Sear deactivation lever (yellow)...why?

[Magload]

In the interest of safety, I suggest a round magazine that can be swung to one side, out of battery, to ensure the pistol is unloaded. This may take further research but I think the idea is worth investigating.
I neglected to say that I propose that that the cartridges remain in, and be fired from, the round magazine. If the rounds never enter the barrel, they cannot be overlooked.

That gun is going to have a very wide grip if I am understanding what you are saying. Don

 

[Johnmuratore]

I thought of a good name for that innovative design.
A Rotator, or maybe Revolve - er.

Ya?

 

[Rastoff]

In the interest of safety, I suggest a round magazine that can be swung to one side, out of battery, to ensure the pistol is unloaded. This may take further research but I think the idea is worth investigating.
I neglected to say that I propose that that the cartridges remain in, and be fired from, the round magazine.

I don't think this will catch on. It sounds like there will be limited capacity and, as we all know, maximum capacity is paramount.

 

[donmontalvo]

Wow I'm glad I found this thread. I thought I was going crazy. I found out while field stripping my Smith and Wesson M&P Shield 9 that you can flip the lever or pull the trigger. Didn't make sense to me. So I searched for videos hoping someone can explain. I found these:

Videos saying to pull the trigger:
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0scjuxVmlb0[/ame]
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqJNdF2by6Q[/ame]
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6J7i3oitPA[/ame]
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWhtW6X3mEU[/ame]
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsdlFUMKt6E[/ame]


Videos saying to flip the lever:
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnsh6RH4Rwk[/ame]
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTvujx8WTkw[/ame]
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUQlVCilA6E[/ame]
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5nPNF2XYmA[/ame]
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqKFON-xdqo[/ame]

I guess its a moot point, I personally have no problem pulling the lever, even if it isn't required.

Loving my Shield 9. 100% reliable. Comfortable. Accurate.

Don

 

[Oldnavman]

Need for sear deactivation lever?

Just picked-up my new M&P shield 9mm the other day.Was going through the field stripping instructions, got to the part where you lower the sear deactivation lever.I pushed the lever down and it fell right out the bottom of the mag well.I started searching the Internet for some way to put it back in.Called Smith&Wesson,they sent me a label to send it back, time,2or3 weeks to get fixed and back to me.I found this web site,you guys answered a lot of questions for me.I saw where S&W left a pin out of the spring that holds the lever.Armed with the information learned here, I removed the spring,put it and the lever in the box and the pistol works fine without it. I just use the trigger to remove the slide.

 

[grandpasknives]

why is it that so many people feel that they are too much of an expert to read the manual that comes with firearms?They give it to you for a reason,if you read it you will know what each control does or doesnt do.we have too may people who feel they are smarter than the people who make the weapons,but they are not.

 

[scattershot]

Lawyer stuff.

 

[zymurgeist]

Lawyer stuff.

That and police department requests because politician and insurance company stuff.

 

[DataPimp]

Personally, I like the lever. Keeps the stripping sequence consistent and defined. Rack the slide, flip the takedown lever, drop the mag, flip the sear diconnect (with pinky), release the slide. No WAY for an AD.

Yes but the very first step ejects any chambered round. This is why this makes no sense to me.

~Edited to say: Post #21 answered my question.

 

[rwsmith]

Well, we could be required.....

You know, this is funny because I read a lot of comments/complaints from people who don't like having to pull the trigger to field strip a Glock.

I guess it just goes to show that no one thing will please everyone...no offense to the OP intended. Good thing we live in America, and have choices and options!

In America we could be required to fill out forms to field strip a gun.


On the subject. My sear lever isn't painted, it's small and it's dark in there. My eyes ain't that hot either. I'm getting better at feeling for it. Other than that I don't mind it. It's simple. Nice to know that you can pull the trigger if I get caught without my little screwdriver or nail file that seems to be the best thing to catch the lever with.

 

[Rastoff]

Yes but the very first step ejects any chambered round. This is why this makes no sense to me.

Good point. On the M&P you must lock the slide back to operate the take down lever. On a Glock, no such movement of the slide is necessary. That may be why the Glock has so many NDs during field stripping.

EDIT:
Then again, what if the round wasn't extracted/ejected? If there was a broken extractor or it didn't grip the case for some reason (yes, I've seen this happen), then the gun would fire when you pulled the trigger. If you've used the sear deactivation lever, the gun won't fire for any reason.

