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RiverRat wrote:Ok. Hate to admit it, but after carrying Colts in my Mtac for the last couple of years, my new STI Guardian has come off safe three times this week. Back to the Defender or Commander. I can't have that happening.

It has happened to me with an MTAC, a Galco Royal Guard, a D.M. Bullard IWB, and a Galco Concealable Belt Holster and with both 3" and 5" 1911s. I've since made it a habit to discreetly check by feeling through my shirt if safety is on or off. If off, I switch it on. I do this when there is little or no chance of being observed doing it... ...like when sitting in my car, or in a restroom.

But neither do I worry about it. The gun can't go off by itself. There are three mechanical safeties involved; four if you count the firing pin block on the Kimber; and five if you count the one between my ears. (My Springfield covers the "need" for a firing pin block by using a light titanium firing pin and a heavy firing pin spring.) If I am drawing the gun for realz, the safety is coming off anyway; and if I am drawing it to put it away, part of the drill is good trigger discipline and making sure the pistol is safed when I handle it.

I've always attributed the issue to the fact that, as a left handed shooter, I require a 1911 with an ambidextrous safety. Thus, the "offside" safety, on the left side of the frame, is able to be affected by whatever I bump into during the day — such as the edge of my car seat when entering/exiting the vehicle, the arm of a chair, etc. In fact it has happened when I was carrying a USP Compact with an ambidextrous safety on it, in a Galco Summer Comfort, and MTAC, and a Desantis Speed Scabbard.

I would be curious to know how many right handed shooters who are having this same issue also have ambidextrous safeties on their guns? Someday, when I've won the government giveaway lottery and Obama sends me gozillions of your dollars ( ), I will buy myself a purely left handed, "mirror image" 1911. They are hard to find and pricey, but they're out there. I know somebody who has one.

It has happened to me with my Kimber Ultra a few times, in different holsters, both IWB and OWB, and I've only discovered it when unholstering for the day.

There's still a couple of other safeties in play, not counting the one between my ears, so I don't worry too much about it. But if I'm carrying on my hip, I will often reach down now and check that the thumb safety is engaged before opening my car door and getting out. I think that's where it is getting disengaged, because I can't figure out how else it could happen except for when I'm getting in or out of a car. I'm left handed, and I think that as I swing my legs out of the driver's seat to exit, I must be getting the thumb safety snapped off as it catches briefly on the side of my seat.

Again, I don't worry to much about it when I see it.