JohndeFresno wrote:Poly guns have gotten a lot of attention, but why do we still hear of them blowing up? Whether it's the reloader to blame or whatever, in the words of a well known politician, "Does it really matter?" Not too many reports on 1911's exploding.
Which polymer guns? A lot of polymer guns are very strong. A lot of Glocks have been blown up by improper loads, shooting lead bullets excessively in the factory barrels, out-of-battery fire (often due to improper reloads, etc. Most are .40 S&W.
Others have very little record of blowing up. I bought a used .40 S&W SA XD years ago and grabbed some Federal HP ammo on the way to the range that night to try it out. I noticed that recoil was very inconsistent and accuracy was terrible with the first couple shots, and then recoil was even more inconsistent and it shot way high at 25 meters. I started stopped shooting and ejected the cartridge in the chamber and the bullet was set back so far that the tip barely extended past the case mouth. I manually cycled it and all the bullets were set back after chambering, with about one out of three severely set back. By pushing with my hand, I could cause bullets to set back a little. If you look at the numbers Glock gives from their testing for the amount pressures increase from just a little set back, I can't imagine how high the pressures were in some of those cartridges I shot. According to the information from the testing, bullets set back less than these would likely have caused a Gock to come apart, yet the XD had no noticeable damage.
I spoke with one of the gunsmiths from Springfield Armory about this, and he said that most of the pistols returned for repairs are due to improper reloads, generally bulged barrels from a squib round fired in front of a full-power load. He said that every week they receive 1911s or XDs back that have bulged barrels from a squib load, often with damage resulting from someone beating the bullets out of the barrels, and often showing evidence of multiple rounds fired behind the squib. That the XD and the 1911 can usually handle this kind of abuse without injuring the shooters shows that both are strong designs.
I have seen plenty of photos of blown-up 1911s, by the way, they just blow up in a safer way than Glocks do - magazines blow out and break your foot and grip panels shatter and embed in your palm, which is better than having a mangled trigger finger.
JohndeFresno wrote:I prefer to carry a concealed handgun that has the safety on some place besides the trigger. That never made sense to me. Drawing in the heat of the moment, possibly getting snagged by a shirt...brrr.
Drawing under stress is the place where you are most likely to get your finger n the trigger too soon and cause an ND.
Re-holstering is where you can really get in trouble with a Glock-style trigger - your shirt, the little stupid drawstrings on your jacket, your finger, part of your cheap holster - all kinds of stuff can get in the trigger guard and cause a round to slam through your thigh.
This is why I like the grip safety on the XD, XDm, and XDs, manual safety on a SA auto, or a de-cocked DA auto. In each of these cases, when re-holstering correctly with the thumb behind the slide, there is something in place to prevent a discharge if something ends up in the trigger guard. With none of the above, you are just hoping you notice resistance before the trigger moves to far.
This is also why we do not teach speed re-holstering. I see no reason for it. If I have to deal with a threat, my pistol will be in my hand until I am totally sure that the threat is gone and that he does not have any buddies that are going to show up unexpectedly. Then, once things are calm, I can carefully re-holster. Or if the police are showing up, the pistol can go on the ground, I don't care. But I think it is poor practice for all these instructors to teach speed-re-holstering, especially since a lot of them teach that it should be done to prevent problems with responding police. The result is that is is not only likely that a shooter will have an ND from shoving the pistol back into his holster, it is also likely that someone trained this way will drop a threat, take a quick glance around, and automatically re-holster without ensuring the threat is no longer a threat or that there are no other threats in the area, and on top of that, police officers will likely resound differently to someone who has put a pistol on the ground and is responding calmly to their arrival than to so m guy desperately trying to shove his pistol into his pants.
JohndeFresno wrote:A flat, powerful 1911 still fills the bill for me. It's a bit heavy, but a tight belt or suspenders can take care of that.
I don't carry a 1911, but I do test holsters all the time. I find that even a full-size 1911 is not so heavy, pretty slim, conceals nicely, and carries comfortably. Weight adds up quickly in double-stack mags, so the weights tend to balance out between the polymer double-stacks and the steel single-stacks.