MountainGun said: "We all must make a personal assessment of the odds of being threatened in a given situation. I weigh the potential danger and odds of an accidental trigger pull and discharge against the odds of being forced to defend myself in a given situation and make my carry weapon and mode of carry decision based upon this calculation.
More often than not, this equals a handgun with no round in the chamber. In most circumstances I will take my chances with a two handed slide rack. If conditions seem to become more threatening- let's say I have to stop for gas somewhere I would not normally choose to- maybe that is time to chamber a round for that brief period of time. It is all about being tuned in with your surroundings."
Personally, I disagree with this approach. I think you should always carry the same way, whether that is condition 1 or condition 3. If things go bad and you really need that gun, you don't want to have to be thinking "am I carrying chamber empty or chamber full?" You'll have enough things to worry about at that time (cover, backstop, escape route, etc.). Don't give yourself one more thing to think about.
Furthermore, if you get used to carrying chamber-empty, then you might forget sometime that you loaded the chamber, which could result in a nasty surprise later on if you've gotten a little sloppy with the safe handling rules. Such a situation happened to a friend of Mas Ayoob. This fellow normally carried condition 3. He chambered a round one day and forgot to clear it at the end of the day. A couple weeks later, he "dry-fired" without clearing the chamber since he "knew" that the chamber was empty. The resulting negligent discharge went through the wall of his office and killed his wife.
Decide how you want to carry, then carry and train that way.
M1911
More often than not, this equals a handgun with no round in the chamber. In most circumstances I will take my chances with a two handed slide rack. If conditions seem to become more threatening- let's say I have to stop for gas somewhere I would not normally choose to- maybe that is time to chamber a round for that brief period of time. It is all about being tuned in with your surroundings."
Personally, I disagree with this approach. I think you should always carry the same way, whether that is condition 1 or condition 3. If things go bad and you really need that gun, you don't want to have to be thinking "am I carrying chamber empty or chamber full?" You'll have enough things to worry about at that time (cover, backstop, escape route, etc.). Don't give yourself one more thing to think about.
Furthermore, if you get used to carrying chamber-empty, then you might forget sometime that you loaded the chamber, which could result in a nasty surprise later on if you've gotten a little sloppy with the safe handling rules. Such a situation happened to a friend of Mas Ayoob. This fellow normally carried condition 3. He chambered a round one day and forgot to clear it at the end of the day. A couple weeks later, he "dry-fired" without clearing the chamber since he "knew" that the chamber was empty. The resulting negligent discharge went through the wall of his office and killed his wife.
Decide how you want to carry, then carry and train that way.
M1911