How To Carry A 1911
BY Herschel Smith
5 years, 3 months ago
From Shooting Illustrated.
Hammer up, hammer down, round chambered, chamber empty.
I say however you wish. But the nice thing about a 1911 is that it has a safety. Because John Moses Browning. Because smart.
On September 6, 2019 at 2:25 pm, MTHead said:
St. Browning! Einstein was highly overrated. Long before atomics, we had a real useful tool. The “Potato Digger”!
On September 7, 2019 at 3:30 am, Dan said:
It has TWO safeties……
On September 7, 2019 at 10:13 am, Warren V. DeCee said:
The 1911 and the 1911A1 have three safeties: the safety lock (thumb safety), the grip safety, and the half-cock notch on the hammer. More modern incarnations have a fourth safety; the firing pin lock.
On September 7, 2019 at 10:23 am, revjen45 said:
IIRC, Saint JMB intended the ready carry mode of the 1911 to be what we call Cond. 1 today, with the grip safety being adequate.
Likewise, Comrade Fedor designed the TT with the intended ready carry mode being hammer down on the safety notch.
On September 7, 2019 at 6:32 pm, TheAlaskan said:
Permissive environments, home, relative’s homes, known stores, known neighborhoods, your AO, almost all hunting movement, climbing, stalking, traveling via boat, ATV etc (I hunt Alaska exclusively)…pipe empty.
Stressed and non-permissive environments, unknown neighborhood’s, all unknown human environments. While hunting, bear sign fresh or recent. Once game is down, assume a bear or bears are on the scent and on the way…one in the pipe.
My 2c on how to personal carry, AND, long gun carry.
On September 8, 2019 at 4:31 am, TRX said:
JMB provided a half-cock notch on his original design. The thumb safety was at a request from Colt, and the grip safety was added to get the Army contract that became the 1911 as we know it.
The Model 1900 also had his preferred slide length – 6″ – and caliber – .38 Colt. Which was fully rimless in the original design, except American powder makers couldn’t deliver powder that would give the requred ballistics without such a heavy crimp the cases would no longer headspace on their mouths. So the rim was added for headspace.
The .38 Colt as originally loaded was on the hot side of what we now know as .38 Super. Colt had problems with metallurgy and heat treat, and reduced the spec on the cartridge shortly after introduction. Later they re-introduced the original loading under the “Super” name.
The 5″ barrel and .45 ACP were also Army ideas.
The Model 1900 and Model 1911 look quite a bit different, but the 1911 is the result of improvements Browning made to the 1900, not a whole different gun.