{"id":1848,"date":"2024-01-28T22:50:52","date_gmt":"2024-01-28T22:50:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/?p=1848"},"modified":"2024-01-28T22:50:52","modified_gmt":"2024-01-28T22:50:52","slug":"is-an-empty-chamber-dangerous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/?p=1848","title":{"rendered":"Is an Empty Chamber Dangerous?"},"content":{"rendered":"


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By Massad Ayoob<\/a><\/p>\n

A<\/span> perennial statement on gun forums is some variation of, \u201cI carry my autoloading pistol with a loaded magazine but an empty chamber.\u00a0For safety!\u201d <\/p>\n

While carrying with an empty chamber might seem safer, what disadvantages does it\u00a0give?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The majority of responses can be politely summarized as \u201cPlease reconsider!\u201d I would add my own voice to the latter sentiment.<\/p>\n

Perspectives<\/h2>\n

Many of us commonly go afield with our magazine-fed rifles and shotguns having rounds in the magazines, but empty chambers. However, most modern autopistols\u00a0are<\/em>\u00a0designed as drop-safe as they come from their factories and are intended to be carried with a round in the chamber, though there are a few exceptions.<\/p>\n

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Only testing on the clock will show how much time you lose having to rack a slide. Here is the instant of discharge of the author\u2019s Springfield Armory Range\u00a0Officer\u00a0.45.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

True, a gun with no round in the chamber can\u2019t fire accidentally or negligently, unless the circumstances of the accident or negligence have involved a live cartridge making its way into the firing chamber. Even so, with these modern guns in proper working order \u2014 a Springfield Armory 1911, XD-M<\/span>, 911, Hellcat, etc. \u2013 it\u00a0is\u00a0<\/em>true that \u201cthey won\u2019t go bang if nothing pushes the trigger to the rear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why have a round in the chamber beforehand? It goes to why you acquired the gun.<\/p>\n

\"Massad
An empty chamber draw begins. Fortunately, Ayoob\u2019s support hand is not otherwise\u00a0occupied.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Defensive Rationale<\/h2>\n

If your handgun was bought as a target pistol, it\u2019s true, there\u2019s no need to have a round in the chamber until immediately before you know you\u2019ll have to shoot. Indeed, most handgun competitions require the gun to be \u201ccold\u201d \u2014\u00a0completely\u00a0<\/em>empty of cartridges \u2014 until the command to load is given. If the gun\u2019s purpose is defensive, however, it\u2019s a completely different story.<\/p>\n

The defensive firearm is, by definition, a\u00a0reactive\u00a0<\/em>weapon. An attack will likely come by total surprise, and fractions of a second may make the difference between life and death. It simply takes longer to draw, chamber a round and get a hit than it does to just draw and fire, perhaps also wiping a thumb safety into the \u201cfire\u201d position as the pistol comes up on target.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the Time Difference?<\/h2>\n

The time difference will vary between individual shooters, of course. To get a frame of reference, I went to my range with a Springfield Armory Range Officer pistol in a Safariland 568 holster, a box of 185-gr. jacketed hollow point .45 ACP ammo, and a Competition Electronics gunshot timer.<\/p>\n

\"should
The support hand meets the slide midway. Note glove to keep constant repetitions from tearing up Ayoob\u2019s hand during this\u00a0test.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I started at three yards from a white-faced IPSC target (which shows the bullet holes better). Three yards is the distance for the one-hand phase of the NRA Police Service Pistol Course. On each run, I started with the hand on the holstered weapon to minimize extraneous factors. I wasn\u2019t there to see how fast I could get to a gun under a jacket, but to compare as closely as possible Condition One carry (with a round in the chamber) versus hammer down on an empty chamber, sometimes known as \u201cIsraeli Carry.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Firing dominant hand only and racking the slide as the gun came up, my times ran from 1.22 seconds to 1.42, averaging 1.358 seconds to an upper torso hit. I then ran the same drill the same five times, cocked and locked with a round in the chamber and off-safing as I raised the pistol. Times to the hit were all under one second, ranging from 0.75 to 0.99.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The difference was 0.474 \u2014 almost half a second. Is that inconsequential? Not at all, when you look at the time frames of life-and-death situations.<\/p>\n

\"can
Ayoob breaks the shot. Average time to draw, rack the slide and shoot for this shooter? Around 1.5\u00a0seconds.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Finishing each draw with a two-handed shot, the empty chamber start times ranged from 1.41 to 1.78 seconds, averaging 1.534 seconds. Starting cocked and locked with a torpedo already in the launch tube cut that time to an average of 0.894 seconds. All runs were under a second and ranged from 0.78 to 0.95, averaging 0.894. The difference was 0.64 seconds favoring the loaded chamber start.<\/p>\n

