If you thought you were likely to have to defend yourself tomorrow....

[rw]

Well, tomorrow the bad guy would be screwed... I am headed to the gun show and will have both glocks (20 &23) and an ak with me. Probably my gut gun too, bond derringer with 3" 410 #5 shot.

[The Earl o Sammich]

Same thing I carry every day.  Colt Delta Elite with 165 Sierra Hollow points over 12 grains of V V 3N38. One mag in the pistol, two in the holder.

If I knew I thought I was likely to have to defend myself, I mean in an actual situation, I wouldn't go there.

But tomorrow is no different than any other day and I always go prepared.

[Patriot]

When I was a Gunner's Mate in the Navy, I was attached to various commands conducting firearms training for shipboard personnel, military police units, E.O.D., SEALs and occasionally Marine infantry is they needed our range. We routinely simulated injuries during life fire exercises. We would tie a shooters arm behind his back so he could only use one arm, tape down the thumb on his shooting hand and various other things. We had Beretta M9's (model 92), Sig 226 and Colt 1911's.

After conducting these training scenarios over the years, I came to the realization that the 1911 just isn't a great carry gun. The fact that it is single action puts the user at a serious disadvantage under stress or injury. The grip safety feature also posed problems during simulated injury especially with smaller handed shooters. Only the SEALs were proficient enough to reload, rack the slide or get the hammer back with the simulated injuries.

Even without a simulated injury, almost every shooter forgot the 1911 they were holding needed to be cocked before firing during stressful shooting, such as timed events, night time shooting, or run and shoot drills etc. They would be pulling on that trigger repeatedly then raise their hand and swear they had a misfire or a broken weapon. I'm talking big time 1911 guys who swear they are the best guns on the planet, they still froze up under stress. The same people did not have the same issues with the Beretta, although sometimes they forgot to take off the safety. But overall they had more success with non 1911 guns.

For me, a double action firearm just makes more sense for carrying.

[sqlbullet]

almost every shooter forgot the 1911 they were holding needed to be cocked before firing during stressful shooting

I know the military manual of arms for a 1911 is to carry in condition 2 or 3.  But, that is a problem.  Carrying condition 1 alleviates the issue described here.

Further, tap-rack-bang and reload-rack-bang work the same on any semi-auto.  SA, DA/SA, DA only, striker.  If you pull and don't get a bang, you should immediately tap-rack-bank, not just pull again.

I agree the 1911 has more operator controls than a Glock, or than a typical DA auto.  The grip safety is an issue for shooters with small hands, or in situation where because of injury or environment you have a less than optimum grip.

I would also comment the difference of mission is relevant here.  Lots of guys in the military aren't "shooters".  They have completely different assignments.  In combat they have different rules of engagement than we do as citizens.

While I don't advocate mandatory training to have a CCW, I do teach all my students that they are endangering themselves and others if they don't train on the gun to the point that all these actions become ingrained muscle memory.  If you train to the level that you should if you are carrying in public, then platform will be a non-issue as long as it is consistent and reliable.

[Raggedyman]

If I knew I would need to defend myself, I wouldn't go to the place I had been planning to go. My enlistment has ended and I am not obligated to put myself into harm's way.

As a hypothetical exercise, if I knew that I would need to defend myself and decided to go into danger anyway, I wouldn't choose a handgun. More accurately, I wouldn't choose ONLY a handgun. I would choose an AR, G22, plate carrier, battle belt, radio, and a truck load of mags. I would choose to bring along several similarly equipped friends.

We carry handguns because we DON'T expect trouble.

[Rich10]

We carry handguns because we DON'T expect trouble.

A handgun is a means to fight your way to get your rifle.