@Ouade5 By the standard of this community, that was a brilliant post! Congratulations.
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I agree with you regarding the actions to take. The topic of the email was carrying with an empty chamber. I wanted to point out that he should have the firearm charged and ready to go. In the particular case, he probably could have gotten the robber, but racking the slide drew the robber’s attention and subsequent fire, resulting in two deaths.
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But… but… Shotgun Joe says all we have to do is pump a shotgun and the baddies will run away!
(Sorry, that was political. )
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No…period. But having to rack the slide didn’t help. I repeat: do not draw vs drawn firearm within shouting distance of a gunman without cover and/or concealment. This ain’t a dime Western and we ain’t Billy the Kid.
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Two answers… (1) Empty chamber combat rack: It is plausible that breaking leather like you mean it, racking a round in a combat stance and commanding your assailant to stop could cause your assailant to break off. Load the magazine with snap caps and practice the rack. (2) Hot chamber: (2a) If you are concerned about an unintended discharge in condition 1 of your pistol, get used to it: consider finding a trainer, best with other students, for extensive live fire basics evolving into moving combat scenarios. (2b) If your discomfort with condition 3 is not about an unintended discharge, but, perhaps, with your pistol being unholstered by an assailant, consider these: Attend vigorously to condition yellow, keep you head on a swivel, observe reflective surfaces for movement in your 3-to-9, and get training in condition yellow; consider a level 2 retention holster such as a thumb break holster.
As for myself: I take approximately 8 to 16 hours of training every 2 months; year around I carry a full-size pistol - Glock 17 or a Kimber 1911 – in a leather thumb break on my strong-side hip. Perfectly possible to do so even in light summer shirts.
In short, you’ll develop you own answers through frequent training and practice. Not so easy to do depending on availability of training. Stay dangerous.
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Snopes has really been slipping over the past several years. I had to click on the article to see what they said, because we’ve all seen the clip of Joe Biden talking about shotguns. I’ll give them credit for “mostly true,” but I have to roll my eyes at the “partially false.” Basically, they can’t deny that he said what he said, but they’re bending over backwards to try to justify what he said. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why you can no longer trust Snopes.
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^^^^^^^^ Exactly!
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If you carry without 1 in the chamber, it’s as effective as a hammer. Always function check your firearm and depending on what kind of safety it has, will dictate the kind of holster and carry position you use. Don’t be self conscious about it. And remember , as with all firearms, exercise good trigger discipline.
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Agree wtih you–it can be a catch 22, and carrying is most important–which will only happen when they’re comfortable with it.
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That happened in the first couple of posts after @AZJustMe2021 posed the question.
Quickly became a discussion of “WHY” not “HOW”.
The trick I believe is to become familiar with the hardware, comfortable with its reliability, and secure in its safety. Once we have that under control we can debate the benefits in “one in the chamber”. I am on the locked and loaded side of the fence.
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@George98 This is why I answered the way I did to begin with. The OP didn’t ask the should/shouldn’t question, but the HOW TO question. This is a pet peeve of mine. Very similar to the way situational awareness is treated in the self-defense world, which is to say very poorly. Very little actual discussion of HOW TO improve situational awareness, but everybody says we should have good situational awareness. Even in good quality firearms training and martial arts classes, the topic gets glossed over 99% of the time. A dude standing in a hole hollering up at you, “Hey, how do I get out of here?” doesn’t need a lecture on why he should not have fallen in the hole or why he should get out of the hole. He needs a rope or ladder dropped down to him or some very detailed, step-by-step coaching.
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I mostly carry in condition 0
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Texas Ranger Charles Miller used to carry in condition -2, one in chamber, leather strap wrapped around handle to depress the handle safety and half cocked. Dangerous. Served 50 years carrying like that. Brave as hell or stupid. I think they don’t make men like that anymore.
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I start by carrying around the house and for all yard work. Drop a snap cap in the chamber put a dab or white out on the primer. Check the primer everyday. If the white out is still there you know the striker/firing pin didn’t hit the primer. You can carry anywhere like this, just know you need to rack the slide to be ready to fire. After a month or so and your primer doesn’t have an impact, you should feel very confident the gun won’t just ‘go off’.
Another thing to consider. If your gun has a safety, make sure it is on. at the end of the day, if it is still on, it should let you know that the holster and/or your clothing isn’t going to turn it off accidently. Same thing, do it for a month, everyday, all the time. You do need to have confidence in your equipment, this is just one way you can do this for yourself.
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Personally I’ve never had much concern over having a round chambered, most likely because I was fortunate to learn gun safety and started hunting at a young age, walking through large wildlife areas with a loaded shotgun looking for pheasants; a person is always loaded a ready with a round in the chamber of his/her shotgun so to me it just doesn’t feel right to not carry with a round in the chamber wether it’s a shotgun, rifle, or a pistol because I never know when that moment will happen where a bird flys or a deer jumps up or someone tries to possibly hurt my family… so I always try to make sure I have every little bit of advantage I can before hand so if/when I happen to be put in a position where a weapon is required or needed my training and natural reaction is the same wether I’m afield hunting or in the checkout line… there may be people who disagree with my personal choices but that’s ok with me, hope this might help you in some way . Simply put I choose to be consistent no matter what I’m doing, last thing I want is to be mentally fumbling with is this gun chambered or not when I REALLY need it! Best of luck to you with whatever you decide.
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Appreciate the benefits of having “chambered” preparedness; No knocks on those who choose not to. I personally prefer being chambered. For others, I respect if they need time to acclimate or choose not to.
I was wondering though; perhaps kind of a silly question, as the answer could vary as do trigger pull weights.
But, is a semi-auto being in the chambered position make the trigger on a semi-auto just as delicate/sensitive as it would a revolver with the hammered pulled back? Or would the chambered semi-auto have a heavier trigger pull than a cocked back revolver? Or does it really vary and depend on the make/model of the semi-auto, and really not comparable to a cocked revolver?
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hmmm… this might help you… get some snap caps… (fake ammo) of appropriate caliber…
load the firearm with one properly! meaning put the fake ammo in the mag and rack the slide…or cylinder…
revolvers at least the newest ones can be carried fully load due to the trigger bar…
and IMHO you never carry any revolver with the hammer cocked… NEVER…
shouldn’t need to… with a double action revolver…
granted a single action is slightly different… but ya still don’t carry a revolver cocked…
next if it has a safety apply it… then begin to train yourself… unholster… holster…
if it has a safety ya might want to work it off then back on BEFORE you even think about reholstering…
OVER and OVER until it becomes automatic that your finger is off the trigger as you put it back…
and if it has a safety it is applied BEFORE you even start to re holster…
you MIGHT want to develop a small thing/habit… always try to work the thumb safety even when it ain’t there???
cause you never know… ya might find yourself carrying “for some reason” a different firearm…
takes awhile… self awareness (focus) is paramount when dealin with firearms as well as what is around you…
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Multiple off-topic comments were removed. If you’d like to talk about something that was brought up in the thread that is off-topic, please create a separate topic.
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I carry a Glock 26 in a fanny pack. I don’t carry with a round in the chamber as fanny packs are not the same thing as a strong side holster which means a Glock in that environment is unsafe in a loaded condition. I can put a round in the chamber in less time it takes to read this sentence. So that’s what I do.
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