I think my girlfriend is that little cartoon devil on my shoulder

[Manedwolf]

What?  Guns fire themselves?  Perhaps they pull their own triggers, just for spite? 

I know your gun education didn't come from the Brady Bunch, so what gives?  You know that gun is not going to go off quite easily, not unless you pull the trigger.  And you're not going to pull the trigger, because you know how to safely handle a firearm.

I'd meant if something bumps that trigger. If a coin gets into the holster, if a retention strap slaps against it in the draw, whatever. The Detonics has a very tiny amount of travel from safe to fire, it's very easy to bump it off just by brushing it, which I would expect meant that that could happen in something like a deep concealment holster that didn't quite fit right at that point. There is no grip safety. So you'd have what amounted to a cocked, unlocked 1911 without any grip safety in your holster, with a very light trigger poised to fire from being brushed in a draw, if a strap caught it, or if something fell in the holster.

That doesn't strike me as particularly safe.

And I've seen holsters with serious flaws. Even one of the supposedly best, handmade ones for a tiny Beretta, I had to send it back with a letter that they'd left a rise of leather along the side above where the barrel release tucked into the leather lower down. The effect was that on the draw, it perfectly caught the barrel release, so you'd draw it just as the barrel pinged open and flung the unfired first round out of the chamber and up in the air. Not very effective!

[MicroBalrog]

I've fired 1911s. They felt..outdated, and the idea of cocked and locked seemed downright archaic. Like I might as well be carrying around a Webley Mk VI or something.

The latter being only one of the best revolvers ever made, yes?

[Perd Hapley]

I apologize for being one of those who allowed the thread to be 'jacked by someone who can apparently claim with a straight face that something can feel outdated.  Sorry.   

[Jamisjockey]

Tonight we stopped at a gun shop so I could get my fix.  They had some really good prices on Para guns.  I looked at one, liked it a lot, but decided to pass, even though the price was good.  We left.  We weren't three miles away before she had convinced me to go back and get it.

http://www.para-usa.com/new/product_pistol_large.php?id=4

Is she hot, too?  Might be time to make an honest woman out of her then....

[Manedwolf]

The latter being only one of the best revolvers ever made, yes?

The .455 Webley was a good manstopper at close range, but not really any further. It was excellent for trench combat or being surprised by someone popping out of tall grasses with a spear in your face before the advent of small and reliable semiauto carbines, but it's rather underpowered now. On those shaved to take .45 ACP in halfmoons, you have to use low power rounds, it's not strong enough for modern defensive .45 ACP.

It's historically excellent, but would you want to carry one now?

[MicroBalrog]

I, personally, wouldn't want to carry a revolver of any kind. :D

[mtnbkr]

I, personally, wouldn't want to carry a revolver of any kind. :D

  That's all I carry.  Autos are too limiting and prone to failure.

Chris

[Manedwolf]

I, personally, wouldn't want to carry a revolver of any kind. :D

I carry one while hiking. A stainless revolver is much better for outdoors stuff than a semiauto.

[MicroBalrog]

I carry one while hiking. A stainless revolver is much better for outdoors stuff than a semiauto.

You must understand my lifestyle. I work from home. I study in a college. I come out to go to lectures and to collect my paychecks. And do shopping.

By the time I'm legally able to carry a firearm of any sort (no earlier than five to six years from now), I will probably have a Ph. D. Which will mean I may go on to teach in a college, which will mean I will not be able to carry a firearm to work anyway.

Regardless, my preferred work/life cycle doesn't involve me getting out that much.

[Hawkmoon]

AFAIK, the 1911 is not safe to carry chambered and with the hammer lowered? Plus if you slip while doing that, it would fire, at least that was my impression with models I'd tried?

How many have you had go off when carrying that way? I've never heard of a single such incident, although I have no doubt it has happened ... somewhere, some time.

It isn't a recommended mode of carry, but only because the only "decocker" is your thumb and forefinger, and any time you are handling the hammer over a live round there is a chance you'll slip and drop the hammer. However, I know several very competent pistoleros who see nothing wrong with lowering the hammer manually. Of course, most of them also tinker with Single Action Armies. I've never quite understood why it's no big deal to manually lower the hammer on a SAA, yet it's a major faux pas if you do the same thing with a 1911.

Once the hammer is down on a 1911, it can't go off. The firing pin is an inertia pin -- it isn't long enough to make any contact with the primer with the hammer resting on it. It needs to be whacked by a falling hammer to shove it into the primer.

[RadioFreeSeaLab]

Is she hot, too?  Might be time to make an honest woman out of her then....

Yes, she's hot.

[roo_ster]

I just don't understand the enthusiasm for them, that's all.

1911s are easier to shoot well (for the majority of those who try them) than any other pistol made.  There is a reason why they get segregated out from other pistols in the pistol sports.

1911s also don't require a paw the size of a trash can lid to properly grasp and use.

[Manedwolf]

1911s are easier to shoot well (for the majority of those who try them) than any other pistol made.  There is a reason why they get segregated out from other pistols in the pistol sports.

1911s also don't require a paw the size of a trash can lid to properly grasp and use.

I'd found the opposite personally. 1911 shoots okay. It was the 220 with a thick Hogue grip that was big-grin punching-the-center-out-of-the-target funtime right from go, though. So that's my preferred .45.

I do still like the 1911 better than the Glock, though, which has a weird grip angle that keeps me from shooting anything resembling a reasonable group with the thing.

[Perd Hapley]

I was watching Ronin.  The scene where Sean Bean tells De Niro that the 1911 is "an old gun" reminded me of this thread.  Watch out for cups of coffee, Manedwolf.