Several weeks ago, I was cleaning my new Taurus PT 1911 AR and getting ready to put it in my bed side nightstand. I keep it there, loaded, next to a flashlight. I placed a full magazine of 8 rounds in the pistol, cycled the slide and fed a round into the chamber. I then lowered the hammer to the half cock “safe” position. Then I removed the magazine, reloaded it with one more round, and reinserted the magazine into the pistol. As I did this, my trigger finger on the hand I was holding the firearm with slipped inside the trigger guard. Bang! The pistol discharged! I know what you are thinking; I didn’t have the pistol in the half cocked safe position. But I will tell you I was looking at the pistol from a side angle when I loaded the magazine and the hammer was most definitely in the half cocked “safe” position. I popped a nice .45cal hole in the back of my fireplace in my living room. The bullet lodged in a 2x4 stud on the other side of the steel fire box. I just about shit my pants! I have never negligently discharged a firearm in my life. I felt like a fucking idiot! I had been carrying the pistol with me while traveling recently. I could have easily shot my self or worse, shot someone with this firearm!
A couple of days latter I was stripping the pistol and trying to figure why it would do this. I tore it apart several times, and reassembled it. I kept playing with the half cock “safe” position of the hammer, and only one time could I get the hammer to drop from the half cock position while squeezing the trigger. I tried squeezing the trigger as hard as I could and it would not drop. However, when I inserted an empty magazine in the pistol, racked the slide, and then dropped the hammer to the half cock “safe” position, and gently squeezed trigger, the hammer dropped.
Why would the firearm malfunction like this? What needs to be replaced to make it safe to carry?
A couple of days latter I was stripping the pistol and trying to figure why it would do this. I tore it apart several times, and reassembled it. I kept playing with the half cock “safe” position of the hammer, and only one time could I get the hammer to drop from the half cock position while squeezing the trigger. I tried squeezing the trigger as hard as I could and it would not drop. However, when I inserted an empty magazine in the pistol, racked the slide, and then dropped the hammer to the half cock “safe” position, and gently squeezed trigger, the hammer dropped.
Why would the firearm malfunction like this? What needs to be replaced to make it safe to carry?
