Anyone else refuse to use the safety?

[Old Fuff]

Sam's comment about having one's brain as any firearms' principal safety is correct. Safe handling is a conbination of thinking, training and practice.

In your case, given you perspectives, I would keep or carry a double-action revolver with an internal mechanical safety rather then a pistol that depended on a manual one.

I would carry long-guns with the chamber empty and not chamber a round until I was about too use it.

I would not remove mechanical or manual safeties. This could prove to be counter productive for a number of reasons, and the above methods would make this questionable practice unnecessary.

 

[Okiecruffler]

I don't want any manual safety on my carry gun, but at the same time I will only carry DAO guns. Tried to carry cocked and locked, and was always worrying about the silly thing.

 

[Sean Smith]

Well, the worrying part was silly anyway...

 

[Augustwest]

The gun on my hip right now has a round ...

How 'bout the one on yer left hip? And the ankle rigs?

Mostly carry wheelguns, so other than the one between my ears, safeties aren't an usually issue.

You can bet that my autochuckers, especially those that are carried cocked, are locked as well...

 

[tac17]

But there's something about chambering a round before being ready to shoot that makes me highly nervous, and something about setting a firearm down with a live round in it makes me even more nervous. I would never dream of putting a "cocked and locked" firearm on my person.

Don't put your finger on the trigger when you aren't supposed to and they don't go boom.

I carry a Glock, with a round chambered, 14 or 15 hours a day. I have carried in that same way for the last 6 years. It has never once went off on it's own. I have carried 1911 style pistols cocked and locked a good bit as well, none of them every went boom on their own either. If you follow the rules then it plenty safe to carry your pistol cocked and locked.

 

[Cosmoline]

Ironically

now that I think about it, the Mosin Nagant safety is the ONLY one I use! Am I going against the grain or what? I trust it because it absolutely locks the main spring back against the receiver, and because there's no doubt whether it's on or off. Also, with over 20 lbs of force it ain't gonna get flicked on and off going through underbrush.

 

[Obiwan]

If you have a safety you are crazy NOT to use it

As stated before...you are obliged to disengage it every time you draw....
so it might as well be engaged to begin with....in fact it should be.

But...if you do not like using a safety...switch to weapons that don't have one.

Glock, Kahr, Revolvers, etc.

I recently rid myself of all my DA/SA handguns for this very reason.

 

[Mike Irwin]

I'm primarily a revolver shoot.

No safety to use.

 

[New_comer]

I carry hammer down, safety off.


DA first shot doesn't bother me.

 

[Schuey2002]

I carry a Glock 19.

And I absolutely REFUSE to use that Gawd-awful factory thumb safety!!

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Oh, right. It doesn't have one. My bad.

 

[355sigfan]

never use the safety on any firearm I own, and I lean toward firearms with no independent safety switch, such as revolvers. To me the risk of forgetting is just too great,
END

You will do what you train. If you don't train and you pull a gun with a safety on it you may well not flip it off. The flip side is with point and pull weapons like revolvers, sigs and glocks is that if the bad guy gets it all he will have to do to kill you is point and pull. I am not strongly for one system or the other. I prefer the 1911 because its a simple gun to shoot well under stress. It has a short trigger reset, low bore axis and its chambered in very formidable calibers. There is nothing wrong with cocked and locked. In some ways its safer than carrying a da revolver. If you have a safety its best to use it. The only exception would be da autos where it does not need to be used. Where its use only adds to the weapons retention capabilitys. With single action weapons such as 1911's AR15's shotguns ext its best to use the safety.
Pat

 

[Standing Wolf]

Frankly I'd prefer to physically remove the safety from all my firearms. Am I crazy?

I wouldn't say so. I never use the safeties on my .22 caliber semi-automatic pistols. On the rare occasions when I carry my model 1911, I sometimes flick the thumb rest up, sometimes don't bother. I've never trusted mechanical safety mechanisms, and never will. The only safety I trust is the shooter.

 

[Zach S]

I carry a C&Led 1911 or an LDA, and I use mine. Someone noticed I swipe the safety off on all guns as if it were there when gripping it. Even on glocks, so i dont worry about missing it, since I hit it even if when not there.

If i carried a beretta 92, i wouldnt use the safety. Did they not notice it was backwards when they designed the gun?

 

[AUTIGER04]

All of my handguns are DA/SA I never use the safety.

 

[Abominable No-Man]

Once in a blue moon I carry mine, usually on cross-country trips. My pistols are DA/SA, so it's one round in the chamber, thumb safety on. DA first shot isn't a problem.

ANM