TexasCajun wrote:Count me as one of the "one in the pipe" crowd. And I don't care if anyone believes me. I know I do & God forbid I have to use my gun, the attacker would know that it's true.
One other reason to carry a full load is that it gives you an extra round (17+1 in most full-size 9mm, 15+1 in most full-size .40 s&w, 8+1 in most full-size .45 acp). Why give up any advantage of you don't have to.
YouTube unintentional discharge, non intentional discharge, accidental discharge, etc. The overwhelming majority involve putting a finger or some other object on the trigger. I've spent hours on the site and have yet to see an incident where a discharge happened without trigger contact.
Also, I tend toward semi-autos without external safeties.
And last, I have no delusions about my abilities in a high stress situation. Adding a slide-rack to my equation is a recipe for disaster. I'm not willing to put me or my family at that kind of risk.
Confession time: I didn't carry chambered for
the first couple of months after I did start carrying.
My excuses:
1. I didn't get my CHL to carry daily. I got it because I wanted to be able to take a pistol along
in our RV. I didn't start carrying daily for a couple of months.
2. For
the first number of weeks after I started carrying daily, it seemed that I was disarming every time that I turned around, multiple times a day. At first, I didn't practice re-holstering at home. It was nerve wracking putting
the gun back into
the holster
in public (I used a towel to cover
the operation) I was worried about what to do with
the gun when I left it
in the car and more worried about getting it back on me.
3. I'm a fumble fingers. I often drop tools when I'm trying to use them. I was afraid that I would do
the same thing with
the gun and instinctively try to grab it on
the way down.
4. I was dry firing a lot
in the beginning, trying to get over
the long trigger on
the Sig. That mean that I was loading and unloading
the gun a lot, too.
I did a lot of reading and soul searching. I knew that carrying with one
in the pipe was necessary. Finally, I just picked a day, chambered a round and never looked back. I've figured things out so that I rarely have to disarm now. I bought another holster and keep it with me
in the car. If I do have to disarm, I move
the gun from
the holster on me to
the spare one so that
the trigger is only uncovered or a second or two.
The extra holster has a retention strap so I'm not worried about
the gun falling out or my getting my fingers where they shouldn't be . I've taught myself to block out all distractions as soon as I have to move
the pistol so that I'm concentrating only on that movement. I hope that will continue to allow me to keep my fingers only where they are supposed to be.
Several "almost" situations have confirmed for me how quickly something bad can happen and that it comes from nowhere even though I go to great lengths to stay out of condition white. My reaction time is not what it once was and I cannot afford to give away any more time
in responding to a threat. I can rack
the slide fairly fast
in my malfunction drills but I don't want to depend on my ability to do that to get my first shot off
in an emergency.
And yes, I keep one chambered too.
