Carrying live round

Do you carry handgun with a round in chamber i.e. live round?

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b. You are scared you will shoot yourself because you are a klutz or don't trust the gun not to go off if dropped or on its own. You also may think that an unchambered gun will give you an advantage in you are disarmed. The guy will futz with it while you unleash your gung-fu.
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Now, now, now. From my usual dispassionate and fair-minded colleague I think I've detected a wee bit of bias in that summary<G>!
 
Guilty as charged. It comes from when I broke my wrist, my ribs and badly sprained my ankle. I was signed up (seredipitously) for a tac class featuring wounded shooter, one hand only tactics. So I shot it in the cast with my nondominant hand.

Then I took LFI-1 stressfire in the same condition.

Thus, I carry chambered because you can't be too slow when the zombies come for you.

I should post the picture of me shooting a 44 Mag Desert Eagle, one handed, with the other in the cast - but it makes me look FAT! :D

I do understand your points made before, Dave. :D
 
Ah, you might want to wait until it's aimed. THEN put your finger on the safety and slip it off. To it your way and you might shoot your leg off one day, no matter how hard you practice.
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What kind firearms background do you have?....exactly what formal training have you had?
 
Yes, because an unloaded pistol is nothing more than a really expensive, very inefficient club.

As I type this, I have an L-frame S&W revolver on my hip. In the past, it has been a 1911, a G-23, a striker-fired Kahr on the hip, or a smaller Kahr in the pocket, a j-frame in the pocket, and (one day) perhaps an LCP in the pocket.

I paid too much for each to use them as clubs. :)
 
live round loaded. in a commander.

I too never hit the safety until the gun is up and at the ready, its just the way I was trained, and the way I practiced,


As the gun is coming up and just before I make the junction of strong and weak hand the safety gets stroked off.
 
I always carry with a round chambered.

In the unlikely event that I need my weapon, I want it to be ready as soon as it's out of the holster.

I carry either a S&W M&P40 or M&P9.
 
Nah guys, I carry mine with the magazine locked in the safe and a trigger guard lock on the gun. Can't be to carefull about ADs, right? I just as the BG to come back in 10 min.

Of course one carries it chamber loaded. Yea I know about the Israelis and the way they rack the slide. Sure hope you have those two hands when the balloon goes up.

The only firearm weapons one carries chamber loaded are a few French rifles (MAS 1936 to be exact, Martini Henry, and other rifles with NO safety, the Colt SSA, with it's half-cock notch, some striker fired Ruby pistols, and the like.)

But modern pistols are quite safe chamber loaded. It's a matter of training. If you aren't willing to train some, stay way from machinery.
 
There are dozens of people who can testify first-hand that it's perfectly OK to carry a self-defense pistol with an unloaded chamber and that you will always have time to rack the slide back with your free hand.















The ones who didn't have a free hand to rack probably won't say anything, they're too busy being dead. Which side of that equation do You want to be on?

If you are going to carry with an unloaded chamber they all you have to do, to do it safely, is always keep your strong-hand ready and......

Never hold your cap or hat in your off-hand
Never carry a grocery bag in your off-hand
Never hold a dog's leash in either hand
Never hold your keys in your off-hand, because it'll take time to either put them away or decide to drop them
Never get a hard hit in the off-hand by a club, or a pipe, or a bat
Never get a hard hit in the off-hand by a brick
Never get hit in the off-hand by a bullet
Never get hit in the off-hand by a knife
Never hold tightly on to anything with your off-hand so that loosening your grip would cause you to lose your balance
Never hold a long arm with your off-hand unless it's on a sling.

I could go on, but I think everyone could add their own to this list without problem.
 
Well, yes and no. My NAA revolver has all five chambers loaded, but it also has safety notches on the cylinder, so the hammer isn't over a live round. I don't know why someone didn't think that up sooner. It's a clever idea.
 
I usually carry a 1911, condition 1, . . . sometimes a Bersa Thunder, . . . one in the tube and ready to go.

Once I load a weapon, . . . it most generally is never "unloaded" except by trigger pull(s). There are exceptions to that little rule of mine, . . . but they are few and far between.

When I go shooting, . . . I'm ready to go, . . . then I clean them, . . . load them, . . . and try to schedule my next shoot:D:D:D.

All the guns I may need for "anticipated" SD or HD situations are loaded, whether they are in the gun safe, . . . in my pocket, . . . on the night stand, . . . where ever. Just me and the wife, . . . no kids or munchkins, . . . and it works for us.

May God bless,
Dwight
 
One question guys.

For those that say carrying chamber empty is a 'non issue', as david does, just look at youtube were people get into struggles and ask youself if you could have racked the slide of your 'chamber empty, it's a non-issue' gun?

