When I was shopping for my .45 ACP, reliability was probably my #1 criteria. I chose the Springfield XD-45. Apparently, they are as reliable as a hammer. That could become important.

There remains an unanswered question in this thread. I am hoping to learn, so I am hoping for this answer. What is the problem with ambidextrous thumb safeties?

Again, my #1 criteria is reliability. In both directions. That is......when I want the gun to fire, it needs to fire. Conversely, when I want the gun to not fire, it needs to not fire. I'd say these were my #1 and #2 criteria. Perhaps I had the wrong grampa (I don't think so), but the importance of safety in firearm handling was absolutely paramount. Having had this drilled into me from a young age, and being mostly a rifle guy, I have only recently gotten comfortable with the concept of carring a firearm on my person, outside the palm of my hand, with live amunition in the chamber. And my gun has a thumb safety, a trigger safety, a ducktail safety and a striker safety. My guy happens to have an ambidextrous thumb safety, which as a righty I don't care about, but I just wonder why this feature might be considered bad.

And finally, I have to disagree with the poster who seemed to regard Porsches as unreliable or finicky. Quite the contrary, Porsches are probably as renowned for their reliability as their agility. They are the single-action revolvers of motoring.

A safety on any firearm is a chimera.

Most safety devices are incorrectly designed. They should lock or block the firing pin. Like on a Walther PP design or the Winchester Model 70. This way without a piece of steel breaking the firearm cannot fire from impact or poorly trained trigger discipline.

The "idea" behind an ambidextrous safety on handguns like the 1911 is that if you were incapacitated on the right side, you could still operate the 1911 with the left side.

Several things are wrong with that "idea". If you are incapacitated on your right side, in what probable scenario would you fail to have the safety already off? Why in hell would you have the safety on?Situational awareness will save your ass like nothing else will.

Secondly, there is a world of difference between a handgun or rifle that was designed with an ambidextrous safety from the beginning and a retro fitted solution. Most safeties on the 1911 are made of cast pieces that join together in a tongue and slot inside the frame and have a small slot on a thin pin to retain the left hand safety. Two things are sub-par with this design, the cast material can break inside the frame and the small slotted pin can break or be jammed due to impact. In both cases it results in a malfunction that cannot easily be rectified in combat.

Thirdly, most safeties promote a false sense of security. Multiple safeties only add to this false sense of security and are only offering more points of failure in the design. A proper holster and proper trigger finger discipline solves all problems, except impact. And most safeties as I stated do not prevent that scenario.

If you are left handed, obtain a firearm that has been designed with both a proper firing blocking safety and one that was designed from the beginning with an ambidextrous safety. They are out there. Blaser R93 rifles and Glocks are two excellent examples.

For some reason (army training?), I am accustomed to using safetys on rifles when out in the yard pursuing/hunting varmints when the gun is loaded with one in the chamber (I guess it is my fear of falling down and dropping or landing on the firearm causing an AD. That said, I never use safeties when bullseye shooting with light triggered SA target pistols (I simply keep the gun empty with slide back laying on shooting bench until ready to fire). Now that I am about to get my CCW and after a summer of IDPA competition under my belt using a decent holster and loaded Glocks, I have no problem whatsoever with the thought of carrying these type of DAO pistols ready to go with one in the chamber in a holster that covers the trigger. Safely drawing a loaded Glock is like second nature to me now including keeping my finger positively out of the trigger until ready to fire. In the course of competing, I have safely drawn my weapon with cold water drenched hands, I have fallen on the ground while running to cover, I have shot from all types of positions using strong hand, weak hand and two handed grips. I cannot now imagine carrying a gun that has a bunch of safety levers protruding all over to get snagged in clothing or having to worry about manipulating prior to firing. Whether my hands are cold, sweaty, injured or bleeding, I am 100% confident in my ability to quickly draw and fire my weapon in any situation. Fortunately my new TCP carry gun functions exactly the same as my Glock..... no external safeties other than the one between my ears.