In other words, if I was faced off with my evil twin with identical gun and holster, if his gun had a loaded chamber he would have gotten two or three shots into me before I had racked the slide and gotten my first round going in his direction. Fractions of a second mean a lot.<\/p>\n

\"is
Properly racking the slide requires a free and unencumbered support\u00a0hand.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Veering slightly off topic, this test highlighted the fact that two-handed isn\u2019t particularly slower than one if you\u2019re visually indexing for each shot. One- versus two-hand \u201cCondition One\u201d was\u00a0exactly\u00a0<\/em>the same time average for speed, 0.894. I couldn\u2019t have done that again if I tried. One-hand versus two-hand when racking the slide averaged only 0.166 seconds apart. The point is, since the support hand gets there while the gun is coming up on target, it doesn\u2019t take that much more time to get the second hand there for more accuracy and more control for follow-up shots.<\/p>\n

Other Problems<\/h2>\n

Drawing and racking a slide takes lots of practice. It\u2019s tedious clearing the gun and starting over for the next empty-chamber practice run, and wastes training time. If there are any sharp edges, repeated racks (or even one) can tear up the palm: notice I wore a glove on my support hand, as seen in the pictures, for that reason. (My test pistol had adjustable sights, which can be hard on palms.)<\/p>\n

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Live The Armory Life.<\/strong> The latest content straight to your inbox plus an automatic entry to each of our monthly gun\u00a0giveaways!<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

But there are bigger reasons.<\/p>\n

One is that adrenaline dump induces tremors, and shaky hands can \u201cstutter the slide,\u201d causing a misfeed at the worst possible time.<\/p>\n

Another is that, very often, the other hand simply is not available. It may be pushing an opponent away or holding his knife hand in abeyance. It might be pushing someone you love out of harm\u2019s way, or you and your opponent\u2019s combined weight may pin it to the ground if he has you down. A second bad guy may have grabbed it, or it may have been injured early in the encounter. Struggling to rack the slide one-handed will take\u00a0way\u00a0<\/em>longer and will be much more difficult than if both hands were free to dedicate to the task of getting your gun fully loaded at the last, desperate moment.<\/p>\n

\"is
While a second or so might not seem like a long time, it can make all the difference in a\u00a0gunfight.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Remember that \u201cIsraeli Carry\u201d reference? You might wonder, why did the hardened warriors of Israel go to empty chamber carry? Simply because in 1949 they had a low training budget, and had to work with a mishmash of whatever handguns they could get. The safeties of the American 1911 and the Belgian Browning worked opposite from those on the German Walther and all were different from the German Luger, and none of those guns at that time were drop-safe with a round in the chamber. It was the safest way to go. You, as an armed citizen or an armed professional with one issued firearm, don\u2019t have those problems \u2026 and hopefully, you have a drop-safe gun. In that situation, you don\u2019t\u00a0need\u00a0<\/em>the empty chamber that will slow you down.<\/p>\n

My friend John Correia with Active Self Protection told me recently, \u201cWe see again and again the need for quickly accessing a firearm and bringing it into the fight. The aggressor is always at an initiative advantage, and so giving another advantage in taking more time and attention to chamber a round is bad tactics. For these reasons I always recommend that people carry their defensive firearms with the chamber full if at all possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"should
If you are going to carry a firearm for self-defense, you should be trained to use it quickly if faced with a\u00a0threat.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Finally, note that every police department in the United States has its officers carry their service pistols with a round in the chamber. As seen above, there are good reasons for this.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/h2>\n

It\u2019s your gun, your life \u2026 and perhaps the lives of those you bought the gun to protect. It\u2019s your choice.\u00a0Please make it a fully informed decision. I know where I stand on it.<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s Note: Please be sure to check out The Armory Life Forum, where you can comment about our daily articles, as well as just talk guns and gear. Click the \u201cGo To Forum Thread\u201d link below to jump in and discuss this article and much more!<\/em><\/p>\n

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Join the Discussion<\/span><\/h5>\n

Go to forum thread<\/a><\/p>\n

Featured in this article<\/span><\/h5>\n

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1911 Range Officer\u00ae Target<\/span><\/h3>\n


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Safariland Model 568<\/span><\/h3>\n


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Active Self Protection <\/h3>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Massad Ayoob A perennial statement on gun forums is some variation of, \u201cI carry my autoloading pistol with a loaded magazine but an empty chamber.\u00a0For safety!\u201d While carrying with an empty chamber might seem safer, what disadvantages does it\u00a0give? The majority of responses can be politely summarized as \u201cPlease reconsider!\u201d I would add my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1849,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}