What is the best way to keep a semi-automatic pistol ready?

Question

I want to keep a Colt Defender 45 ready (for home protection)for long periods of time under my bed. I prefer to have it as "ready" as possible, but my decisions are loaded, but not chambered and loaded, chambered and ****** w/ thumb safety on. Does this also apply to carrying?

Answer 1

I agree with you! I want my gun ready if I ever need it. But let me share an experience I had once on duty with you. My partner and I received fight call one night about 9:30 pm . Dispatch advised that the caller advised there were approximately twenty subjects involved, all drunk! As I arrived on the scene there were three different fights going on in a ten foot radius, beer bottles being used and several subjects trying to stop the fight. As I reached the trunk of my patrol car my partner pulls in and tells me to Waite for him. We both get our Remington 870's from the trunk. I hear someone from the crowed say "Oh hell, they got shoot guns". The six who were fighting never stopped fighting until we walked toward them yelling "Get on the ground now" and simultaneously chambered double al buck shot in the Remington's. If you haven't heard this sound before, you need to. Not only did the six fighting hit the ground, everybody there hit the ground. The reason I wanted to share this story with you is to kinda give you the ideal of what a mental picture it gives the subject when hearing a round chambered before them. It shows your intent. Now, sometimes you want have that option. Better to be unlocked and loaded, as us officers say. Being that you are speaking of a home situation it's probably better to keep it unchambered. This also serves as a safty! Sorry about the long story but I believe you get the whole ideal now.

Answer 2

I'm not sure I follow your second sentence. I'll explain sort of what I believe you mean. First, where you insert the magazine into the gun, the only way for a round to move from the magazine to the chamber is -you- cause it. The slide is either open or closed, but the ammo in the mag (clip is slang in this usage, but it leads down the wrong path in this example because there is something called a clip, but it's different) and it takes a mechanical movement to transfer it there. Your other paragraph works better for this. Some pistols stay open on the last shot, but not all do. Basically all of them work that you insert a new, loaded magazine, get the slide in the forward position, and then you can fire. The difference I think you are seeing is some pistols lock back on an empty magazine and you only have to release it forward, and other pistols do not lock open on the last shot (making you draw the slide back and let it fly forward). (By the way, you always want to let the slide move forward untouched from the rear-most position. The spring and guides move the slide closed best without a hand offsetting the movement.) Usually it's the magazine follower (the insert inside the magazine that the bottom cartridge rests on) that activates the hold-open. It depends on how the gun was designed to function in the first place.

Answer 3

It depends on your training...

If you don't have a round chambered, then PRACTICE to make sure you can chamber a round when the ship hits the sand in the middle of the night.

I wouldn't put one under the mattress, just because it'll collect dirt. Get one of those lockboxes that open with the button combination lock. That way, it'll be safer (for you) and it'll stay cleaner.

Clean it monthly, and train AT LEAST monthly.

As far as carrying - assuming you have a ccw.... I would NOT carry it without a round chambered. If stuff happens, you need to be able to make a split-scond decision and don't want to be juggling around trying to chamber a round. Again, it all comes down to LOTS of training.

Calif Deputy

Answer 4

I dont keep mine chambered at home because i have kids and the safety is always on even when i carry it,I only carry when im collecting rent which is sometimes a lot of cash so its fully loaded and ready to be fired at that time..

Answer 5

don't chamber a round unless your going to be carrying it. You weapon might go off. Also you need to buy a few different magazines because if your going to be leavening it loaded all the time the rounds in the magazine will compress the springs. So every other week your going to need to change out your mags.

Answer 6

I'd keep it loaded with a round in the chamber but the hammer at rest.

Answer 7

This depends greatly on your level of training and whether or not you have kids in your home, etc.
If you are well trained, you can load/rack/aim/fire in less time than you'd think. and that action may give your head time to wake up in the middle of the night and calculate your best course of action.
I recommend storing the firearm with action open, magazine OUT. you can insert the mag and drop the slide release real fast, plus, that sound alone may keep you from having to use it.

Answer 8

Leave the rounds in the magazine...
Don't chamber a round......Not for you but in case someone happens on the firearm..

Also if you are going to keep it stored with an armed clip for a long time don't fill the clip completely. Leave it filled one less than capacity...
It doesn't happen often with modern firearms but sometimes storage with a full clip can weaken the spring in the clip

Answer 9

My thought: get a lockbox, leave the chamber empty.
'exercise' the magazine spring by going to the range every month - this also puts new ammo in place.
however you store it, practice with it.

Answer 10

I would say not chambered as well, if you must have it loaded.

I hope you won't have any inquisitive kids visiting either, by the way.