Quote:
|
I was under the impression the strong thumb (while shooting 1911's) should always be on top.
|
I guess that Jeff Cooper is responsible for that one, supposedly to prevent bumping the thumb safety with the thumb under recoil and inadvertently placing it on safe in the middle of a life or death thing. I've never quite understood the logic in that, seeing as how the pistol torques in the wrong direction for bumping the safety up...but there it is. He even went so far as to insist on a "high thumb" position with both thumbs vertical in the course of his pistol classes...which doesn't work at all for me.
Cooper was no idiot, but some of the things that he's stated simply don't follow logic or agree with physics.
I have run into the occasional 1911 pistol that would place itself on safe under recoil...the most recent being a Les Baer Stinger that would only do it when fired by the small lady who owned it...but a few minutes spent with a file to smooth up a small burr corrected it for her.
I have noticed that it happens occasionally with certain styles of ambi safeties, due to the knuckle pressing upward on the safety, but that's more a matter of individual hands and it's most often seen with upswept grip safeties and weak grips allowing the pistol to wedge itself downward as the string progresses. That's the drawback of such grip safeties. The spot weld afforded by the standard safety tang is lost and can present a problem with less than a strong two-handed grip.
As for me, my thumb has always been placed in much the same position as
James K described...and I've never had one to bump ON SAFE. Of course, it follows that I don't use the ducktail grip safeties on any of mine.