VoiceofReason wrote:This is my first post on this forum. I have been reading other posts and this seems to be a good source of information for CHL holders.
I have a big problem with carrying “cocked and locked”. I carry a Kimber Pro CDP with one in the chamber and the hammer at “half cock”. You can pull the trigger all day and the hammer will not fall from half cock. You can cock the hammer as you draw from the holster and even if you should accidently pull the trigger while doing so the hammer will not drop until the grip safety is squeezed.
I carry a 32 Beretta “Tomcat” in a pocket holster with one in the chamber. It is double action on the first shot but you really have to pull the trigger hard. The holster prevents you from putting your finger in the trigger guard while drawing it.
I believe I have found a good compromise between speed and safety.
Actually, you are putting yourself at many times
more risk than carrying full cocked.
A 1911 is designed to carry fully cocked. The mechanism that holds the hammer all the way back is designed to support it's pull from the spring pretty much indefinitely.
Half-cock was designed as a safety only. It was never meant to hold the hammer for a long period of time. The parts for it are not designed, nor tested for that stress. Over time and repitition, it may wear out a lot faster than full cocked will, and potentially drop the half-cocked hammer on the firing pin! As you can guess, this is not a Good Thing!
Normally, if the sear hooks wore out, and the hammer dropped, half-cock would catch it, as a safety. You have completely negated that safety, and now if it wears out and drops, the only thing it has left to hit is the firing pin.
In ADDITION to the above, in order to GET a loaded 1911 into the half-cocked position, you HAVE to grip the gun, release the slide safety, PUT YOUR FINGER ON THE TRIGGER, AND
DROP THE HAMMER ON A LIVE ROUND! Seriously?!
You're disabling ALL the safeties, PULLING THE TRIGGER ON A LIVE ROUND, and trusting yourself to catch the hammer every time, set it gently on the firing pin, and then pull it back halfway again, all without slipping and letting it fall on the pin?!
How is that More Safe?
I was by a wise old man once told that you should never, ever, have to touch the hammer with your thumb on a 1911.
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Using the "half-cock" as a safety
The half-cock notch on the M1911 is really intended as a "fail-safe" and is not recommended as a safety. However, it has been used as a mode of carry. From Dale Ireland comes this interesting piece of service history from WWII:
When the hammer is pulled back just a few millimeters it "half cocks" and pulling the trigger will not fire the gun [on genuine mil-spec G.I. pistols]. I imagine this is an unsafe and not a recommended safety position. The reason I bring it up however is that it was a commonly used position especially by left-handers in WWII. My father carried his 1911 (not A1) to Enewitok, Leyte, first wave at Luzon, the battle inside Intramuros, and until he was finally shot near Ipo dam. He tells me that he regularly used the half cocked safety position especially at night and patrolling because bringing the weapon to the full cocked position from the half cocked created much less noise and he was left handed so he couldn't use the thumb safety effectively. He said using the half cocked position was all about noise reduction for lefties while maintaining a small amount of safety that could quickly be released.
Again, the half-cock is intended as a fail-safe in the event that the sear hooks were to fail, and it is not recommended as a mode of carry. It should also be noted that on guns with "Series 80" type hammers, the hammer will fall from half-cock when the trigger is pulled. This would include guns from Springfield Armory and modern production Colts. But, if you happen to be a south paw and find yourself in the jungle with a G.I. M1911A1 and surrounded by enemy troops, the half-cock might be an option.
