Carrying a 1911

[357 S&W]

Question for those who carry the 1911 or clones.

How do you carry it?

Cocked and loaded with safety on or off?

Chamber with hammer down?

[Colt 45]

Cocked and locked. That is the only way to carry one.

Max

[NMDawg]

Ditto - Cocked and locked. One in the chamber, hammer cocked, and safety on.

[MasterBlaster]

One in the pipe then thumb the hammer before it is extracted, there is really no need for a safety with a hammer heater, prime example the '11. I know that saying you carry "cocked & locked" sounds cool but I use a top strap pancake where most use open top and this always concerns me where as if it's a physical hand to hand and your pistol is out -the sweep of the safety could come by way of accident much easier than the hammer being engaged.
Result, cracking one off and hitting you, your spouse or any bystander within 100yds at the very least it's a wreckless discharge.

[Descreet38]

I have been carrying Colt M1911's and various clones since the early 70's. I carry only in condition "one" but that also dictates that you must be an expert with a 1911 and maintain motor and memory skills through practice. To do otherwise is only inviting disaster.


I borrowed this info from another site to try to lessen the amount of "Is cocked and locked really safe" questions that may come from those new to 1911's and gun forums. I can't sum it up any better than this so I'm not going to try.



The Conditions of Readiness:


The legendary guru of the combat 1911, Jeff Cooper, came up with the "Condition" system to define the state of readiness of the 1911-pattern pistol. The are:

Condition 0 - A round is in the chamber, hammer is cocked, and the safety is off.
Condition 1 - Also known as "cocked and locked," (http://www.sightm1911.com/1911pix/product/cocked&locked.gif) means a round is in the chamber, the hammer is cocked, and the manual thumb safety on the side of the frame is applied.
Condition 2 - A round is in the chamber and the hammer is down.
Condition 3 - The chamber is empty and hammer is down with a charged magazine in the gun.
Condition 4 - The chamber is empty, hammer is down and no magazine is in the gun.

The mode of readiness preferred by the experts is Condition One. Generally speaking, Condition One offers the best balance of readiness and safety. Its biggest drawback is that it looks scary to people who don't understand the operation and safety features of the pistol.

Condition Two is problematic for several reasons, and is the source of more negligent discharges than the other conditions. When you rack the slide to chamber a round in the 1911, the hammer is cocked and the manual safety is off. There is no way to avoid this with the 1911 design. In order to lower the hammer, the trigger must be pulled and the hammer lowered slowly with the thumb onto the firing pin, the end of which is only a few millimeters away from the primer of a live round. Should the thumb slip, the hammer would drop and fire the gun. Not only would a round be launched in circumstances which would be at best embarrassing and possibly tragic, but also the thumb would be behind the slide as it cycled, resulting in serious injury to the hand. A second problem with this condition is that the true 1911A1 does not have a firing pin block and an impact on the hammer which is resting on the firing pin could conceivably cause the gun to go off, although actual instances of this are virtually nonexistent. Finally, in order to fire the gun, the hammer must be manually cocked, again with the thumb. In an emergency situation, this adds another opportunity for something to go wrong and slows the acquisition of the sight picture.

Condition Three adds a degree of "insurance" against an accidental discharge since there is no round in the chamber. To bring the gun into action from the holster, the pistol must be drawn and the slide racked as the pistol is brought to bear on the target. This draw is usually called "the Israeli draw" since it was taught by Israeli security and defense forces. Some of the real expert trainers can do an Israeli draw faster than most of us can do a simple draw, but for most of us, the Israeli draw adds a degree of complexity, an extra step, and an opening for mistakes in the process of getting the front sight onto the target.

Condition four is completely safe to carry. If needed for self defense I guess you could beat the bad guy with it until you have time to load the pistol.

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]. This is 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. Soldiers in that day 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 if left handed you couldn't use the thumb safety effectively. 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.

The only thing I feel the need to add is this.

The question of whether or not it causes any undue wear to the internal mechanisms of the machine if you leave your gun in Condition 1 all the time. The short answer is no. Leaving your mag loaded all the time does not cause undue wear on it. A spring only wears during use. If you leave a spring with full tension it is not moving so it will wear the same as though it has no tension. It is only the act of going between those 2 states of tension or no tension that cause wear.

Leaving the sear engaged to the hammer will not cause undue wear to either of those components for the same reasons. A properly fitted thumb safety eliminates the possibility of the sear from moving. Thus, not causing any wear.

[MasterBlaster]

Sorry but there seems to be far more giving themselves the "expert" tag than ones with a half-way ligit claim to the title in any format but firearms seem to have just about the most I've had the joy of having contact with.

[357 S&W]

Sorry but there seems to be far more giving themselves the "expert" tag than ones with a half-way ligit claim to the title in any format but firearms seem to have just about the most I've had the joy of having contact with.

You have lost me with this one

[MasterBlaster]

I'm sure, being "lost" is a state of mind -no soup for you!