As far as the front serrations go,
maybe it's just me, but I've always felt weird about putting my hand up by the muzzle for anything involving live ammo.
This is also why I don't like tip-up barrel .32's, at least not Taurus models (handled one of those recently, checking it for my lady's parents as a prospective purchase on their part, and advised them strongly against it). I won't say anything about the Berettas, because I haven't handled one of those - but I'm not really inclined to try one of them after the issue with the Taurus.
The issue I had with the Taurus in question was, at the advice of the FFL dealer, I tried to see how much force was required to lock the barrel back in battery after tipping it up. (Told him we were checking weapon challenges for arthritic hands, and looking at the tip-ups, he said he would emphatically NOT advise it, due to locking force required.)
Now, I have fairly strong hands. Ex-grappler, used to do lots of pull-ups and a little indoor rock climbing, still do a fair amount of canoeing. It took me some actual effort to close that pistol, and in order to get the leverage necessary to make it lock in place, I found my hand had cheated forward - enough so that the meat of my palm, just inward from the knife edge of my left hand, was actually in front of the muzzle.
I can just imagine something similar with front serrations. Call me paranoid, but I avoid equipment setups that I think are likelier than others to cause (or at least heavily contribute to) handling errors.
Cheers,
M
PS I'm NOT criticizing your pistol for having front serrations, I'm endorsing your opting not to use them. It's a nice pistol. I still drool over my uncle's SA competition 1911...
