Quote:
Originally Posted by chuck s
Ya still gotta thumb a safety OFF very time even if you never, ever put it ON.
Bad magic things happen to safety locks between the time you holstered the pistol and when you really need it in that parking lot at 0200. "***" is not what you want to be thinking when the pistol doesn't fire... 
-- Chuck |
Chuck:
Yeah, but training is the key here.... As a 1911 guy anyway, snapping off a thumb safety is sufficiently automatic for me that
not finding the thumb safety is a little disconcerting.
If it's "ON", so what?
OTOH, if you're not trained up on snapping off a thumb safety, that's another story.
Thumb safeties, if present, should always work in the same direction (S&W's older semi's are backwards, as is the PPK series), and it's OK if your BUG doesn't have one, but you need to train to always try to turn it off during presentation.
If there's no thumb safety, but you're used to having one, it's a nuisance.
The only real exception is the backwards thumb safety on some S&W semi's.... They're stiff and flat, but the gun can be safely carried (once decocked) with the safety off. (Some of these guns have just a decocker, btw.) If you're trained try to snap one off during presentation (which would turn it on), you're not likely to. Will it turn itself on? Probably not, but if you use it for a decocker and forget....
IF the thumb safety has a habit of turning itself on while in use, without the shooter's overt act, there's really something wrong. It could be the safety, the grip, or the shooter's hand. I feel that the thumb safety on my M&P40C is a little loose, but it doesn't turn itself on or off while being shot.
My daughter's quite petite, and when trying to shoot a buddy's M41 her inner thumb knuckle flips the thumb safety on with every shot. More than a little disconcerting. But it's a range gun.... My M22A doesn't do that for her.
The M22A is an inexpensive "target" gun - really just an advanced plinker. Mine's got a 7" bull barrel and HUGE target grips (similar to those on my ancient Combat Magnum), and essentially pot metal construction. Joe's M41 is nominally the same gun, in real steel, about four times the price, and his has flat grips not too different from S&W's current all-metal semi's. The thumb safety is just in the wrong place for the kid on the M41.... It's not well placed for an "automatic" flick by a trained shooter, either.... But that's almost a fluke. It's hard to believe that a .22 would bounce her around to the point of turning the thumb safety on, but she really is very petite.
Regards,