Common safety deactivation direction

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phoglund

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I own several types of semi-auto handguns. Most of them have a safety of some sort. For me the "up is safe, down to fire" type works the best. I have both types and have now decided to remove the pistols that have the safety work in the opposite direction from noted above from self defense duties and perhaps from my collection entirely. The heat of battle seems a bad time to have to remember which way the safety has to go. Anybody else find themselves in this situation? Thoughts and comments?
 
Definetly Down. My only gripe on my Ruger P90 saftey model is up is for fire. Just the oposite of 1911 s............Essex
 
Safeties on most single-action pistols are essentially located under the thumb and are of the "up for safe - down to fire" variety. Decockers on double-action pistols are mostly on the slide or frame away from the thumb and are of the "down to decock - up to fire" variety.

For me, it's simple; if I feel something under my thumb when I get ready to fire, I push down on it. Since TDA pistols are designed to be carried decocked with a round in the chamber, there is nothing for the thumb to do while getting the gun into action.

Although some pistols have a decocker located under the thumb (and even worse if it has a manual safety position), there are few such models and anyone that wants that type of gun just has to learn how to use it.
 
my bersa thunder .380 is the reverse... if the bar is at 7:00, the safety is engaged. I have to sweep it forward to 9:00 w/ my thumb and the red dot appears. Red= Dead.

I find this motion VERY natural... would have to look really hard at getting another gun if the safety were reversed. one more reason why i like my XD w/ the integral safeties but no conscious action required other than normally operating the firearm.

good food for thought.
 
The Ruger P89 is a specific concern in my case. It was the first Semi-Auto I purchased some years ago. At the time I just used it for plinking etc. and was not too concerned about self defense via handgun. I used the P89 during instruction required to obtain my CCW. I felt it would be easier to shoot well than some of the smaller handguns I own. I have fairly small hands and found it essentially impossible for me to sweep the safety off with my shooting hand alone. I now view this pistol as a liability for this reason. A 1911 or a CZ-75 type pistol are very quick and easy for me to bring into action with a quick downward sweep of the thumb. I will no longer consider the purchase of a pistol that does not work in this way. It would seem an important bit of information manufacturers/distributers of handgun models should include in their advertising/propaganda about their product.
 
Sweep down

My first, and only pistol for quite a while, was a Makarov. These are a DA/SA where up is safe and decock, down is fire. Maybe it's all the range time i've had with that mak, but this is the preferred safety setup for me.

This is one thing that has discouraged me from buying say, a PA-63, the Hungarian Walther copy. Since it's a copy of the walther, the safety works reverse of the Mak.

My new pocket gun is a Beretta 21A. Safety is 'correct', for me. Very positive engagement, which is a good thing when carrying a gun in your pocket. No, decocker, can be carried cocked & locked. If you need to lower the hammer with a round in the chamber, the BBL flips up, so you can lower the hammer by hand safely. :cool:
 
I like DA/SA autos, and revolvers for the same reasons. I think a safety can interfere with your natural reaction, depending on how it's set up. My only gun with an external safety is my 1911. I rest my thumb on the safety while shooting, so it's not a problem with that particular platform since that's naturally how I shoot the gun. My other guns are Sigs, which use a decocking mechanism - so the first shot is a long DA pull, and all subsequent shots are SA.

Safeties/decockers are what keep me from buying most of the newer auto's.
 
Safeties/decockers are what keep me from buying most of the newer auto's.
You can always just.. leave it off. I personally prefer my DA/SAs to be on safe when a round's chambered.
 
I milled the safety almost all the way off

of my Smith 1076. I am a "down is fire" kind of guy, like the HP/1911 platform. I wanted the 10mm Smith, but couldn't stand the safety, so I removed it, and milled off all but the drum. This meant that I had to hold the hammer back and de-cock with my thumb, but I already do that with my CZ-75s, so no biggy.
The big problem with the slide-mounted safeties is when you slingshot the slide to chamber a round, it is VERY easy to swipe the safety into the "safe" position. I see guys on the range doing this quite often with Navy M-9s. We teach them to use the slide stop now, to avoid this.
 
steve racer - isn't the 1076 decock only? What safety did you get rid of? My 1076 had a decock lever on the frame...:confused: curious as to what you did or did you get the model numbers wrong? Or is it me?
 
Hearing manual physical deactivators referred to as "safeties" makes me :barf:

I went out of my way to buy the decock ONLY models of the ruger pistols because manual "safety" switches/levers are the stupidest things ever invented.

YOU are the "safety." If YOU are not safe enough to handle a firearm without these idiotic so called "safeties," then you're not safe enough to handle it WITH one.

Manual physical deactivators take away your attention and focus. They actually BREED laziness with the basice rules of gun handling. With first time shooters and high stress self defense situations, they can get you killed.

I'm being very clear to refer to the MANUAL so called "safeties." Some passive deactivators (with the obvious exception of the abomination known as the "magazine disconnect safety"), like the passive "safeties" on revolvers, are great inventions.
 
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YOU are the "safety." If YOU are not safe enough to handle a firearm without these idiotic so called "safeties," then you're not save enough to handle it WITH one.
Click to expand...
Congratulations! You have just qualified to carry cocked and unlocked single-action autos.
 
Congratulations! You have just qualified to carry cocked and unlocked single-action autos.
Click to expand...
:rolleyes: I knew I recognized you from the national debating championships.

A cocked and unlocked 1911 is in an IDENTICAL state to a revolver that has been cocked, and a revolver doesn't have a locking lever so thanks for furthering my point einstein. If you had read my post you would have noticed that I mentioned revolvers (which, again do not have any locking lever) and I didn't advocate carrying a revolver with it's hammer cocked. Heck I wasn't even DISCUSSING carry. You injected that aspect because your weak balsa wood point required some backup.
 
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