I'm still going to say the sear deactivation lever is the best policy.

 

[feelinlucky]

Revived zombie thread, but so what?

Procedure one: Lock the slide back. Operate the sear deactivation lever. Turn the takedown lever. Release the slide. Remove the slide.

Procedure two: Lock the slide back. Turn the takedown lever. Release the slide. Pull the trigger. Remove the slide.

What critical first step is missing from both of these procedures? ASSURE THAT THERE IS NO MAGAZINE IN THE GUN AND THAT THERE IS NO ROUND IN THE CHAMBER.

If you omit this critical first step using procedure one, the worst that could happen is that you might say, "Dang, where did that round come from?"

If you omit this critical first step using procedure two, the gun might go BANG!

When guns unexpectedly go bang, that's when lawyers for the injured plaintiff go to work. Installing a sear deactivation lever and recommending its use is cheaper than paying defense lawyers.

 

[Fastbolt]

Yes but the very first step ejects any chambered round. This is why this makes no sense to me.

~Edited to say: Post #21 answered my question.

I can't think of any armorer classes I've attended, involving pistols or rifles with removable magazines, which ever listed disassembly/unloading instructions with the manual retraction & cycling of the slide as the first step in the process.

Instead, it's the removal of the magazine (where the bullets live) that occurs first, and then the retraction of the slide to empty the chambered round.

There have seemingly been no particular shortage of gun owners/users who cycled the slide first, extracting & ejecting the chambered round .... and then allowed the slide to go forward on a loaded magazine, chambering another round ... and then they removed the magazine, and pulled the trigger (if required for field-stripping, by design), only to have the result being a very loud noise and a hole in something/someone.

Even the owner safety manual lists removing the magazine as the first step.

 

[jkasch]

In America we could be required to fill out forms to field strip a gun.


On the subject. My sear lever isn't painted, it's small and it's dark in there. My eyes ain't that hot either. I'm getting better at feeling for it. Other than that I don't mind it. It's simple. Nice to know that you can pull the trigger if I get caught without my little screwdriver or nail file that seems to be the best thing to catch the lever with.

Yeah, they need to let the yellow paint guy go. He or she almost got a little paint on mine.

 

[USNCWO4]

Sear

Just another way S&W have "lawyered" up to protect themselves.

 

[Arik]

Just another way S&W have "lawyered" up to protect themselves.

Can't win. People cry that you have to pull the trigger and it's dangerous a d gets people killed. When a lever is added in a place that forces you to pull the slide back and visually see that there is no mag and nothing chambered while pulling the lever without the use of the trigger then it's nothing but protection against lawsuits.

Someone should invent a gun where the owner says abracadabra and the gun magically appears already disassembled

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

 

[Rastoff]

There have seemingly been no particular shortage of gun owners/users who cycled the slide first, extracting & ejecting the chambered round .... and then allowed the slide to go forward on a loaded magazine, chambering another round ... and then they removed the magazine, and pulled the trigger (if required for field-stripping, by design), only to have the result being a very loud noise and a hole in something/someone.

This right here is why it's valuable to use the lever. People get the order backward all the time. This is why the military makes good use of clearing barrels. Anyone who's ever been in a combat arena has likely heard a shot fired into a clearing barrel because the order was reversed.

This is why checking the chamber twice is good. This is why requiring the trigger to be pulled to field strip is bad.

 

[JL Murray]

I try to use the yellow lever when field stripping but there have been times that I didn't have a pen or other devise handy to push it down due to my pudgy paws so in those occasions I have to trigger pull to break down.

 

[Rastoff]

You don't carry a pocket knife?

EDIT: Wait. What possible reason could you have for doing a field strip when you didn't have something that could move the lever?

 

[The Therapist]

New owner here of S&W Shield 9mm. I'm also new to using a sear deactivation lever when field stripping a gun. I guess I got used to field stripping a GLOCK for years. Anyways, since I'm not used to that "yellow lever", after I reassembled the Shield (slide and all), I tried pulling on the trigger and it won't "click". Tried it a few times and still nothing! I started to panic a little bit wondering if I broke the trigger, until I realized that the yellow lever is still "down"! So I inserted a magazine to push the lever up and tried the trigger again and voila! It worked! I guess when that lever is down the trigger won't work? Am I correct?