Locked and Cocked for how long?

[1911A1 fan]

After getting home from work, in instead of clearing my 1911 I will just leave the gun in the IWB holster and put it in the gun safe. Is this hard on the main spring ? How long can I should I be able to leave it like this with no undue wear? I shoot once a week with my carry gun, so its never left locked and cocked for more than seven days.

[Inspector Callahan]

At the risk of sounding like an old fuddy-duddy, it is not a recommended practice to store a pistol in a leather holster. Not to mention the fact that storing loaded guns in your gunsafe probably violates some kind of safety rules as well.

Let's be careful out there folks.

[1911A1 fan]

The house gun rules are that #1, every gun is loaded. #2 if it's in a holster it IS loaded!

[James K]

How long can the mainspring stay compressed? I keep a GI .45 on C&L and have done so for about ten years with no noticeable loss of mainspring strength. Of course with the el-cheapo (but often expensive) clones, who knows? They cheap out on everything else (see the thread on extractors above), so maybe their springs are cheap too.

Anyway, you should be practicing with the gun at least once a month and have plenty of time to notice any reduction in hammer fall or spring strength.

Jim

[C.R.Sam]

Spring compressed within it's design parameters...
Made of the proper material.....
Of proper size AND surface finish......
Of proper design for the job.

Will retain it's strength far longer than you.

Milspec springs meet the above criteria.

As Jim says......beware the after market stuff.

Sam

[Jim V]

And JMB designed the main or hammer spring to have some fudge factor in its power.

[jmlv]

that has been cocked & locked since 1929. The gun was found by relatives after the owners death I beleave. Col Cooper reports the gun was testfired with its origional ammo - both gun and ammo worked just fine. Thats a John Browning design for you. Darn things seem to work forever if you take care of them.

[sistema_colt]

And then there is the firefighter's perspective - SAAMI put out a great article on the safety of ammunition in a structure fire. Sure stored ammo cooks off, but it just goes pop, and nothing goes flying that a set of turnout gear won't protect you from - that's for ammo in a magazine or ammo in a box - now, if you have a round chambered, when it cooks off it leaves the barrel with at least the velocity that it was designed to have when it was fired intentionally.

I'm with Inspector Callahan on this one - if it is your only carry gun and you never leave it unattended, go ahead and keep it in condition one, but if there is a chance that it could be left in a house fire, please don't leave a round chambered - safety dictates a move to condition three.

Obviously this is just my opinion - but I don't leave the top cylinder of my revolvers loaded in the bedside lock-box for this very reason.

SC

[Gewehr98]

for about 10 years now, and if it isn't on my person in a remake of a Milt Sparks Summer Special (leather) then it's in the top drawer of the nightstand in aforementioned (leather) holster. I take it out to the range about once a quarter to run the carry ammo through the magazine. No hiccups to date.

[M1911]

Sistema colt said:

I'm with Inspector Callahan on this one - if it is your only carry gun and you never leave it unattended, go ahead and keep it in condition one, but if there is a chance that it could be left in a house fire, please don't leave a round chambered - safety dictates a move to condition three.

So, what you're worried about is 1) if there is a fire and 2) if it is hot enough to cook off a round and 3) if someone happens to be downrange of that round, that then someone could get hurt. That's a lot of iffs in my book.

Frankly, I think there's a whole lot more risk of an AD by 1) loading and unloading the chamber each day and 2) thinking that sometimes the gun is loaded and sometimes it isn't.

M1911

[PKAY]

I don't store my home defense 1911 C&L. In fact, I don't even chamber a round when it is removed from the safe and placed where I can get at it in the evening. In addition, I regularly rotate the magazines. Just my own style since racking the slide is so quick and simple if I need to.

[gundog98k]

I carry a Colt M1991 A1 compact, but I never wear it C&L, in fact I never have a round chambered. I practice the Israeli method of draw and load on a regular basis. Much safer practice in my opinion. Had a friend cap himself with a drawing snag on a C&L 9mm Hi Power. However I do store my 45 in the holster with a full mag. Have been doing so for several years without ill effects. I do rotate magazines regularly though, the springs in those (although I replaced the stock ones with wilson's) aren't as beefy as your mainspring.

[jimsbowies]

Colts remain cocked and locked....have for years and they work just fine...thank you!

[BigG]

Any Colts or GI .45s kept cocked and locked should be fired off once a generation so the ammo can be replaced with fresh. You child or grandchild can do it the next time.

That preventative maintenance takes care of two problems: Allowing mag spring to relax and replacing old ammunition.