XD Grip Safety Bad.....or Good Feature?

The grip safety allowed me to install a much lighter trigger into my XDM than I would otherwise feel comfortable with without a grip safety.
So I say good.
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There it is!

The issue is simple--the grip safety allows the liability lawyers to relent and allow a lighter, easier (aka more accurate) trigger pull, even stock--than a glock has with the trigger-only safety.
 
For the folks saying, "if you're injured and you don't have a good grip on the pistol..", have you tried a loose hold on an XD? I certainly didn't do it with live ammunition (I wouldn't suggest it) but I did do it with snap caps. Even the loosest hold I thought still shootable (weak hand from blood loss etc.) I was still able to pull the trigger. If I went looser it was in a state where 1. I obviously didn't have the gun in any kind of aimed hold 2. I honestly believed had I fired a live round in that case the gun would have fallen from my hand that was how loose it needed to be to not engage. It's great to imagine these life or death situations where we're bleeding out of the floor with mangled arms but still plugging away at the bad guys, but a little common sense and reality go a long way.
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I did it with live ammo, using both my Colt Combat Commander (as a control), and one of my Glock 17's. This was in regards to the "Glocks will always have limp wrist failures if you dont hold them right" BS going on a while back, and in videos on youtube.

Funny thing was, the Glock worked fine, with absolutely NO grip, and just sitting on the web of my hand and top of my midle finger (the only thing keeping it fro flying off was my finger in the trigger), and the Colt continually had trouble with the same grip, and would not fire, because the grip safety was not disengaging. The "control", ended up being the issue.
 
AK103K said:
I did it with live ammo, using both my Colt Combat Commander (as a control), and one of my Glock 17's. This was in regards to the "Glocks will always have limp wrist failures if you dont hold them right" BS going on a while back, and in videos on youtube.

Funny thing was, the Glock worked fine, with absolutely NO grip, and just sitting on the web of my hand and top of my midle finger (the only thing keeping it fro flying off was my finger in the trigger), and the Colt continually had trouble with the same grip, and would not fire, because the grip safety was not disengaging. The "control", ended up being the issue.
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Notice I said an XD and not a 1911. I make no claims about 1911s.
 
I did it with live ammo, using both my Colt Combat Commander (as a control), and one of my Glock 17's. This was in regards to the "Glocks will always have limp wrist failures if you dont hold them right" BS going on a while back, and in videos on youtube.
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That Bs happened in my hands with mine! But it also happened with a S&W SD9VE! limp wrist exist. I won't deny my g19 can do it any day of the week, if I make it.
 
the grip safety allows the liability lawyers to relent
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And, that's why I hate grip safeties. Hi-Powers don't have them. CZ 75B's don't have them. 2nd and 3rd Gen S&W autos don't have them. My Witness Sotck 10mm doesn't have one nor does my Sig X-Five. All of these guns function perfectly without the wiggly piece of metal jutting into the palm of my hand.

Grip Safeties are sooooooo obviously unnecessary and intrusive, just as much so on a 1911 (or XD) as any other gun. But, the diehard 1911 lovers grew up with them and learned to love the intrusive ugly little bit. I suppose today's infants will adore Ruger's chamger indicators and S&W's internal locks when they get to a cranky age like me.
 
^^^ that's probably the truth of it . I was introduced to center fire handguns with a Colt 1911 and love the platform. Possibly why grip safeties don't annoy me.
 
If the grip safety was lawyer-driven, wouldn't every modern gun have one, rather than only one modern gun having one?
Mechanically, the trigger on the XD is very little different from a Glock or a M&P, but those guns got by their manufacturer's lawyers without a grip safety.
 
I think people forget the XD is a standard military issue weapon in Croatia as the HS2000.
The grip safety was most likely incorporated at their request.
 
I have to agree with a few choice things that have already been said--
I think that they are more likely to prevent intended fire unintentionally than to save you from an ND you didn't intend.

I also believe that the XD's design is better in use than the 1911, though it is less visually appealing. A 1911 with an arched MSH and an old-school grip safety is a handgun that gives me fits. I ogled the Colt Delta Elite for TWENTY FIVE YEARS before I attempted to shoot one and I couldn't get through a magazine without altering my grip! :eek:

Back in the day, 1911 shooters wrapped rubber bands around their guns and the more serious 1911 gamers simply pinned the damn grip safety in so it never entered the picture.

On the XD, I believe it is a FINE selling point to at least a decent portion of the market they hope to sell to -- and I definitely do not mean to insinuate that XD owners active on TFL are representative of that market, but I do sincerely believe that a big part of the XD sales market are the "first defense handgun" buying market that has to walk up to a gun counter and choose between a Glock, M&P, XD, or one of the cheaper "also rans." A gun "salesman" can make quite a pitch in pushing that grip safety. To folks new to handguns, it probably seems like a magical option that cannot be ignored.

