Operation of the Safety

D

Drakejake

New member
I believe safety is enormously important for concealed carry firearms. My two full-size pistols, KP-89 and KP-90, both have safeties that also function as decockers. But one cannot readily operate the safeties in the ready to fire position. The thumb must move from its position for firing up to the safety. In an emergency self-defense situation having to take off the safety before firing would cost valuable time. Do those of you who carry weapons with safeties leave them on? Or do you turn the safeties off while carrying? What is your policy on using safeties? (I realize that the Glocks and many DAO pistols do not have safeties. I have a number of pistols with no safeties plus several double action/single action revolvers which lack this device.)

Drakejake
 
My Sig is decocker only, so it's not an issue...and I like it that way. On those rare occasions that I carry my Beretta, I carry it safety off - don't want to have to think about it in a crisis situation. The internal safeties, combined with the DA trigger pull, are enough for me.
 
When I was forced to carry a Smith 4006 for duty, we were instructed at initial qualification to NEVER have the safety engaged when carrying on duty.

I have never carried any safety equipped handgun with the safety engaged since. Only because that was the way I was trained.

This is against my better judgement with the Walther PP series which as a rule should be carried with the safety ON. There is no firing pin block on the PP series when the safety is off. It can inertia fire if dropped and the safety is off.

I make damn sure any PP series handgun of mine is secure in its holster when being carried.

I don't know how many other makes are like this. The Walther PP Super,
P5, P5C, P88, P88C, and all P99 varieties have a different safety arrangement and require no active safeties.

Check your owners manual.
 
That's my biggest gripe with slide mounted safeties -- they're difficult to operate quickly with one hand.

I carry a revolver most of the time, so a mechanical safety isn't much of an issue, but when I carry a semi-auto, the safety is never on (I don't carry a .45 Colt-style, so that's not an issue).
 
In the past, I have passed on several pistols, including the Ruger P89 and S&W 4013TSW because the safety was frame mounted and "up" to fire.

I much prefer the HK and Taurus approach, which is up- safe, middle- fire, and down is the spring-loaded decocker. I find it a completely natural motion to swipe the safety down as I'm coming to bear on the target.

Most recently, I've gotten quite fond of the Glock/Kahr approach. Just not fond enough to trade my USP45 for a Glock 21....
 
I also find slide mounted safties slower to work, but I also believe in having some form of thumb safety on your carry gun. So I use a 1911, the thumb safety is very quick and easy to use. After a bit of practice it becomes instinctual.

If the gun has to have the safety on the slide I think that the Makarov is a much better design than that of the Smith, Ruger, or Beretta. It is in the same spot, but works in reverse. So you put your thumb on top and push down. It is a much stronger movement.

Between the Smith, Ruger, or Beretta, I think that the Beretta is probably the easiest to off safe.

One good strategy to practice with the slide mounted safeties:

Instead of drawing your gun, and then lifting your thumb up to disengage the safety (2 seperate movements). Practice drawing with your thumb in such a position that why you swipe your hand down to grab the grip it pushes the safety off. It is hard to explain, but it works pretty good from the holster.
 
I carry a Ruger P-94 with positive safety. If I'm in the office or at home, I'll engage the safety. Usually around and about though, I carry safety off. I'm also working on something similar to one of the earlier posts where I work the safety off as I grip the weapon. It's a little slower, but I can carry safety on that way.

I suppose it really depends on how threatening I think the situation/area around me is.


-Teuf
 
The only manual handgun safeties that I use are on SA pistols. Otherwise, I leave them in the off position.
 
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