Posted on 03/23/2013 1:20:39 PM PDT by neverdem
Amid all the pious wailing we’re reading in other papers about Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s decision to take a pass on assault weapons, Albany has given us a homegrown reminder what happens when politicians rush to exploit a tragedy.
So desperate was Gov. Cuomo to beat President Obama to the punch on gun control in the immediate aftermath of the Newtown massacre, the gun law that was passed made magazines with more than seven rounds of ammunition illegal.
One problem: No one seems to make seven-round magazines...
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
I told the same thing to ImaRudMuddle and just about got kicked off the thread. And I got told.
You must be a more intimidating board presence than I am. I don't think you attract guys like that.
Personally, I don't think carrying fully-cocked all the time is good for the mainspring, but I don't want to carry with the hammer down and a round in battery. I don't want everything riding on that firing-pin block my little Colts have .... especially since other pistols, like my Astra Constable (which I need to get a manual for, I keep reminding myself), may not have one. Lots of less-expensive designs lack a firing-pin safety.
More discussion of carry modes here (cold link):
http://www.thehighroad.org/archive/index.php/t-401589.html&&
I chased a link in that discussion thread to a 2003 Mas Ayoob article about your 1911 .... thot you'd like to see it:
http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/ayoob83.html
Funny that one of the goodest of the good guys would have an Arabic name more usually associated with shaheedi wannabe's.
The burden of his article is that USG curried political and business favor with the Italians by specifying the Beretta M9, but when it got down to the nut-cutting in close quarters with the same kind of fanatics who used to be called juramentados in the Philippines back in 1901, the call went out again for great, big .45's.
Ah, but if the semiaito had jammed?
I’m not seeing how a double action revolver (pull the trigger, boom) would have elicited a different outcome.
- have one 5-round magazine for hunting game.
That makes sense.
I don’t hunt with my AR’s, they are strictly for fun.
If I want big game (i.e. deer) I hunt with Rem 700-BDL in .30-06. or the Mauser M98 Mag in .338 Lapua.
When out for just fun, who the hell wants to reload magazines all the time. You can easily squeeze off 5 rounds and then have to reload another mag over and over. 4 mags for one 20 round box, or 2 mags for three boxes.
I am not suggesting you should hunt with an AR. However, if you did, for some reason, want to hunt with it, a 5 round magazine might be required.
I understand, and I am not being critical. I have several AR’s and I love them. They are great fun, and reasonably accurate. The AR10 could hunt deer though I prefer the Mauser M98 or the Remington.
I never considered buying a 5 round mag for my AR’s. They make 30 round’ers (25’s for the Armalite) and there was simply no reason to buy anything less.
“Ah, but if the semiaito had jammed?
I’m not seeing how a double action revolver (pull the trigger, boom) would have elicited a different outcome.”
Firing any sidearm in a hand-to-hand situation can be problematic.
Since all modern revolvers come to rest after their last fired round with an empty case under the hammer, they must be recocked (either manually, or by cycling the trigger all the way through) to bring a fresh round into alignment with the barrel. Any drag or friction (such as grabbing, as lentulusgracchus noted) will make it far tougher for the shooter to fire the next shot; mechanical advantage is not terribly good.
By contrast, modern semi-autos (”autoloaders,” or “self-loaders,” as they used to be called) extract and eject the fired case, then feed a fresh round, coming to rest with a live one under the hammer. A light pull on the trigger will fire the next round - an action nearly impossible for an assailant to counter, even if the hammer has been decocked and the shooter is using pure trigger pressure to fire again (as in the Beretta 92 or SIG 228, US M9 and M1 equivalents respectively).
If the assailant is grasping the arm’s slide, the pistol may fail to fully cycle for a follow-up shot: a stoppage, in military terms (”Jam” refers to a malfunction that cannot be remedied by any immediate action the shooter can apply - usually jams need at least partial disassembly and might require tools, not to mention considerable time).
The best and most recent test data indicate that autoloaders will fail to fire the second shot about 100 times more often than revolvers. This may sound terrible, but as recently as 1970, an autoloader was 5000 times more likely to fail at that second shot. The narrowing margin is attributed to improvements in ammunition, and subsystem design.
Well, your line on "7 +1" (which means 1 round loaded), which is not Readiness Condition 3; and "(half) cocked" (which is not a carry position of the hammer in any one of the Conditions); calling this Condition 3 is not that--it is an unapproved modification of Condition 2 which is: "round in chamber, hammer down." This is not just a personal preference--it is a gun safety issue demanding a response.
Such responses are entirely within the purview of participating on the FR forum, to which you become vulnerable as you post a viewpoint. Furthermore, you could have been seen as holding forth a safely useful mode of gun carry given to others as a recommendation, hence an "instruction" from you inferred.
When I interjected a response to you, I did approach it gently as a friend, and also closed my response with a helpful suggestion, not an imperious command. I'm sorry you took it as an invasion of your privacy, which it was not. My comment was an observation, not necessarily to be seen as a criticism.
But it was a sort of warning to onlooking novices in the developing CCDW culture to reexamine the terminology that I believe you misapplied. Again, since this is a safety issue, I gratuitously made the observation. That is not "in-your-face" or "invading your private locker" interference.