Honestly, if I had to find the best place for a grip safety on handgun, I'd have to say on a supreme, high dollar target pistol with a phenomenal trigger. I appreciate a fantastic trigger on a fine gun and I'm from the camp that wants a very average trigger in a defense gun. I also hold firm to the idea that if it's polymer, it's a working defense or duty gun or it is a gun I don't want to own in any way.
 
I have a 10mm Kimber 1911, and I greatly value both the thumb safety and the grip safety (including the grip-lever-controller firing-pin-safety). I've trained myself during ALL handling (except when essentially on-target) to keep my strong thumb right underneath the thumb safety (to verify that it is off and is staying off), and to stay off the grip lever. The position of my strong thumb right underneath the thumb safety also helps to support the gun. I carry my gun from pajamas-off until pajamas-on, every day, in an under-the-shirt vertical shoulder holster ... it is constantly pointed at my spleen, and I wouldn't be at ease with that situation if I didn't have all those redundant safeties. I also wouldn't be at ease with my light trigger-pull, and very short trigger travel, without all those safeties.

BTW, I've noticed that some 1911's have a grip lever that protrudes only very slightly aft of the grip. I can see why those might sometimes not disengage when you are trying to fire. But my Kimber's grip lever protrudes way back, and also disengages with a very small amount of motion, so I've never had it refuse to fire when I was trying to fire it. (My Kimber has the straight MSH, and straight grip lever). (I should also add that I DON'T use a high grip position ... I prefer a low grip position, and that might also be another reason that my grip safety always releases when it should.)
 
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Extraneous safeties, especially any that can mechanically prevent a weapon from firing should you need it under stress (I'm looking at you, thumb safeties), are more a hazard than a boon on a fighting handgun. See: Glock, M&P, Sig P-series etc.

Negligent discharges during re-holstering are a result of the trigger being caught on something, sometimes even a finger. Good holster technique, well practiced, and good trigger discipline, well practiced, carry the day here. And good technique will carry the day regardless of the kind of firearm you are holstering, whether it is bedecked in safeties or not.
 
Like all of us posting here are in a battle zone fighting under stress? Even though I carried a 1911 in service I never used it to defend myself. My M16 did the duty.
 
Like all of us are posting here are in a battle zone fighting under stress? Even though I carried a 1911 in the service I never used it to defend myself. My M16 did the duty. I never notice the grip safety on my 1911s nor my XD's. Maybe if you got small girl hand it may be too much for you. Lots of other choices out there.
 
If all you ever expect out of a handgun is flat range plinking, then why would you give a crap about it's grip safety?

When the usage profile opens up to include a question of, 'will this function under stress?' then the amount of steps between you and bang matter.
 
When the usage profile opens up to include a question of, 'will this function under stress?' then the amount of steps between you and bang matter.
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This. Although going to the range is fun, any pistol I buy is first and foremost for saving my hide. Any mechanical opportunity for that to be compromised is, well, a compromise.
 
When I started shooting USPSA competition I'd already been shooting 1911s for twenty years.
I'd literally never had a problem depressing the grip safety before, but had to readjust my grip to get the gun to fire on three of the first six stages I shot in competition.
I've pinned the grip safety on all of my 1911s since, as I'd quickly decided that the grip safety was much, much more likely, as noted already, to prevent the gun from firing when I really needed it, than it was to prevent an accident.
I recently discovered that the "speed bump" grip safety on Springfield products (specifically) allows me to almost trust that I can shoot the gun with an active grip safety, but I've had a few instances, in dry fire, when the safety still got in the way, so we'll see.
 
RickB said:
When I started shooting USPSA competition I'd already been shooting 1911s for twenty years.
I'd literally never had a problem depressing the grip safety before, but had to readjust my grip to get the gun to fire on three of the first six stages I shot in competition.
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When you started competitive shooting, had you just adopted a higher grip?
 
I can understand people liking grip safeties for whatever reason. I can understand people liking chamber indicators and internal locks. Or even firing pin safety blocks and drop-hammer safeties.

What I can't understand is when someone will go on a rant about any of the above safety devices but defend a 1911 style grip-safety as being useful. Out of all of the above mentioned safety devices, the grip safety is the most intrusive and the least useful.
 
Skans said:
Out of all of the above mentioned safety devices, the grip safety is the most intrusive and the least useful.
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The grip safety's most important usefulness for me is during those times when the thumb safety HAS to be off, even though I don't want the gun to shoot ... like when I'm chambering the first round (ESPECIALLY when I'm home, in the middle of town), or manually ejecting a round (ESPECIALLY at home). I also value the grip safety as a fall-back safety in the event that the thumb safety inadvertently gets switched off ... that never has happened to me (and if it DID, I'd immediately take measures to minimize the chances that it could happen again), but it's not completely impossible. I value the redundancy, especially since my gun is pointed at ME all my waking hours.
 
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