As long as you are confident and competent in it's operation, keep it cocked and locked. Springs do not wear out by being in one state or another, it's the cycling between them that eventually wears out a spring. Besides, unless you shoot an unGodly amount, you'll probably never wear out the hammer spring anyways. I've got many thousands of rounds thru my 1911, and the mainspring is juuuust fine.

The half cock is to keep the hammer from falling due to mechanical failure of the hammer or sear. ETA: OR a human error while cocking the hammer.

You should store the 1911 in either:

Condition 1: Magazine inserted, chamber loaded, thumb safety on
Condition 3: Magazine inserted, chamber empty
Condition 4: Magazine removed, chamber empty

Personally, I would not go with condition 3, as if you see the mag in the gun, you may forget that that isn't one in the chamber.

For me it's either totally empty, totally loaded.

Originally Posted by VAMarine

The half cock is to keep the hammer from falling due to mechanical failure of the hammer or sear.

You should store the 1911 in either:

Condition 1: Magazine inserted, chamber loaded, thumb safety on
Condition 3: Magazine inserted, chamber empty
Condition 4: Magazine removed, chamber empty

Personally, I would not go with condition 3, as if you see the mag in the gun, you may forget that that isn't one in the chamber.

For me it's either totally empty, totally loaded.

Originally Posted by zhurdan

As long as you are confident and competent in it's operation, keep it cocked and locked. Springs do not wear out by being in one state or another, it's the cycling between them that eventually wears out a spring. Besides, unless you shoot an unGodly amount, you'll probably never wear out the hammer spring anyways. I've got many thousands of rounds thru my 1911, and the mainspring is juuuust fine.

Thanks guys, both of you really helped a lot with my question.