Thumb Safety

[twobisquit]

My SR1911 Commander's extended thumb safety will click to the fire position while using a Bianchi thumbsnap holster. A Galco holster is not quite as bad I do not seem to have the problem with my Colt that has a shorter and much stiffer thumb safety

Does anyone else have this problem with thumb break holsters?

 

[LaneP]

I bought an El Paso Saddlery leather thumb break holster that does the same thing. When the pistol is in the holster with the leather thumb snap engaged, there is no need to have the thumb safety engaged because you have a positive barrier between the hammer and firing pin which already renders the pistol completely safe during carry.

I suspect this is by design. In order to draw you have to use your strong hand thumb to break the thumb snap and you probably don't want to add the need to disengage the thumb safety in addition when it really isn't needed in that particular carry configuration.

If you are carrying your 1911 in a holster that uses a thumb break retainer which interposes leather between the firing pin and hammer, I'd leave the thumb safety off anyway.

 

[DGW1949]

It's not so much that there's a problem with thumb break holsters, otherwize the cops wouldn't have been using them for all of these years. The problem is that an extended safety is more easily moved to the off position than a "regular" 1911 or 1911A1 safety. Depending on the exact holster, it's cant and where it's worn in relation to the gun belt, sometimes all it takes is to get into and out of a car a couple of times.
I've also had a strap-retention holster do the same thing.....just sayin'.

DGW

 

[eveled]

It seems to me the most dangerous time is when holstering. If the thumb safety were left off, and pushing it into the holster the strap got lodged in the trigger and you were pushing on the grip safety, bang.

Once the gun is holstered if the thumb safety gets bumped off, the gun can't shoot without pushing the grip safety and the trigger. Which aren't going to happen once in the holster, or when drawing. As long as you keep your finger off the trigger until ready to shoot.

As scary as it is for some to carry locked and loaded at first. You gradually realize how safe the 1911 really is.

 

[Pat-inCO]

Scrap the holster, get a level 3 retention and your problem is solved.

 

[DGW1949]

Scrap the holster, get a level 3 retention and your problem is solved.

Or if ya like the holster, exchange the extended safety for a 1911A1 safety which BTW, is just as easy for most people to use....and a lot less likely to get bumped into the fire position.

Raise the bridge or lower the river....same result....just sayin'.

DGW

 

[1911Tuner]

It seems to me the most dangerous time is when holstering.

And that's precisely why the US Cavalry requested the manual safety way back in 1910 as the final change.

Although it's a little unnerving to discover at the end of the day that your pistol has been in Condition Zero for an unknown span of time, it's not as fraught with danger as some would have you believe.

The pistol still has to be held in a firing grip before the trigger can be pulled, and the trigger still has to be pulled in order to release the hammer.

Carry a cocked, unloaded 1911 every day for a month with the safety in the go-bang position. Leave it in that condition 24/7 for the entire month. At the end of the test, the hammer will still be cocked.

 

[twobisquit]

I'm a revolver guy that made the move to a 1911 about 15 years ago and back then it took quite a while to get used to the idea of cocked and locked. It sounds like I need to get my head around the idea of condition zero.

 

[1911Tuner]

It sounds like I need to get my head around the idea of condition zero.

You might start by understanding that the 1911 was never intended to be continuously maintained in Condition One. "Cocked and locked, the way JMB intended!" is a myth.

The manual, slide locking safety...aka "Thumb Safety" was put there so that a mounted trooper could quickly make a cocked pistol safe for hasty reholstering when he was trying to hang onto a frightened horse...not so that the pistol could be carried cocked and locked.

Browning's first 8 submissions...one of which is pictured below...didn't have that thumb safety. He intended for the half cock to be the safety position, and redesigned the grip safety to allow the hammer to be lowered to the half cock with one hand. The Cavalry made its request for the manual safety...the pistols were returned...six of the eight were refitted with the manual safeties and resubmitted...and the rest is history.

1910 Colt courtesy of Charles W. Clawson.

 

[Brian48]

Scrap the holster, get a level 3 retention and your problem is solved.