I have owned and fired guns for over 30 years and never had an accident, but I can attest that the cumulative effect of my one summer of practicing and competing in IDPA (probably about 8000 rounds worth) has really had a profound effect on how comfortable and confident I am with the thought of safely carrying a handgun.

Just to clarify, do you mean that you are carrying with a "palm out" grip/hoster configuration (as in: small-of-back, palm facing away from body when gripping/unholstering)? If so, that is probably just as (if not more) dangerous than any additional safety.

No, I was simply thinking of the difference between holding the gun in my hand versus not holding it. Again, perhaps I need to re-learn what grampa taught. Yeah, I know that guns don't just "go off" for no reason. On the other hand, that's how I treat them. I assume they're going to spontaneously discharge. If a gun were to go off while it is outside my grip, someone could get hurt. If it goes off in my hand, nobody would get hurt except a bad guy. Again, perhaps I need to take a less careful approach with these little handgun thingies. Grampa, dad and myself have historically been rifle guys. You don't carry or transport a loaded rifle. It gets loaded when you're at a shooting or hunting location. Once loaded, the gun is treated as "hot."

Yeah, I certainly understand about features and controls snagging on holsters or clothing and generally impeding gun-handling. Still, with my background, it is hard to get used to the idea of holstering a weapon with live amunition in the chamber and no safety. Currently, when I carry my handgun in a holster, in addition to the 'passive' safeties (ducktail, trigger, etc), the thumb safety is on. If I need to draw and fire the weapon, the thumb safety causes little or no delay.

It would be very different if I were a law enforcement officer. In that case, my safety would be primarily dependent on how quickly and effectively I could draw and fire the weapon. But I'm not a law enforcement officer. Statistically, I am more likely to be injured by my weapon than someone else's. That is......the accidental discharge of my weapon is more likely than the deliberate discharge of an attacker's weapon. Now.....here's where someone is going to say "Well, it sounds like you shouldn't be carrying a weapon if you're as careless as that," which would strike me as dangerously naive. A non-law-enforcement guy who walks around with certain confidence that his weapon could never hurt him or anyone else except a bad guy......is fooling himself.

I would "never" say "never" :D....... But IMO, carrying a holstered loaded DA Glock daily is far less risky from an AD point of view compared driving to work every day or crossing the road. (and yes I have heard of the term "glockleg", but I am not an urbanite pro athlete carrying a handgun in my pants unholstered ;))


All that said, I personally would not feel "safe" carrying any sort of single action light/short triggered firearm loaded and cocked w/ out a positive hammer blocking safety... I may be crazy, but I am not stupid. :D

:D

I am learning. Continuously. And I am happy to be starting from the position way over on the "safe" side of the continuum.

My .45ACP's...
 

These are all .45ACP...
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Is that what the fellas in the cell block tell you?

:D

Sorry, I saw your post, and it was just begging... I couldn't stop myself.

Can someone tell me what the point of the shape/design of the trigger guard on the bottom gun is?

Steve,
As I understand it, the trigger guard shape is for wearing gloves. This pistol (S&W 645) was primarily sold to law enforcement and typically, the trigger guard has to accomodate the gloved finger. It is a very comfortable pistol to shoot!

The trigger guard is that shape, because it was the fashion for several years to "hook" the front of a trigger guard so that your off hand index finger could be wrapped around that surface to provide additional recoil control.

It fell out of favor because it really did not work very well.

Offered a 1000$ cash for that 1978 colt revolver, we talked about earlier, no go he says he gave 1500 so i;m still looking , I liked it

Dam these things keep following me home...this one is a Commercial built in 1919...Looks to be clean but am not going to hold my breath (I am real leary of just how clean this one is, I shoulda had to pay way more) nice original finish, Grip Straps show little to no wear, Grips are still fresh (maybe replacements) might be a bit of blue thinning on the right side of frame and slide above and to the rear of the Grips?

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