Real hard to rack a gun with the off hand if in that position. This is what retention shooting and H2H skills are all about. Grappling does happen on the street, with the BG trying to take the gun away from the other.

So keep that in mind.
 
whats the point in carrying a gun without a round in chamber ready to fire? its just a paperweight at that point. as for drills to prevent an AD or ND...keeping your finger out of the trigger guard has always worked for me up to this point.
 
Think of 'racking-the-slide' as a step in a process, albeit an unnecessary step. When you add a step to any process you add the potential for errors [slippery hands, injury, or being restrained preventing a step from occurring, etc.] . Remember K.I.S.S., point and shoot, this alone under a stressful situation may in itself be difficult for those who do not train regularly, why add an unnecessary step? The advent of the firing pin block makes it 'safe' to carry a round chambered (not trying to open a can of worms with that statement). I vote for a chambered round...

I believe if you are afraid or unwilling to carry a round in the chamber (a live round, not a dummy round), you are afraid of the weapon and need to receive some training. Once you understand the weapon and understand guns don't just fire by themselves, loaded or unloaded; you will carry with a round in the chamber. Carrying an unloaded gun can potentially be more dangerous, for reason listed in earlier posts, then carrying a loaded gun.

Edit: I forgot to answer the question regarding minimizing AD/NDs - Answer, I do not pull the trigger unless I intend to fire; thus not an AD/ND...

Here's another 8 pages on topic: https://www.thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=281520
 
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In my FNP .40 S&W I carry one in the chamber always. It has the de-cocking lever for added safety when chambering. I don't use the "safeties" on the few guns that I have with them. The reason I carry one in the chamber is because I have been in the situation where I used lethal force in self defense (wasn't a gun though... wasn't armed at the time). I've seen just how fast that situation can come up. Chambering a round can only take a second, but that might be a second too long and you might not have the use of both of your hands. The second reason I carry one in the chamber is because though the chance may be very small, it's still there, that you can experience a malfuntion while chambering the round. As long as you follow standard safety guidlines carrying one in the chamber is the best way in my opinion. In my home defense shotgun I do not keep one in the chamber. My reasoning for this is that the sound of a 12g pump racking one into the chamber is the best... and only warning an intruder will get in my home.
 
guntotin_fool wrote:
live round loaded. in a commander.

I too never hit the safety until the gun is up and at the ready, its just the way I was trained, and the way I practiced,
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Trained to do this by who??

By "at the ready", do you mean once you pistol clears leather...or only when your gun is actually pointed at the target?
 
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"In my home defense shotgun I do not keep one in the chamber. My reasoning for this is that the sound of a 12g pump racking one into the chamber is the best" (I couldn't find the quote button???)

Your reasoning should be because a shotgun doesn't have the internal safety device to prevent an AD/ND if a loaded shotgun is dropped. Although, I agree the chambering of a shotgun (pump) is internationally recognized.

I believe, not 100% positive, that all newer handguns (I forget the year they began) have at least one internal safety to prevent AD/ND. Most shotguns and rifles do not have these safeties; this, I would consider unsafe to carry one with a round in the chamber, unless on patrol, hunting, on-scene, etc.

- For the record, there are only Negligent Discharges, there are no accidental discharges when it comes to weapons.
 
Sigh. Folks, it's nice to talk all about this "what if" stuff, but it is hard to argue with years of success. For those that are new to the business, for most of the time that autoloaders have been around chamber empty was the preferred mode of carry. And strangely enough we don't find much, if any, evidence of people having problems because of it. Chamber loaded as the normal carry mode is fairly new in the game, and in fact is still frowned on by lots of people in lots of places, places that are real hot-spots where people have to use their handguns a lot. Glenn offers the only real concern issue for chamber empty, that being if your off-hand is already injured. Certain guns, certain situations, a variety of factors can all come into play. Fortunately it really doesn't matter much, adn there are advantages and disadvantages for each method of carry. The trick is finding out what works best for you.
 
To return to the 'endless' discussion - Captain Picard - do you keep a power pack in your phaser?

I have thought about this as two different models of event planning. One is for the average and one is for the extreme. This viewpoint is laid out in the book: Black Swans.

As my buddy Dave points out most incidents will be handled with a chambered or unchambered gun with most likely a positive outcome. Thus, if carrying unchambered fits your view of your risk profile - risk of attack outcome, risk of ND/Disarm - then it probably works for you.

If you plan for the extreme - being disabled or unable to use your your arm - as something you worry about, then carry chambered or use a revolver.

The same analyses of risk work in:

1. Carry an extra mag
2. Carry a BUG
3. Do you carry a 1911 and worry about forgetting the safety under stress

etc.

Do you worry about the rare event? The Black Swan argument is that the rare event can lead to a catastrohic negative outcome for you, so do you downplay that one?

We don't have to go near racking the shotgun again - please, Oh, Lord!
 
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