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Why I Carry with an Empty Chamber — Should You?

I'm with ya brother! I carry in condition 3 as well - that's how I was trained to carry a 1911 in USN Security an it works for me. As he said, if properly trained, you can charge around in your draw/presentation with NO decrease in presentation speed. AND - should I be disarmed by some stroke of bad timing, I'm the only one that knows there isn't a round chambered. That could buy me the precious split-seconds I need to regain the upper hand and disarm my assailant/rearm myself.
If there is no reduction in presentation speed…why don’t you see competitors (particularly top competitors) doing it in IPSC, IDPA, and the like?

And, again—what if you only have one hand available?
 
Hello all, here is today's article posted on TheArmoryLife.com. It is titled “Why I Carry with an Empty Chamber — Should You?” and can be found at https://www.thearmorylife.com/i-carry-with-an-empty-chamber-should-you/.

I carry with an empty chamber. Main reason being that I carry a full-size Springfield XD .45. Since it doesn't have a safety switch but a safety pressure switch on the rear and trigger, I feel safer carrying it without a chambered round. I can easily chamber a round fast enough when needed. Safety first I feel. I am in the hunt for another, smaller caliber for my personal carry with a safety switch.
 
Eh I don’t judge, you do you it’s supposed to be free a country. I carry one in the chamber with a manual safety engaged. I prefer manual safeties got used to them on 1911’s, it’s how I train.
Lots of folks don’t and wouldn’t carry a gun with a manual safety. As long as you train and educate yourself on the pros/cons of the chosen carry type. Then that’s that.
 
Thanks or the link, Mike.

If I were the author of the article, I would switch to a .38 spcl. snubbie, something like a S&W 642 Airweight. Personally, I would not be comfortable with a striker fired pistol for pocket carry, so despite what a lot of folks here are saying, in the author’s position if he absolutely feels he needs the extra capacity a Hellcat provides, I would carry empty chamber. I completely understand why he carries that way.

But, as other folks have said, to each his (or her) own.
 
He said "training" on more than one occasion. The Israelis do it, as well as so many others do EFFECTIVELY... Stop with the chest-beating egocentric B.S.! TRAINING PEOPLE, and most of us need a lot more of it. Thank you and I'll see my way out. :)


The Israeli folks did it for only 2 simple reasons. 1 when the country developed they had a smorgasbord of many different types handguns. Many of which weren’t safe to carry with a round loaded.
And 2 they have extremely packed cities and it gives them a reactionary gap in the case of an attempted gun grab.

In the authors situation I sort of get his reason however with that said in that same environment he’d be better suited with a DA Revolver or hammer fired firearm OR a good quality thumb break holster.
 
I'm not clear how the empty chamber is safer, and for whom, after reading your post. The only situation I can conceive of where it might be a good idea would be a gun grab. You did not make clear what kind of situation would be safer for your gun to have an empty chamber. Unless you are thinking you might lose it, or leave it someplace, i.e. a restroom, where it might be picked up by someone who does not know what to do with it. If the gun is on you, I just don't see your point. Why not carry without a magazine in the gun. Or even better leave the bullets home in the safe. I usually appreciate the stuff you write, but not this time.
JNW
 
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I'm not clear how the empty chamber is safer, and for whom, after reading your post. The only situation I can conceive of where it might be a good idea would be a gun grab. You did not make clear what kind of situation would be safer for your gun to have an empty chamber. Unless you are thinking you might lose it, or leave it someplace, i.e. a restroom, where it might be picked up by someone who does not know what to do with it. If the gun is on you, I just don't see your point. Why not carry without a magazine in the gun. Or even better leave the bullets home in the safe. I usually appreciate the stuff you write, but not this time.
JNW

I’m not sure you were “talking” to me, Shootist43, but in the article the author said:

“ I work in a medical clinic where I come into close contact with a lot of people — often facing a lot of distractions and stressful situations. I also work with a lot of children that are in close contact with me. To that end, I prefer the added layer of safety of having my gun with an empty chamber.”

This seems to me to be a little bit of a precarious situation where a person might have both hands tied up say working with a “parent patient” and have grabby hands kids see his gun in his pocket and reach in and grab it. My thinking is a DA/SA pistol or revolver would give a person a few more seconds to rectify the situation. I have read news reports of small children getting a gun out of a purse (which would be similar in my mind) and shooting someone. A DA trigger for the initial shot would be harder for a small child to handle if they could at all.

That is my thinking which may be flawed. :)
 
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