he was in the police buildings. I was carrying a Browning Hi-Power in plain clothes when my Captain saw me with the hammer cocked. He asked if there was one in the chamber. I told him it was probably the same coniditon as his Sig 220 (IIRC) if he wanted to go compare. He did not take me up on the offer.