So, this was starting to get discussed in another thread, but I felt that it deserved its own.
When you carry, do you have one chambered? Or do you not chamber a round?
If you don't have one ready to go, why not?
I've always carried with one chambered, never really thought about not carrying with a round in...so I'm just curious why some choose the other route?
I never carry a chambered auto unless it has a thumb safety. Just a weird personal thing based on no hard evidence just personal opinion. That said I mostly carry a revolver so that doesn't really matter for me most of the time.
It takes .5 seconds to rack the slide and personally its worth the time for me. Not saying its not for others but im weird like that.
wife doesnt like the idea of one in the chamber so thats why i dont carry with one in it... however when i'm w/o her, there is one in the chamber
I just get concerned with auto's that have no safety and a light trigger pull. I think that's a logical concern....
I do not, however, understand the argument that a gun without one in the chamber is no better than a paperweight.
I did have the embarassing "slipped out of holster onto bathroom floor" event happen once....
But what is the difference between the loaded revolver and a chambered auto? Do you only carry revolvers with thumb safeties (if such a thing even exist!)? The only thing I fear is carrying crappy guns, revolvers or semi-autos, that are much more likely to fire if dropped on the hammer/back of slide.
I personally don't like cocked and locked. I like the simple nature of Glock style shooting: You pull the weapon, aim, and all you have to do is pull the trigger. As such, even if I had thumb safeties, I wouldn't use them. I think safeties are for more storage, which is why I actually like magazine disconnects. Take out the mag, gun doesn't fire. The only carrying safety I wouldn't mind is a grip safety, because it is automatically engaged if you need to fire the weapon. To me, fumbling around with levers wasn't how I was taught to shoot, so I tend not to use them even if available.
There are some 1911s I have seen with trigger jobs that are so light, I understand the need to carry the gun locked if one cocks that hammer back. My uncle has a gun like this and I just couldn't believe the minimal amount of force it took for a cocked hammer firing. While it is nice, I fear just jumping up and down hard enough could set it off.
A gun without a round in the chamber is like a car with a dead battery. You don't want to jump your car everytime you need it do you??
That's a good argument for not carrying.You start your car several times a day on the average; you most likely will go your entire life and never pull your gun.