Do you carry your guns loaded?

[Alpo]

I mean fully loaded.

 

The other day I was reading the Sackett book Galloway, and Flagan (wonder why he named it Galloway when it's actually about Galloway's brother Flagan?) while unarmed was being hassled by these three or four guys on horseback, and he managed to get one of them's gun. So they all left. Then he checks the gun and it's only got three rounds in it. "Damn a man that doesn't reload!!"

 

Oookay

 

One of the Mike Hammer books - have no idea which one - he's being accused of shooting somebody and the cops believe that they have proof. There's only six rounds in his gun. He says that's all he ever carries. His friend Pat - chief of detectives or captain of homicide or some sort of big cop muckey muck anyway - agrees that all Mike ever carries in his gun is six rounds.

 

And when I first read that I wondered why in the world you carry an eight round pistol and only put 6 rounds in it? Or even if he was one of those strange people that didn't top off. Shove a 7 round magazine up the butt of that 1911 and jack one in the chamber. That's still having seven in the gun.

 

In one of the Honor Bound series, Enrico has to shoot the lock off the gate. Then he pops the magazine out of his Systema, pulls a loaded magazine out of his pocket and puts that up the gun, then takes some loose rounds out of another pocket and tops off the magazine. That makes sense. You don't carry partially emptied guns. At least I don't.

[Mud Marine,SASS#54686 Life]

I carry fully loaded.

[Eyesa Horg]

Full mag and one in the chamber, cocked and locked.

[Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619]

Five in the cylinder, hammer down on the empty chamber!

[Cypress Sun]

4 minutes ago, Eyesa Horg said:

Full mag and one in the chamber, cocked and locked.

 

For carry guns only...Same here if it's a semi-auto. For revolvers, fully loaded also. I won't carry a revolver with a hammer spur because they can't be safely carried, for the most part, when fully loaded.

[Eyesa Horg]

3 minutes ago, Cypress Sun said:

 

For carry guns only...Same here if it's a semi-auto. For revolvers, fully loaded also. I won't carry a revolver with a hammer spur because they can't be safely carried, for the most part, when fully loaded.

Ellie also carries a hammerless S&W stainless. No worries about the hammer snagging in her purse.

I used to carry a 5 shot 22mag deringer. Loaded fully as well, as the hammer drops between the cartridges. Feels way to small for today's world, so 9mm or 45 nowadays. Like American Express, never leave home without it!!

[Tennessee Trapper Tom]

Same as Eyesa Horg. Full Mag. One in the chamber with only the safety on. The more you have to do, the more your life or another is in danger. The only time I don’t carry is when I have to go on Fort KNox..Too big a pain in the arse to deal with. Could add up to an hour to your trip. ANd if you’re not safe there then we got problems. 

[Rye Miles #13621]

5 shot snubby loaded with a speedloader .

[John Kloehr]

1911 as a daily carry, currently an EMP.

 

Full mag, but one is in the chamber (not +1).

 

Two spare mags off-side.

 

As I need to periodically disarm, I find dealing with the +1 round annoying, Rather just eject it and put it back on top of the primary magazine.

[Rip Snorter]

Well, I carried a Model 19 for several years without incident. Currently 1911 fully loaded Condition 1.  The rare times I carry a High Power, Condition 1, with SAS doctrine on the mag fill.

[Old Man Graybeard]

Fully loaded. In the event that you need it…you won’t have time to rack a slide. Revolver is fully loaded if that is what I am carrying that day. Hammerless Smith

[Presidio]

34 minutes ago, Eyesa Horg said:

Full mag and one in the chamber, cocked and locked.

Yup.  No other plans than that for me 

[John Kloehr]

8 minutes ago, Rip Snorter said:

Well, I carried a Model 19 for several years without incident. Currently 1911 fully loaded Condition 1.  The rare times I carry a High Power, Condition 1, with SAS doctrine on the mag fill.

Have a 19-3 3" as a BBQ gun. It gets 6X.357 and 2 speed loaders off-side.

