Love Chris's videos. Why do they need a safety? I thought 1911s were carried without one in the chamber. And the 92 was carried with one in the chamber but decocked. What role does the safety play in the 1911, 92 or the p320 in battle?

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Originally posted by whisky22:
Love Chris's videos. Why do they need a safety? I thought 1911s were carried without one in the chamber. And the 92 was carried with one in the chamber but decocked. What role does the safety play in the 1911, 92 or the p320 in battle?

In a combat theatre, certain security areas or MPs on patrol you carry with one in chamber on safe. I don't recall the current doctrinal term, but at one point my unit used green (empty, on safe), Amber (magazine in, on safe) and Red (round in chamber, on safe). You went Red when you were leaving the secure perimeter or where in a tower/on a post.

The manual safety is good for preventing a discharge if some thing gets caught in your trigger guard (happens in thick underbrush, or if you have a ton of things on your armor), you get blown up or fall, or if you have individuals that don't have the best of trigger discipline or if they try and catch a dropped weapon. (There is a reason Gen Petraeus only has one lung).

I'm not old enough to have seen the GPF issued 1911s, but the few I saw in theatre were carried Cocked and locked.

I'll also point out that I can burn more rounds in a weekend carbine or pistol course then I'll see for Army training for the year. Different MOS get more ammo, but it's still not as much as I would like. Thusly, we aren't as proficient with our weapons as I would like us to be.

As an Army M.P. in Honduras in the early 80's the powers that be thought 6 rounds for the 1911 and ten rounds for the M16 sufficed, both with no round in the chamber. Fortunately the arms room was ran by an Air Force E7, he said once we left that front gate we were on our own, he made sure we had five loaded mags for the 1911, 7 loaded 30 round mags for the M16, if you had a mounted M60 he made sure we took two cans with us, locked and loaded and prepared for the worst, do you want extra? grab a couple of boxes.

quote:

Originally posted by CD228:

quote:

Originally posted by whisky22:
Love Chris's videos. Why do they need a safety? I thought 1911s were carried without one in the chamber. And the 92 was carried with one in the chamber but decocked. What role does the safety play in the 1911, 92 or the p320 in battle?

………….

I'm not old enough to have seen the GPF issued 1911s, but the few I saw in theatre were carried Cocked and locked.

I'll also point out that I can burn more rounds in a weekend carbine or pistol course then I'll see for Army training for the year. Different MOS get more ammo, but it's still not as much as I would like. Thusly, we aren't as proficient with our weapons as I would like us to be.

THIS. I’m an old Marine. I fought in Nam in ‘69-70. I was a plt cmdr. Up north against the Z I carried a 1911 with one in the chamber, cocked and locked. When I came back from the hospital, I was in the Danang area, and did the same. I had a joint Marine/PF unit so spent a lot of time in a jeep going from one unit to the next. Same armament until my Captain saw me going through the wire and unloading my 1911. He then demanded I carry empty. I quit carrying the 1911 (until we got rid of that fool) and instead carried 2 M26 grenades, figuring he couldn’t ask me to “unload” those puppies. But I never carried my 1911’s except cocked and locked.

Owning both, I have to say I prefer the M9. However, I do really like the Romeo M17 optic. The Army made some weird choices with the MHS program. One of the most notable is they say it was always intended for an optic but the holsters Safariland produced only fit the PAIL and no optic. I'm not an M17 hater, but I think they should have gone with a Glock (which I prefer over both the M17 and Beretta)