Or if ya like the holster, exchange the extended safety for a 1911A1 safety which BTW, is just as easy for most people to use....and a lot less likely to get bumped into the fire position.

Raise the bridge or lower the river....same result....just sayin'.

DGW

+1

 

[HIVO]

Brian48, If you don't mind where did you get the GI safety? And also was it already black or did you have to finish it? Thanks
HIVO

 

[Brian48]

I already had the thumb safety laying around in my bin of misc 1911 parts. It came off an old custom build I had one time put together. It might have originally come of a GI gun, but I recall refinishing it allong with the Essex frame I had about 20 years ago.

 

[MountainWalker]

I have gotten mine here, just have to back order and wait. http://www.midwayusa.com/product/467288/colt-thumb-safety-1911-matte-blue?cm_vc=wishList

 

[edlmann]

I have gotten mine here, just have to back order and wait. http://www.midwayusa.com/product/467288/colt-thumb-safety-1911-matte-blue?cm_vc=wishList

I think this is the same thing, in stock, at Numrich. FWIW, Brownells says Colt-made safeties are discontinued.

 

[MountainWalker]

I have gotten mine here, just have to back order and wait. http://www.midwayusa.com/product/467288/colt-thumb-safety-1911-matte-blue?cm_vc=wishList

I think this is the same thing, in stock, at Numrich. FWIW, Brownells says Colt-made safeties are discontinued.

I know for a fact that Colt is making and selling current 1911 Gov'ts and commanders with this same GI Thumb Safety as they have for many years. Perhaps Brownells is saying that the source for the "Colt" Thumb Safeties has become unreliable and supplies are sporadic so they dropped them from the Brownells catalog.

I don't think that Larry Potterfield at Midway would be telling a direct lie.....these are most likely just as stated in Midway description. They could be made by Colt MFG. or a part from another manufacturer to Colt's specs. Midway has them available infrequently, and in small numbers so a person has to order soon after getting e-mail notification.

 

[edlmann]

I have gotten mine here, just have to back order and wait. http://www.midwayusa.com/product/467288/colt-thumb-safety-1911-matte-blue?cm_vc=wishList

I think this is the same thing, in stock, at Numrich. FWIW, Brownells says Colt-made safeties are discontinued.

Colt is making and selling current 1911 Gov'ts and commanders with this same GI Thumb Safety as they have for many years.

Actually, Colt's current design is more aesthetically pleasing to my eye. The old GI safety, ca. 1945, just as Brian48 posted, is more like the crudely drawn example on the right below:

 

[MountainWalker]

Edlmann: You are quite correct. I was thinking of the upgraded thumb safety used on post WWII Colts shown as the left image in your nice big picture. I really don't think the old GI safety was nearly so good for actual use. While at Gunsite, we were trained to put the thumb on top of the thumb safety to assure it was in fire position as the sights came up on target. IMO this plain government style(left image) is perfect and actually superior to the gas pedal safeties that are so popular today.

 

[1911Tuner]

As a point of interest...

Even though the "bad, old" USGI-type safety has fallen into disfavor with the speed crowd, there was actually a very good reason for that small pad.

It left a flat area directly over the crosspin, allowing the end of the slide (with the bushing in place) to use as a "hammer" to tap the mainspring housing pin out of the frame.

The 1911 is its own tool box, and the thumb safety is the key that opens it. While being able to disassemble the pistol without tools may not be an important consideration for most, it's nice to know it's there. Better to have and not need than need and not have. That's why all my 1911-pattern pistols have USGI thumb safeties. I actually find that I'm less likely to have my thumb slip one in a hurry than the "fine, new" Colt teardrop design.

 

[edlmann]

IMO this plain government style(left image) is perfect and actually superior to the gas pedal safeties that are so popular today.

My hands aren't especially large (width) but the bones are long. My left hand is an XXL and the right hand is at least XXXL - I've never found a glove that fits. Consequently, I prefer a longer safety for comfortable operation - not necessarily very wide.