1911 Carry

[Walkalong]

More often condition 3 than condition 1. Depends on where I am. Never condition 2.

Condition 3 is not that much slower, unless you don't have a free hand. And I don't want to hear about it. Not going to change.

 

[JaxNovice]

CWL- If you wake up and there is a stranger at the foot of your bed, it does not matter what condition you have your gun in. You are toast unless you keep the gun in your hand while sleeping.

 

[1911Tuner]

If you wake up and there is a stranger at the foot of your bed...You are toast unless you keep the gun in your hand while sleeping.

Bingo!

That's what the dogs are for. I thought about postin' a sign:

"Yeah! Come on in and git some!"

Kiddin'...Kiddin'

 

[TomN]

I no longer carry a 1911 but when I did it was always cocked and locked. Always.

 

[Grizfire]

though I will practice letting the hammer down.

Please don't do this. What if you drop your gun on the hammer, with the hammer down on a live round...bang. what if you slip when cocking the hammer in a stressful HD environment...bang. What if you slip while letting the hammer down on the live round....bang.

Accorging to http://www.sightm1911.com/ condition 2 (hammer down on a live round) causes more AD/ND than by any other condition.

condition 1 is the safest way to be the most prepared.
condition 2 is not only unsafe but your not prepared either.
condition 3 is safer than condition 1 or 2, but your less prepared than 1, and just as prepared as 2.
condition 4 is the safest (completely empty gun) but least prepared

 

[Grizfire]

Here is a good read on why you should not carry condition 2. The link to awhile for me to download so I will paste the most important part.

http://www.sightm1911.com/lib/tech/ad_tb.htm

My brother recently acquired a Colt Commander. He had put a Federal hollowpoint in the chamber and lowered the hammer (condition #2). He was holstering the pistol with the hammer down. This was a holster with a thumb break. As he attempted to adjust the pistol in order to snap the thumb break closed, the pistol discharged. The round traveled into his upper right butt cheek and out the bottom, about 6 inches below his butt cheek. The round didn't expand and fell to the floor under the weight of gravity alone. He is fine now but the AD [accidental discharge] perplexed us a lot until we figured that the hammer was resting on the firing pin, and the soft primer Federal hollowpoint round and the hard "snap" of the new holster hit the hammer hard enough to touch off a round. Fixing the issue is to simply not chamber a round, period.

 

[mljdeckard]

The above story sounds like a bad holster system to me. If you have a holster that manipulates the controls of the weapon as you use it, that's not a good holster.

I carry C&L with one exception. When I carry in a fanny pack, I leave the hammer down. Once I took it out, and I found that the safety had worked its way off with the hammer still cocked. (Exactly.) I don't know if I somehow forgot to safe it, or if I was carrying something heavy and dislodged it, but I decided that the time it takes to cock the happer is negligible when it takes a second or two to get it out of the fanny pack in the first place.

And consider this: WHICH SAFETY RULE ARE YOU BREAKING WHEN YOU LET THE HAMMER DOWN ON A LIVE CHAMBER? You actually pulled the trigger when you didn't intend to fire. This is why the rule is; keep the finger out of the trigger guard until the weapon is aimed and you are ready to fire. Same for 'press checking'. Having said that, I do both sometimes. I think it is important to know all aspects of operating your carry weapon, including the odd occasion where you may want to de-cock it without firing it. Like they said above, practice A LOT dry, and I think that the modern match hammers feel better for this than G.I. hammers do.

 

[polekitty]

Condition 1 (cocked & locked) is the only way to go. If that makes you nervous you probably don’t really want a 1911 in the first place! However, if your heart is really set on a 1911 and you don’t like cond.#1 there is a trigger system you gunsmith can install which lets you carry loaded hammer down, when you turn safety off the hammer comes up ready to fire. Can’t think of the name of this little jewel but I’ve seen it written up in a number of gun publications several times over last several years. Somewhere back there I read the reason for the grip safety was that in the early days of the 1911 the horse cavalry wanted to carry it cocked safety off! So the grip safety was added. Some one can check that story for me, but that’s how I heard it. Maybe you should just get some other DAO. My first carry sidearm was a 9mm model 1951 Brigadier, carried condition 1---no grip safety!

 

[10-Ring]

I carry my 1911s in condition 1 as intended

 

[polekitty]

Forgot to mention: If for some strange reason you want to decoct your 1911 with round in the hole, hold it normally, put your other thumb VERY FIRMLY, VERY CAREFULLY, in front of the hammer and pull trigger so hammer comes down on that other thumb. If you do it correctly you’ll have no inadvertent discharge, and you won’t pinch that thumb. DO NOT try de-cocking it the way John Wayne does it in the movies! Oh yes, before you move that "safety thumb" take the trigger finger off the trigger!

 

[Nitrogen]

Cocked and Locked, Condition One! The way G-d and John Moses Browning intended

 

[GigaBuist]

I have no qualms with a 1911 in Condition 1. I keep one (holstered) in my desk drawer. Sometimes it's handy working from home.

This Blog Post makes a pretty good example out of what can go wrong if you carry a 1911 that doesn't have a firing pin safety in place in Condition 2.

 

[drforsythe]

Cocked and Locked

I carry my Kimber Ultra CDP cocked and locked IWB using a Milt Sparks holster that covers the slide catch safety on both sides. I agree with one of the previous posts that stated not to carry with the hammer back when using a fanny pack. The gun is allowed too much movement when carrying in a 'loose' method such as a fanny pack. The movement can cause the safety to disengage when not intended to.

 

[Big Boomer]

That's the great part about 1911's even if the safety comes off you still have 2 others to go.

Safety off and now you are just like packing an XD.

Safety off and grip safety depressed, and now you are carrying just like a Glock.

1911's are VERY safe. Keep it in condition 1.

In addition, I do not like fooling around with the hammer on a loaded chamber.

1. if the hammer is resting on the firing pin bad things can happen if you drop it.

2. You have to pull the trigger and release the hammer down on the loaded chamber, NOT a good idea as it was not designed to do this anyhow. (This is not a single action revolver)

3. Chance of slippage while pulling back the small hammer under stressful conditions possibly causing it to slap back on the firing pin and hope it doesn't go off are too spooky to play with.

One added bonus is that most "thugs" out there are not familiar with a 1911 and if by chance the gun is taken from you there is a good possibility that they do not know where the safety is. This could give you a crucial second or two. (not that it is very likely at all) but hey we are throwing out reasons to keep it cocked and locked