Safely carrying a hot chamber

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Carrying a handgun that is not in battery is not only dangerous to your longevity, but might be construed as foolish. The time lost drawing a semi-automatic sidearm and racking the slide to chamber a round could get you seriously injured or killed. Not to mention the situation where your weak hand/arm is suddenly out of commission. These weapons were made with the intent to carry them in full battery, ready for deadly use on a moment's notice. To do less is to court disaster.

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If i may suggest 2 different hand guns and will give my good sides and bad to each. I am in the military and have seen my fair share of accidental discharges and i know that i want an external safty on my weapon.
Now my favorite 2 hand guns, a Taurus 24/7 and a Springfeild XD. Now the Millenium Pro's by Taurus are just about the same thing just a little smaller and sleeker. you can get something from Taurus or Springfeild in anything from a 3.25 Inch barrel to 5.25 Inch barrel and several steps inbetween. They both have fireing pin blocks just as the Glock that makes it imposible for it to fire (but none of these companies can be held responsible if it does fire) unless the trigger is pulled. Glock fanatics think this is because of the trigger safety which has nothing to do with it, none of these weapons have a hair line trigger. The taurus is the only hammerless fireing pin that i know of that is a true SA/DA. the rest, if the round fails to fire for whatever reason you must recharge the weapon to fire it again.
Both of these guns have external safties (optional with the XD) which is a huge plus for carrying a round chambered but the XD also has the "trigger safety" that Glock has and also the XD has a grip safety. All the two of these safteys are, is that you must me squeezing them to pull the trigger back.



Now some background about dangers of carrying a chambered round. Any weapon that does not have a fireing pin block (such as the M-16 that our military uses and the ar-15 alike) the fireing pin is "freefloating" so if dropped, it is possible that the fireing pin will gain enough inertia to strike the primer hard enough to fire the round.

The fireing pin block is just a device that does just that. It is a BLOCK that moves in front of the fireing pin to stop it from even comeing close to the round unless the trigger is about 9/10 of the way pulled back. All handguns will say in their manual if they contain the fireing pin block or not.

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I don't understand why there is fear of carrying a 1911 type pistol "cocked and locked". There are two mechanical safties; the safety and the grip safety, and HOPEFULLY the third safety is the person with the weapon!!! In order to fire a cocked and locked 1911 someone has to release the thumb safety, squeeze the grip safety, and pull the trigger. Sounds pretty safe to me, especially IF the finger is not put on the trigger until the person carrying the weapon is ready to fire.

just my 2 cents

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Well the standard 1911's don't all have the grip saftey and none that i know of have a fireing pin block, so if you don't have a holster that keeps it rather secure and there is a chance that it may ever fall out, it could fire from the impact without the hammer ever falling. Most people either forget that or just fail to realize it.

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You could also try a Ruger P94, chambered in .40 S&W. It is SA/DA and has as safety, although, because it is DA on the first trigger pull (as long as the hammer is not cocked, and can be uncocked by flipping down the safety switch), it is perfectly safe to carry without the safety being on.

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Evans86 wrote:

Well the standard 1911's don't all have the grip saftey and none that i know of have a fireing pin block, so if you don't have a holster that keeps it rather secure and there is a chance that it may ever fall out, it could fire from the impact without the hammer ever falling. Most people either forget that or just fail to realize it.

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All 1911's have grip safeties, and if a pistol doesn't it's not an actual 1911. ANY "Series 80" Colt, Springfield "Loaded" or better, and Kimber "II" series guns, ALL have firing pin blocks standard.

I carry a Kimber Stainless TLE "II" cocked and locked, and have never had a problem, with this system, whatsoever.

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Evans86 wrote:

Well the standard 1911's don't all have the grip saftey and none that i know of have a fireing pin block, so if you don't have a holster that keeps it rather secure and there is a chance that it may ever fall out, it could fire from the impact without the hammer ever falling. Most people either forget that or just fail to realize it.

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I'm pretty sure that all true 1911s have the grip safety. I do agree with you about having a proper holster for the weapon, but that should applyto any weapon, not just a 1911.

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since it came up, here is a video OF a leo doing just this with a glock.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=am-Qdx6vky0

vmaxanarchist wrote:

I know a lot of Glock lovers will argue this one with me.But, every LEO negligent discharge I have heard about has been a Glock or Glock clone (S&W Sigma or M&P).

I know they can't fire without putting your finger inside the trigger guard. But, this is exactly what happened in these ND incidents. Having a light trigger pull and no external safeties they are very easy to fire while handling with your finger on the trigger.

I know this is a rule you are never supposed to break. But these incidents do show that it does happen even among supposedly highly trained professionals. This iswhy I think guns with external safeties like 1911's or heavy DA trigger pulls are safer to carry with a loaded chamber.

MY Utah CCW instructor chose to carry his Glock unloaded by UT law. He was very familiar with Glocks and was considered kind of strange for this. But, he chose the extra safety of carrying it without a round in the chamber over the speed of having it quicker to fire. He also practiced cocking drills including one where he purposely chose snag type sights and was able to cock one handed quickly by snagging the sight on his belt.

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JMO here so take it for what it's worth, but if you're going to carry without one in the pipe, carry a rock instead. The likelyhood of you having time to chamber a round in the event you need to use your weapon is pretty slim....

Having said that, I'd recommned a Sig of some kind. I carrya SP2340 chambered in .357Sig every day, and would like to get a P229 and P239 in .357Sig as well. Having never had a failure to anything with it, I trust it to do its job if I ever need to use it.

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vmaxanarchist wrote:

I know they can't fire without putting your finger inside the trigger guard. But, this is exactly what happened in these ND incidents. Having a light trigger pull and no external safeties they are very easy to fire while handling with your finger on the trigger.



That applies to any firearm....

Keep your booger hook off the bang switch and it'll all be ok.

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357SigFan wrote:

JMO here so take it for what it's worth, but if you're going to carry without one in the pipe, carry a rock instead. The likelyhood of you having time to chamber a round in the event you need to use your weapon is pretty slim....

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So, for those of us who cannot legally carry with one in the pipe? Should I carry a rock?

Having a gun, even one that takes racking the slide to fire, is better then not having one at all.

If you're so worried about it, carry a revolver.

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thx997303 wrote:

357SigFan wrote:

JMO here so take it for what it's worth, but if you're going to carry without one in the pipe, carry a rock instead. The likelyhood of you having time to chamber a round in the event you need to use your weapon is pretty slim....

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So, for those of us who cannot legally carry with one in the pipe? Should I carry a rock?

Having a gun, even one that takes racking the slide to fire, is better then not having one at all.

If you're so worried about it, carry a revolver.

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There are places that the law says you can't carry with one chambered?? That's just ignorant of the lawmakers. In a case like that, I probably wouldn't bother because while sometimes there may be time to chamber a round, most of the time there won't be, and the likelyhood of you being injured or worse isn't a whole lot lowerthan if you where unarmed.

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Yeah,Utah laws says that if you don't have a CFP then you can't carry a round in the chamber. Wish I had my CFP:uhoh: