Curious, what's the BEST handgun safety design?

L

leadcounsel

Moderator
There are a variety of handgun safeties. Just to list a few, non-exhaustive list, what are the best safety designs on a handgun, and while we're at it, the worst designs?

This could include the inadvertent impact on the gun due to the design.

There's the 1911 style, single action, cock and lock, grip safety, offering a smooth SA trigger. This style requires a downward sweep of the thumb to disengage.

There's the Glock style internal blocking mechanisms and trigger safety, which has been copied by a few manufactures.

Springfield XD incorporated the grip safety along with Glock style blocking and trigger mechanisms.

There are transfer bars, such as seen in revolvers.

There are the Beretta style decocker safety which rotates the firing pin up and away.

Tanfoglio decocker withdraws the firing pin.

Of course, Browning has a slide/hammer lock system AND a magazine disconnect.

The SW steel frame pistols have a design that blocks the firing pin and also a mag disconnect.

HK designs have both cock and lock, and decocker.

Sig offers a decocker.

CZ offers either a decocker or cock and lock, and on the P07 the user can switch these out.

Some guns offer subtle loaded chamber indicators and some offer obvious loaded chamber indicators.

There are certainly dozens of other designs. What do you like and dislike?

IF you were building a gun from scratch, what features would you incorporate in the design of YOUR new pistol?
 
I think you have to have some sort of positive firing pin block. I don't know that the corporate lawyers would allow a new design without one.
I'd insist on at least the option of a non-passive manual safety. Frame-mounted, swept-down to fire is intuitive, and ergonomic.
A tactile loaded-chamber indicator (rather than just a window on the barrel to see a chambered round) might be a good idea, but I've never owned a gun that had one, and have never found myself wishing I had one. In general, I don't like trusting something like that; people should check the chamber.
 
I like grip and trigger safeties the best as they allow the gun to be ready as soon as you hold it correctly or press the trigger. If we are counting decockers as safeties, I am a fan as long as they don't have superfluous safeties on them. A good example of what I'm talking about is found on the Sig P226 or the BD models from CZ.

I'm not really the biggest fan of most manual safeties, but HK's design with the safety/decocker and 1911 style frame safeties are okay by me...just okay. I hate the Beretta M9 slide mounted safety, and safeties that push up to fire.

Also, any sort of internal lock strikes me as pretty pointless, and I'd be terrified if I lost the key. Unfortunately, I own a couple that have locks, I just never use them.
 
I like da/sa pistols. So, I really like the decocking functionality . I also like when the decocker acts as a safety as well. That gives you options to either carry it decocked with no safety or decocked and with safety (probably the safest state a pistol can be in when loaded in your holster).

I really like the Beretta flip up safety for the fact that you can see the firing pin rotate out of the way before the gun decocks. A lot of guns you dont really see how the decoker is working and you have to hit that swicth on faith alone that it will work. That said, I also hate the Beretta flip safety for its location on the slide. I prefer frame mounted.
 
The Astra A75 has an effective safety, in that the gun is either cocked and ready to fire or it's not. It's an SA/DA design with a frame mounted decocker.

If you aren't going to shoot immediately, the decocker is applied and the hammer drops (against a solid block of steel). It also incorporates a firing bin block, so there is no danger of an AD when the hammer is down on a loaded chamber.
 
No longer manufactured but still available are the HK P7 variants: P7 PSP, P7 M8, P7 M13, and P7 M10.

The front strap is a cocking lever that requires about 12 pounds of pressure to cock the striker. Once pressure is released, the pistol is decocked and the trigger cannot fire the gun. With continuous pressure, the pistol can be fired as fast as the trigger can reset and be pulled. If the trigger is held back, the cocking lever can be used as a double action trigger, kinda weird but it can be fired that way.

There is a drop safety but no other.

The cocking lever also functions as the slide release making reloading fast and simple. Field stripping is also fast and simple.

These pistols are hands down the safest to carry with one in the chamber. The fixed 4-inch barrel, 6-1/2-inch overall length, low bore axis, and gas-retarded blowback all contribute to making these pistols very accurate and very concealable.

Right18_zps8341aa60.jpg
 
Personally i like the 1911 style and pretty much hate the Barretta m9 style, which is funny becuse the Navy taught me now to shoot the m9 long before i picked up my first 1911.
 
Best Safety?

Do you want that for intelligent people are ignorant people? It does matters for a proper answer: Intelligent people already know the 4 Universal Rules of Gun Safety. Ignorant people need to learn them.

So with that being said, the Best Safety is a Class or two in the proper handling of firearms.
 
I'll play nice and NOT say 'safety is between your ears' even though it is.

#1 The firing pin block that would keep the gun from going off if dropped-like RickB said.

#2 For cowboy revolvers the transfer bar or like the 'Ruger Old Army' notches between the cylinder chambers. These allow the six-gun to actually hold six rounds.
 
First off, lets make a distinction between safeties, and safety features.

A safety is some kind of mechanism that is engaged (preventing firing) or disengaged (allowing firing) at the shooters option.

A safety feature is a mechanical design that prevents the gun from firing accidently (such as when dropped). Transfer bars and firing pin blocks are safety features, not safeties.

Safeties fall into two broad classes that I call active and passive. Passive safeties are grip safeties and the trigger tabs. These types turn themselves "on" and require a shooter action (holding the gun in a firing grip) to turn off.

Active safeties (levers, buttons, etc.,) require an action from the shooter to turn them on and another action from the shooter to turn them off. They neither activate, nor deactivate themselves, and stay where the shooter puts them. They are also referred to as manual safeties, or (in the 1911) the safety lock. Many are in a location where the term "thumb safety" is also accurate.

I would also point out that guns with de-cockers only, and guns that are DA only do not have safeties. You can consider the long, heavy DA trigger pull to be a safety feature, because it does make the gun less likely to be fired accidentally, but they do not stop the gun from being fired when the trigger is pulled. A safety does.

For me, the best safety is one that is located where it can be operated (both ways preferable but easily moved from "on" to "off" at a minimum) by the shooting hand, without changing the firing grip. Also, for me, for consistency with the guns I've used over my lifetime, a saftey lever should be "down" for "off" and frame mounted. just my opinion, and worth what you paid for it.

Be aware that for every hypothetical situation you can come up with where X, or Y is an advantage, someone else can come up with one where the same things is a disadvantage. Only you can decide what situations are likely or even remotely possible in your own life, and what is, or is not a good thing, based on that.

Also, (personal opinion, again) I believe that you always have all the time you need to put a safety ON....the reverse is not necessarily true.

There are a number of people who think we do not need safeties, indeed even that safeties can be dangerous to us. The common refrain is about people forgetting to take the safety OFF under stress. Once in a while one also hears worries about a safety being accidently put ON. They (generally) feel we are better served by the long DA style trigger pull, or a passive system, like the Glock trigger tab.

Again, personally, I'm ok with that, BUT I feel better if the gun has a safety that goes ON when I put it on, and stays on until I take it OFF. And it is a requirement of mine for any gun that is carried cocked.
 
44AMP has made some excellent points. It is for that reason that I am completely amazed that Remington has chosen NOT to incorporate a manual safety on their new INTERNAL HAMMER R51.
 
The BEST safety ever designed was made by God and placed in your head.
Unfortunately many people refuse to use it as it was designed to be used.

If used correctly it’s super good.

If not used the person holding ANY gun can make it unsafe.
 
I'm with 44 Amp on this one..../ on all of his points !...well done man...

I want a positive safety mounted on the frame ....and I want it to move down to disengage the safety ( like on a 1911 )..../ and I want it to be able to be moved off or on ...without moving my grip on the gun (again like a 1911 )...
 
The only safety I think that is absolutely necessary on any gun is some sort of firing pin block to prevent an accidental discharge when dropped.
 
Hunter Safety teaches that any mechanical safety can fail, and so should never be 100% trusted.

The only "real" safety is between your ears, BUT for all too many people, this "safety" can also fail, or fail to be engaged. Sad, but all too true.

Endless repetition of this well known fact, while true, does not advance this discussion. We're looking at which mechanical systems are good/better/best, and why you think so, or not...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top