The 1911 and the New York Reload, a tale of a hard week
If you are a 1911-lover, odds are you have had two of these longslide .45ACP beasts hanging around the house at one time of another. Now let us go the next step and ask if you carry at least one of these aforementioned 1911s around with you from time to time out in the world. If you do, why stop at one? I tried it out for a week.
To put it country-simple, the New York Reload is a second (or third, or fourth) loaded handgun, ready to fire as soon as it is presented. If the first handgun is empty, jammed, or stripped away, the second one can be rotated forward like a shark’s teeth and brought into action. It’s not for everyone, but it’s a solid tactic with a solid history. Gunslingers, soldiers, law officers, and those who just wanted to make it home alive have long carried multiple weapons and trained to transition back and forth between them.
The term gets its name from the old 1970s New York Police Department’s Street Crime Unit. Better known as SCU, the 60 or so members of the unit used advanced tactics for the first time including disguised officers trolling for muggers, and plainclothes intelligence units covertly shadowing suspects. The officers of this unit made as many as 8,000 arrests per year in some of the most dangerous circumstances imaginable.
Now the standard issue .38s of the day was slow to reload– this was before there were speed strips, and HKS speed loaders to help. Therefore, the fastest reload, if you went dry on your six-shooter, was another gun. Hence, many of these NYPD coppers in drag chose to carry a second .38 so that they could abracadabra it when needed.
Well, I tried it on for size for a week, only with a pair of 1911s and it kinda sucked.
Read the rest in my column at I Love My Gun
