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I believe the M1911 incident was the reason Patton purchased his famous 4 ¾ Single Action Army, the gun with which he killed Villa lieutenant Julio Cárdenas. The SAA was displayed in the Patton Museum at FT. Knox, Kentucky for years and the two notches the general cut into its ivory grips are plainly visible. Patton did carry the SAA with the hammer down on an empty chamber.
I’m not sure I understand how a “trigger job”, however poorly executed, could cause the discharge of a M1911 automatic carried in a safe manner. By all accounts the gun was in Patton’s holster and discharged when the future general stamped his leg to emphasize some point he was making. I find it hard to believe Patton would be carrying an M1911 with a cartridge in the chamber, with the pistol cocked, relying solely on the grip safety. He was too knowledgeable a pistol man to run a risk like that, particularly in the era before antibiotics when any gunshot wound could be fatal due to infection. Most likely, he was carrying his pistol with a cartridge in the chamber and the manual safety on, and somehow the manual safety was disengaged. It was too bad that Jeff Cooper wasn’t around to tell him how safe cocked and locked carry was.
I’m not sure I understand how a “trigger job”, however poorly executed, could cause the discharge of a M1911 automatic carried in a safe manner. By all accounts the gun was in Patton’s holster and discharged when the future general stamped his leg to emphasize some point he was making. I find it hard to believe Patton would be carrying an M1911 with a cartridge in the chamber, with the pistol cocked, relying solely on the grip safety. He was too knowledgeable a pistol man to run a risk like that, particularly in the era before antibiotics when any gunshot wound could be fatal due to infection. Most likely, he was carrying his pistol with a cartridge in the chamber and the manual safety on, and somehow the manual safety was disengaged. It was too bad that Jeff Cooper wasn’t around to tell him how safe cocked and locked carry was.