 

Very accurate for such a short sight radius.

 

If I were to ever rock one of my SAAs outside of the sport, it would only have 5, hammer down on the empty. Would consider a belt with ammo loops, but dang, will want some cover! Could carry both, I think this is called a NY reload.

[Texas Joker]

Hammer carries -2 so in a couple books when somebody gets the drop on him and takes his piece he doesn't get shot with his own gun.

 

If yer gonna carry carry loaded

[Cypress Sun]

45 minutes ago, Eyesa Horg said:

 Like American Express, never leave home without it!!

 

That's the same, exact term I use!

[Mud Marine,SASS#54686 Life]

Also two speed loaders.

:-)

 

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

Do you have a partially loaded fire extinguisher in your house?  I don't...and my guns are loaded when I'm carrying them.  Same principle.

[Pat Riot]

Anything I carry is fully loaded with backup loads (speedloaders, speed strips or magazines) Sometimes I carry two guns. Loaded of course. 

[Blackwater 53393]

Always!!

[Rooster Ron Wayne]

I own a full service repair company and carry cash everyday .

I carry a Pocket gun with full magazine with one in the pipe &  a extra Mag .

And a second hand gun in the service vehicle.

A  Keltec Sub2000 9mm Folded in half under the rear seat of my truck with two 30 round happy mags in the glove box at all times .

I'm in and out of 8 to 12 homes a day .

Some times with some shady characters .

You never know what I'm going to see on a daily basis. 

Rooster 

[Alpo]

1 hour ago, Texas Joker said:

Hammer carries -2 so in a couple books when somebody gets the drop on him and takes his piece he doesn't get shot with his own gun.

That would sort of make sense if he carried a revolver. The first two chambers up being empty. He carries a 1911. I don't see how only having sex in the eight round gun is going to prevent him from getting shot with his own gun.

 

But on the revolver thinking --- there was an episode of police story many many years back. Lloyd Bridges was the long time cop and Ryan O'Neill was his young partner. Lloyd told him to take the shell out of the first chamber up on his six inch (they both carried 6-inch pythons). Not the one under the hammer. The first one up. He said if you ever had to shoot somebody, just pull the trigger twice. Click pow. But if anybody ever got your gun and tried to shoot you, they pull the trigger and it would go click, and while they're sitting there trying to figure out why it didn't go bang "you shoot him with your 2 inch", pulling out his snub nose backup gun.

[Alpo]

The hell with it. If otto wants to have sex with Mike Hammer's 1911, more power to him.

[Buckshot Bear]

I haven't had a vasectomy. 

[Tennessee Trapper Tom]

I have three main CCWS that i change out depending on appropriate dress for the occasion. A Wilson Experior in 45acp with two mags. A Staccato C2 (9 mm). Also two mags. And a Kimber K6S, with two speedloaders.  Wife says I spend way too much money practicing on my range. I’m old, I’m slow, and practice is way more important to now than ever before. I also have 2 Sword canes. And yes I use and need them. I always carry some type of knife as well.  Thinking that if I could afford too I’d hire a local Martial Arts individual to learn moves for the disabled. Currently we have 2 ex special forces experts that offer this service, but it ain’t cheap

[bgavin]

On the hike today my Alaskan with transfer bar is fully loaded with six rounds of 44 mag, 240 grains of JFP.

 

[Sawhorse Kid]

There is no point to carrying a gun if it is not loaded.

 

[LawMan Mark, SASS #57095L]

Knew a cop who, in the days before security holsters were common, habitually carried a model 10 empty in his holster.  He also carried a model 12 snub in his left front pocket, fully loaded.  His plan was that if someone grabbed his model 10 from the holster (it did have a over the hammer strap), he was going to left hand draw the model 12 and give them all six.  

 

Nobody he knew thought it was a good plan, but for the 10 plus years he was in LE, that's what he did.  

[Cypress Sun]

1 hour ago, Sawhorse Kid said:

There is no point to carrying a gun if it is not loaded.