So here's the sharp point, for you and others, regarding carrying an M1911-type piece at half-cock:
From an article by Sheriff Jim Wilson:
Excerpt:
Miller’s solution to the perceived grip-safety problem was to wrap some rawhide around the pistol grip, thereby deactivating the safety. In addition, he chose to carry his 1911 with a round in the chamber and the hammer on half cock (a practice I definitely do not recommended). Carrying his 1911 in the front of his waistband, without a holster, Miller would draw the pistol and thumb the hammer back much as one would draw and fire a single-action revolver. ..."
And from an M1911 technical site, the topic being "Cocked and Locked":
Excerpt:
The 1911 is a single action semi-automatic pistol so it has to be cocked in order to fire. People deal with this in one of three ways: cocked and locked (condition 1), or they chamber a round and carefully lower the hammer (condition 2) so they have to thumb cock the gun to fire it, or they carry it with an empty chamber and rack the slide when they bring it into action (condition 3). I would advise either condition 1 or 3 for home defense, but not condition 2. I don’t advise condition 2 under any circumstances.
And also from that site, dealing with 1911 carry Conditions describing one excusable possibilty for a logical employment of half-cock as a practical but unapproved "modification" of Condition 2:
Excerpt:
Using the"half-cock" as a safety
The half-cock notch on the M1911 is really intended as a “fail-safe” and is not recommended as a safety. However, it has been used as a mode of carry. From Dale Ireland comes this interesting piece of service history from WWII: When the hammer is pulled back just a few millimeters it “half cocks” and pulling the trigger will not fire the gun [on genuine mil-spec G.I. pistols]. I imagine this is an unsafe and not a recommended safety position. The reason I bring it up however is that it was a commonly used position especially by left-handers in WWII. My father carried his 1911 (not A1) to Enewitok, Leyte, first wave at Luzon, the battle inside Intramuros, and until he was finally shot near Ipo dam. He tells me that he regularly used the half cocked safety position especially at night and patrolling because bringing the weapon to the full cocked position from the half cocked created much less noise and he was left handed so he couldn’t use the thumb safety effectively. He said using the half cocked position was all about noise reduction for lefties while maintaining a small amount of safety that could quickly be released. Again, the half-cock is intended as a fail-safe in the event that the sear hooks were to fail, and it is not recommended as a mode of carry. It should also be noted that on guns with “Series 80″ type hammers, the hammer will fall from half-cock when the trigger is pulled. This would include guns from Springfield Armory and modern production Colts. But, if you happen to be a south paw and find yourself in the jungle with a G.I. M1911A1 and surrounded by enemy troops, the half-cock might be an option.
But here's the pertinent information from the FM 23-35 BASIC FIELD MANUAL -- AUTOMATIC PISTOL CALIBER .45 M1911 AND M1911A issued by the U. S. Army:
Excerpt from Chapter 1. Mechanical Training, Section IV/Functioning:
12. Method of Operation, pages 11-12:
b. If it is desired to make the pistol ready for instant use and for firing the maximum number of shots with the least possible delay, draw back the slide, insert a cartridge by hand into the chamber of the barrel, allow the slide to close, then lock the slide and the cocked hammer by pressing the safety lock upward and insert a loaded magazine. The slide and hammer being thus positively locked, the pistol may be carried safely at full cock and it is only necessary to press down the safety lock (which is located within easy reach of the thumb) when raising the pistol to the firing position.
Excerpts from Section VII/Individual Safety Precautions:
25. Rules for Safety:
I. In campaign, when early use of the pistol is not foreseen, it should be carried with a fully loaded magazine in the socket, chamber empty, hammer down. When early use of the pistol is probable, it should be carried loaded and locked in the holster or hand. In campaign, extra magazines should be carried fully loaded.
26. Tests:
c. Half-cock notch. -- Draw back the hammer until the sear engages the half-cock notch and squeeze the trigger. If the hammer falls, the hammer or sear must be replaced or repaired. Draw the hammer back nearly to full cock and then let it slip. It should fall only to half cock.
Excerpt from Chapter 2. Manual of the Pistol, Loading and Firing, ...:
Section II. Dismounted
33. To LOAD PISTOL.--The commands are: 1. LOAD, 2. PISTOL.
At the command PISTOL, if a loaded magazine is not already in the pistol, insert one. Without lowering the right hand, turn the barrel slightly to the left. Grasp the slide with the thumb and fingers of the left hand (thumb on right side of slide and pointing upward). Pull the slide downward to its full extent (fig. 6). Release the slide and engage the safety lock.
---- (This command, therefore, leaves the pistol in Ready Condition 1, ready for reholstering and transport, prepared for immediate service. Note that in the Manual, there is no command for ever carrying the pistol with the hammer in the half-cock state. There is no Readiness Condition employing half-cock as a component of readiness. Only Conditions 1, 3, and 4 are covered by the command repertoire.)
In the above, it is my emphases that are in bold-face. I remember quite clearly from my Army familiarization classes with this pistol that we were never to leave the pistol in the half-cocked state lest the safeness of this feature be compromised, nor the sear face step of the hammer be unsafely marred (which your continual half-cock carry is almost certainly to eventually do); nor is the thumb safety lever fully engaged.
Since apparently you were not about to give my suggestion a serious consideration, I just hope you can bear the thought that it is your welfare and safeness in view here. My comment before was not "in-your-face." This is in-your-face.
But ... this is a free country. Think or do as you please.
Respectfully ---
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