Lano wrote:I know the OP stated no strikers. (Can't imagine why tho) I am a recent Kahr CM9 owner. Fantastic pocket gun in 9mm. You owe it to yourself to at least look at one. Note: The CM9 can be had very reasonable compared to other Kahrs. It is a great little gun with no external safety and no magazine disconnect.
Lano,
Thanks for taking the time to refocus this discussion on my original post. To be honest, I've seen enough 'off my spec' responses here that I've stopped checking this post except every couple of days.
Let me help explain my preferences...
For my first year or so of CHL carry, I carried a Glock 36. It was a GREAT gun, and I loved shooting it. It felt great in the hands, and I had good grouping with it. However, unlike a lot of CHL holders, I can't just 'strap it on and keep it on all day'. I have to holster and un-holster far too many times during the day (e.g. visiting clients in 30.06 posted buildings, dropping off or picking up my daughter at school), so my Glock was going in and out of the holster too often. Now, given that I carry IWB, and given that I'm a bit bigger around the middle than a lot of folks, this was not a trivial exercise. Sitting in the car, hiding the gun from the other parents picking up and dropping off, holstering discretely in the car, and I was concerned with the inevitable: shirt tail or something else gets caught in front of the trigger while holstering, causing an ND.
Would it happen today? Tomorrow? Probably not, but after doing it hundreds of times, the probability of occurrence increased beyond my level of tolerance. The problem was that there is no feedback mechanism telling me that something's going wrong (except for the big bang into my leg, seat, and/or floorboard).
So, I switched from the Glock to my SP2022. It's DA/SA, so I had two additional safety steps that I could add while holstering:
- I can slide my index finger behind the trigger during the first part of the holstering, so I can feel immediately if something is pushing on the trigger. This was not an option with the Glock, since the trigger was so far back.
- During the second half of the holstering (after the barrel has found its glide path), I can remove the finger, and feel the back of the exposed hammer with the webbing of my thumb, once again giving me tactile feedback if something is amiss.
Am I paranoid? No, not really, but I do like the additional level of safety that these two steps provide.
So how about a safety? I don't know if they make strikers with safetys, but if so, why not get one?
Nope, not going to happen. A (spinal) neck injury left me with pretty severe nerve damage in most of my right thumb. I simply cannot feel a safety lever at all, unless I press hard enough to hurt (imagine pressing hard if your hand had gone to sleep - eventually it hurts so bad that you feel it - that's my thumb all day, every day). So, I cannot feel if a safety is on or off, and I cannot flip it off (or confirm that I did it properly). Safeties are out. Not going to have one on my carry gun.
So now I carry the SP2022. 18 rounds inside (I use a +2 extension on the 15-round mag), no safety at all, and DA/SA. For me, it's a perfect fit, but there are times I'd like to carry a smaller gun. Even if I didn't have the challenges I mentioned above, I'd still like the little gun to have similar architecture and function as my 2022. Sure, other guns might be good to have in the safe, and for 'fun' shooting, but if I'm going to depend on it for my life and my family's life, I'm going to stick with the same type of draw. Muscle memory is a great thing.
So for me, no strikers, no safeties, no 1911's, etc. Simply put, I want a smaller version of what I carry every day. Perhaps I'm narrow-minded, but I'm patient enough to wait it out, and the exceptional folks on this board are sure to help point me in a good direction.