 

 

Sure there is...rocks don't fit well in holsters.

 

Even Superman ducks out of the way of a thrown gun.

[Alpo]

2 hours ago, LawMan Mark, SASS #57095L said:

Knew a cop who, in the days before security holsters were common, habitually carried a model 10 empty in his holster.  He also carried a model 12 snub in his left front pocket, fully loaded.  His plan was that if someone grabbed his model 10 from the holster (it did have a over the hammer strap), he was going to left hand draw the model 12 and give them all six.  

 

Nobody he knew thought it was a good plan, but for the 10 plus years he was in LE, that's what he did.  

I've heard something similar. Skeeter Skelton? Maybe.

 

The article was, I believe, on having your gun snatched. The cop was left-handed. Carried an empty gun in his holster on his right side, and a snubby in the hand warmer pocket of his jacket on the left. If he was in a spot where it might be likely that someone would try to snatch his gun, he would be holding on to the left hand gun in the pocket.

[Alpo]

3 hours ago, Sawhorse Kid said:

There is no point to carrying a gun if it is not loaded.

 

The question was not about carrying an empty gun.

 

The question was about carrying a gun that was not fully loaded.

 

One of the Sherlock Holmes stories, he's going to a dangerous area so he takes his revolver along. And just before he goes into that section of town he opens his revolver and loads two rounds into it.

 

Why in the world would anyone only load two rounds into a five or six shot gun?

 

Fully loaded, and topping off after you fired a round or two, just makes so much more sense to me.

[LawMan Mark, SASS #57095L]

42 minutes ago, Alpo said:

I've heard something similar. Skeeter Skelton? Maybe.

 

The article was, I believe, on having your gun snatched. The cop was left-handed. Carried an empty gun in his holster on his right side, and a snubby in the hand warmer pocket of his jacket on the left. If he was in a spot where it might be likely that someone would try to snatch his gun, he would be holding on to the left hand gun in the pocket.

Could have been that my acquaintance copied something he read.  But he sure enough did it that way.  

[Alpo]

I wasn't doubting you. Maybe your friend wasn't the only idiot out there.

[Gateway Kid SASS# 70038 Life]

A cop friend once told me that leaving the chamber empty, expecting to rack it in a stressful situation is like not wearing a seatbelt and expecting to buckle up in the split second before impact if you have an accident. 
I carry chambered and topped off. 
Regards

    
Gateway Kid

[Lawdog Dago Dom]

4 hours ago, LawMan Mark, SASS #57095L said:

Knew a cop who, in the days before security holsters were common, habitually carried a model 10 empty in his holster.  He also carried a model 12 snub in his left front pocket, fully loaded.  His plan was that if someone grabbed his model 10 from the holster (it did have a over the hammer strap), he was going to left hand draw the model 12 and give them all six.  

 

Nobody he knew thought it was a good plan, but for the 10 plus years he was in LE, that's what he did.  

A similar take on that was when we were issued S&W 5904s with the safety/decocker lever. Some carried with the safety on, but they had to practice flicking that lever on a draw. There was a story of a LEO being disarmed with his 5904 on safe. The crook saw the red dot and realized he had to move the lever. After that story broke, many blacked out the red dot and instead painted the mag release red. Gun won't fire without a mag.

[Alpo]

Story I read years back.

 

Illinois State Police was the first agency to issue the Smith & Wesson Model 39 9mm pistol. One trooper was disarmed by a bad guy.

 

The bad guy pointed the gun at him and pulled the trigger, but since the safety was on nothing happened.

 

The bad guy went fumbling around looking for the safety and pushed the magazine release. Again he pulled the trigger and again nothing happened.

 

He fumbled around some more and finally found the safety and pushed it off. But since Smith and Wesson double actions have a magazine disconnect, and the magazine was lying on the ground, when he, for the third time, attempted to shoot the trooper, it still wouldn't fire.

 

All this gave the trooper enough time to pull out his stick and go upside the bad guy's head.