The number 1 reason to never to use a 'smart carry' style holster....

[Big_Dave]

:yikes:

A first person account of the worst case scenario imaginable.....accidental discharge of your carry firearm. :wow:

http://thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=393304


Three holes in the wedding tackle and he'll never answer to "lefty" again... :rofl2[1]:

OWB at the 4 o'clock position works really well for me. ;) :ninja: Worst comes to worst, my wallet or butt cheek ends up with a hole in it. :duh2[1]:

[Bookworm]

Thats one reason I use either a shoulder holster or carry high on the rt hip

Dave

[The_Governor]

I'm kind of partial to the way Tuco(Eli Wallach) carried his side arm in The Good,The Bad,And The Ugly...................a piece of rawhide attached to the pistol and tied around his neck:rofl2[1]:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKfZ_vLdyBE

And my favorite scene:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUslGSoEH8I&feature=related

[acorn]

I have an actual Smart Carry holster, not some cheap knock off and I use it with my Glock 22 with no problems. It is heavier and thicker than the knockoff and even trying you can't get enough leverage into it to make it fire.

Guess the 15$ he saved didn't pay off.

JMHO

[McGee]

:23_50_5:...I like my tooled leather belt ...that rides on my hips...yep the holster ties to my leg....great for my S&W .357....:rofl2[1]:

[Rockjockey]

One good piece of advice that my gun dealer gave me long ago was don't carry cocked and locked. He had one of his customers shoot himself in the butt doing that. As he pointed out, with a little practice it is easy to cock the gun as you are pulling it, but hard for most guns to cock themselves. Keeping the safety off and cocking the gun as you pull it is a lot safer than cocked and locked.

[Big_Dave]

An M1911A1 (what I have), is made to be carried in 'Condition 1'.

Here's an interesting article about carrying 'cocked & locked'.
What do we mean by “cocked and locked”? The M1911 pistol is loaded by inserting a charged magazine and racking the slide. This action chambers a cartridge and cocks the hammer of the pistol. The thumb safety is then pushed up toward the sight. This “locks” the pistol. The safety is on and the slide will not move. Inside the gun, a piece of the safety rotates (red area in diagram) and blocks the base of the sear which prevents the sear from releasing the hammer. If the sear hook on the hammer were to break, the sear would be captured by the half-cock notch preventing an accidental discharge. The stud that locks the sear will also not allow the hammer to fall if the safety is engaged. But what about the cocked and locked pistol taking a hard hit on the hammer? Could it go off then? Listen to this report from Terry Erwin: "About ten years ago, I was working as an armed-plain clothed-security officer. During a struggle with an arrested subject the Combat Commander I was carrying cocked and locked, holstered in a Bianchi "Pancake" on my strong side hip, struck the center door jam of a set of double doors. The center door jam was knocked loose, and two belt loops were torn off of my jeans. The hammer was bent inward and the safety would not move. A gunsmith had to press out the safety, hammer pin, and sear pin. The edge of the sear had cracked off, and a piece of one hammer hook also cracked off. The gun did not discharge upon that impact. I have carried several Colt's, including that repaired Commander for most of my adult life, and have never once worried about the weapon (myself or someone else is a different story, but not the gun)."
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. (For more discussion on the conditions see “The Conditions of Readiness” (http://www.sightm1911.com/Care/1911_conditions.htm)) If you are only using the gun for home defense, there is nothing wrong with leaving it in condition 3 with a loaded magazine but with an empty chamber – as long as you have the presence of mind to load the weapon under stress. (Don't give me a "duh" on that one because weird things happen to one's mind when someone is trying to get into your house at 3 AM).http://www.sightm1911.com/lib/tech/cockedandlocked.htm

[Rockjockey]

I have to disagree with his assessment of condition two, if the person knows what he is doing. I carried my Colt Mustang Lite .380 for two years in condition two status with no problem. I loaded it every night and never had an accidental discharge. I did have an accidental discharge with the gun in the cocked and locked position (I also had fun explaining to the boss the next morning that I shot his truck). I'll stick with condition two.