{"id":6273,"date":"2020-05-19T10:32:14","date_gmt":"2020-05-19T14:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/?p=6273"},"modified":"2020-05-19T10:32:16","modified_gmt":"2020-05-19T14:32:16","slug":"the-drop-safe-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/the-drop-safe-issue\/","title":{"rendered":"THE DROP-SAFE ISSUE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

You\u2019d think\nmodern firearms would be fail-safed against going off if dropped.  Well\u2026not always.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In one of the very best of the gun forums today, www.pistol-forum.com<\/a>, this topic recently came up and a member cited this article that I wrote a decade ago for Combat Handguns <\/em>magazine:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 https:\/\/www.tactical-life.com\/firearms\/dropped-gun-inertia-discharge\/<\/a> .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Colt<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look\nat a classic example of the need to pay attention to this. Colt came out with\ntheir iconic 1911 pistol in that year, and has manufactured it uninterrupted\never since.  The potential for dropped\ngun discharges caused them, in the late 1930s, to introduce the Swartz Safety,\nwhich locked the firing pin internally and was released by depressing the grip\nsafety.  However, it was extremely\ncomplicated and expensive to manufacture at the time, and didn\u2019t stay in\nproduction for long.  The issue remained,\nand for decades now Colt has produced the Series \u201980 version, safe to carry\nwith a live round in the chamber because it has an internal firing pin lock\nthat is released when the shooter presses the trigger.  However, aficionados\n<\/em>clamored for the original version without the Series \u201980 firing pin block,\nso Colt introduced the Series \u201970, which doesn\u2019t have it, in a separate line\nthat is still produced today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I recently\nspent some time shooting a new Series \u201970, and couldn\u2019t help noticing that the\nowner\u2019s manual stated in bold capital letters, highlighted in Day-Glo Orange no\nless, the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWARNING:\nWHEN A ROUND IS IN THE CHAMBER, THIS PISTOL MAY DISCHARGE ACCIDENTALLY IF IT IS\nDROPPED OR RECEIVES A BLOW. (THIS CAN OCCUR REGARDLESS OF THE POSITION OF THE\nHAMMER OR ANY OF THE VARIOUS SAFETY DEVICES.) DO NOT PUT A ROUND IN THE CHAMBER\nUNTIL THE PISTOL IS IN YOUR HAND AND YOU ARE READY TO SHOOT, AND CLEAR THE\nPISTOL IMMEDIATELY AFTER SHOOTING.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your\ncorrespondent here frequently carries 1911s. \nThe Colts are generally Series \u201980, whose drop-safe system has been\ncopied by other makers.  Kimber II-series\n1911s use a variation of the Swartz concept conceived by modern firearms design\ngenius Nehemiah Sirkis, affordable for production now thanks to CNC\nmachinery.  Some other companies, like\nSpringfield Armory, achieve drop-safe status by combining a light titanium\nfiring pin with a strong firing pin spring to prevent \u201cinertia fire\u201d due to\nimpact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When in\ndoubt, check with the Customer Service department of your firearm\u2019s\nmanufacturer. \u201cI never drop my gun\u201d is a strategy that presumes you are a\nperfect human being incapable of making a mistake, and I haven\u2019t heard of one\nof those for about 2,020 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You\u2019d think modern firearms would be fail-safed against going off if dropped.  Well\u2026not always. In one of the very best of the gun forums today, www.pistol-forum.com, this topic recently came up and a member cited this article that I wrote a decade ago for Combat Handguns magazine:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 https:\/\/www.tactical-life.com\/firearms\/dropped-gun-inertia-discharge\/ . Let\u2019s look at a classic example […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6274,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6273","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6273"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6275,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6273\/revisions\/6275"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}