Of course, carrying a 1911 with the chamber loaded, hammer down has not been en vogue for quite some time and is even, mistakenly, thought to be unsafe. (The Detonics does not have a passive firing-pin safety system, but it does use a heavier-than-standard firing-pin spring.) But alleging that this practice is unsafe would come as a surprise, if it didn't elicit outright amusement, from past generations of 1911 users--military, law enforcement and civilians alike--who chose this mode of carry (as well as halfcock) with success.

The heart of the Detonics system is this tri-coil captive recoil spring.

I know, nowadays "everyone knows" that carrying with the hammer down and manually lowering the hammer with a round chambered is "unsafe." Since I see these two actions as not being "stupid-proof," I no longer advocate doing them, for the climate has changed to favor stupid acts being rewarded. Back then, stupid and careless people were seen to be what they were--stupid and careless; now they have become "victims." (Jerry and I discussed knowing any number of old-time gunmen who carried their 1911s this way and who were very effective in their application of it against more than just paper and steel targets.)

All this being said, the Detonics has a nice, low-profile Colt lookalike thumb safety for cocked-and-locked carry. A coned barrel is used, and its enlarged portion locks into the front face of the slide. Historically, the codesigner of the original Detonics, Sy Woodcock, is responsible for the slide-and-hammer configuration. He carried his 1911 that way and wanted to improve the ease of raising the hammer.

Disassembly is easy and does not require a tool, three hands or a large and coarse vocabulary. Simply clear the gun, pull the slide back until the disassembly notch is over the rear of the checkered slide stop, and push it out. Allow the slide to go forward and off the frame. The captive spring system is now not under any pressure and will, with slight forward movement, fall away from the slide. The barrel, with barrel link folded forward, slides out the front of the slide.

Note the Detonics "slope"--the angled flat coupled with a raised, spurred hammer--done to facilitate thumb cocking.

The ejection-port window is also nicely scalloped and relieved. This was originally done so as not to dent the empty case being ejected, but it does help in functioning, allowing more room for the empties to get out of the way.

There is no grip safety. It has been replaced by a much shortened grip-tang insert, held in by both the thumb-safety crosspin and the full-size flat and grooved mainspring housing, which in turn is retained by the mainspring housing pin.

The wood grip panels have large diamonds around the stainless steel and slotted grip-screws as well as checkering, and the Detonics logo is centered on each. The frontstrap is not checkered, and the 1911A1-type "short" trigger is grooved with an overtravel screw in its face.

Trigger pull measured 5.5 pounds and was relatively smooth. Well worth noting is that the all-steel gun is made without using either plastic or MIM parts and is entirely made in the USA.

The knife point indicates how the tri-coil spring system first to the barrel link.

John Lysak and I spent the better part of two hours firing a mix of high- and low-end ammo through the gun, with mixed results. I had no function failures, but John repeatedly had a bullet nose down, stubbing on the feed ramp and failing to chamber. Jerry had already told me that the Detonics would not work with Remington Golden Saber, either the 185- or 230-grain bullet weights, but this sample did.