condition one concealed carry

how do you carry? and why?

  • Condition 1 Cocked and Locked

    Votes: 61 67.0%

  • Condition 2 Chambered Hammer down

    Votes: 31 34.1%

  • Condition 3 full Mag None it the pipe

    Votes: 5 5.5%
  • Total voters
    91
I primarily carry revolvers or DAO semi-autos so it is most similar to chambered with hammer down. When I carry a DA/SA semi-auto it is chambered with the hammer decocked and down. When I carry my 1911 it is cocked and locked.
 
Carry Condition

This poll isn't really as simple as 1,2,3 due to the various type of firearms and safety mechanisms.
While i'm here i guess i'll have a rant, it just gets under my skin how some will suggest that if you don't carry a 1911 cocked and locked you should consider another firearm because you are unsafe...Baloney!!! I guess C&L is safer than nothing in the chamber??? If your are not confident in your knowledge and ability you are not safe with any weapon...period. Ok i'm done

My carry gun
Condition 2 with safety on/ or safety off depending on the atmosphere...... Star BM 9mm

I need a laugh...think i'll watch the DEA agent discharging his weapon for the weapons safety class...
 
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Does a Glock 21 with one in the pipe count as condition 1? If so, then I carry that way. I also selected condition 3 because I also carry with empty pipe, it just depends.
 
I carry our Para LDA/PDA .45 with the chamber loaded and safety on. Most everything else is double action only with no safety...so they're carried round chambered. I guess if I carried my Taurus PT1911AR with laser & headlight I'd go Condition 1...just don't have a reason to... :)

Milspec
 
Well, here's some more thoughts on the subject. And by the way, when I mentioned that cocked and locked actually locked the slide in place and immovable when reholstering, I did mean with the safety on.

There are safeties and there are safeties. Some safeties I do not trust when applied to a cocked automatic. Not because they don't necessarily work so much as they don't seem especially positive. I include CZ automatics in this and as I recall, Luger's didn't have an especially positive safety either, not that I expect many people are relying on a 1909 design today. In any case, they seem too easy to push off safe.

Many automatics which otherwise have a very positive safety lever also have very small levers, mostly older ones. The Colt pocket autos have very small, flat ones, perhaps by design. Even the older 1911s had small ones (small sights, too). I know that oversized safeties are in vogue in some circles but there is a trade off in ease of manipulation and ease of unintentional manipulation. But I've mostly always been happy with the way things came from the factory if I wanted it to begin with.

But if something can be carried safely cocked and locked doesn't mean it has to be carried that way, even though I have carried one (LW Commander) that way and felt perfectly happy. Likewise, it doesn't follow that cocked and locked is necessarily that much faster. I suspect that reaction time is most of the time it takes anyway but I could be wrong. I often am. But I have found that Colt automatics (and similiar automatics) to be the easiest things to charge, manipulating the slide. CZs, on the other hand, are difficult (for me). Sometimes refinished slides can be real slick and that doesn't help. Glocks are easy to work, too.

At the moment I rely on a Walther that only has a decocker so I avoid the issue but not intentionally. I almost bought a Colt with only a decocker but that's another story. But speaking of Walthers, if you had an automatic with a Walther style safety (PPK, M39, M59 etc), would you carry it safety on or safety off?
 
Didn't vote because it depends on so many different factors. Depending on the gun and the situation, I might carry Condition 1, 2, or 3, whichever I feel is appropriate at that time.
 
I've never found the muscle memory concept to conflict with any style or technique of presentation. One's presentation should not be based on muscle memory, it should be a reasoned response to a threat. My $.02.
 
I'm new to this decision.
I have a S&W 908 that i carry chambered, saftey on. Engaging the saftety decocks if it is cocked. Can not be carried cocked and locked. I'm comfortable with that, since 2 things have to happen - 1) long trigger pull 2) saftey released

Here's my dillema: i just got a cz82 (yesterday) which can not be hammer down and saftey on. The saftey (apparently) only works in the "cocked and locked" position. I'm not yet comfortable with that. I'm trying to figure out how to carry it, as "uncocked and locked" is not an option.
Any thoughts?
 
Here is from another blog regarding CZ82:
Not so hard to let the hammer down if you remember to release the trigger in the middle of the process...that puts the hammer stop into play...

So, grip the hammer tightly, squeeze the trigger, let the hammer come partly forward to where half-cock would be if it had one, release the trigger, then release the hammer and the mechanism prevents the hammer from getting within an eighth of the firing pin.

...practice with it empty of course

I would not hesitate at all to carry the CZ82 chamber loaded with the hammer down, safety off, ready for a DA pull of the trigger. It's the same way I carry a Taurus PT92 or Beretta 92FS or Ruger P345.
 
Carry the way you are comfortable

Even for 1911 carriers it's somewhat tough to start off carrying cocked and locked, even though, the gun is designed to be carried this way.

When you first start off concealed carrying you have to be comfortable with the condition of your carry gun. So, like some have stated be it condition 1, 2, or 3

Practice how you carry and how to react to make your gun ready. So, if you have a loaded magazine but none in the chamber. You know when you draw you'll have to rack the slide to load a round in the chamber. Practice that way.

We all develop in stages. Some are comfortable starting off in condition one. Some are not. Where ever you are - be comfortable and train that way. You may find yourself later scaling up... that's good. But, if it's more comfortable for your state of mind to carry in condition 2 or 3 or whatever do so. Just be aware of the downside but if you train you can develop some fast deployment tactics.

One guy showed me an Israeli tactic to rack the slide upon engaging. He drew from concealed and as the gun was about belly button height he would grasp the slide and before it reached his chest the gun was racked and he was shooting. He did this very fast - faster than I could of just drawing my gun.
 
One guy showed me an Israeli tactic to rack the slide upon engaging. He drew from concealed and as the gun was about belly button height he would grasp the slide and before it reached his chest the gun was racked and he was shooting. He did this very fast - faster than I could of just drawing my gun.
Click to expand...
Most folks don't realize how little time, if any, is added to the presentation by racking the slide, especially if the shooter knows what he is doing.
 
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