Accidental Safety Lockup

[Guest Matchguy]

I have a friend who doesn't carry the Browning Hi Power for defensive purposes because his normal grip on the gun causes his right thumb to push up on the safety lever and lock up the gun in mid-string.

Well now I know what he means.....this happened to me yesterday with a NIB FEG PJK 9HP. This gun, although NIB, is about fifteen years old and is the true BHP clone, having the BHP slide stop and the older, small safety lever. I was shooting some 25 yard offhand stuff with two hands when my five pound trigger pull suddenly went to a zillion pounds. I looked at the gun carefully and saw that I had accidentally pushed the safety lever upward a skosh and locked the trigger up tighter'n a drum.

I'm in the process of replacing this safety lever with a BHP ambi safety system anyway, but until I get it installed I'll have to be very careful with my gripping technique.

So you BHP/1911 fans might take note.....it really does happen. You might want to grip your pistol in your normal defensive grip and take a look at how close you're getting to pushing up on the safety. Naturally you want to empty the gun first. Hope you find this useful.

Best wishes.

MG

Edited July 16, 2009 by Matchguy

[Guest JHatmaker]

I'm kind of confused, I grip all my guns the same way. What is a non-normal grip?

[threeshot]

I guess your friend is not using one of the four grips shown in the link below.

Grip techniques used with the M9 Pistol (ArmyStudyGuide.com)

Todd Jarrett IPSC Pistol Grip Lesson

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4584332856867071363

The reason I did not link the video into the post was due to you would get two videos embedded into the post.

Edited July 16, 2009 by threeshot
Add Video

[timcalhoun]

I have a friend who doesn't carry the Browning Hi Power for defensive purposes because his normal grip on the gun causes his right thumb to push up on the safety lever and lock up the gun in mid-string.

Well now I know what he means.....this happened to me yesterday with a NIB FEG PJK 9HP. This gun, although NIB, is about fifteen years old and is the true BHP clone, having the BHP slide stop and the older, small safety lever. I was shooting some 25 yard offhand stuff with two hands when my five pound trigger pull suddenly went to a zillion pounds. I looked at the gun carefully and saw that I had accidentally pushed the safety lever upward a skosh and locked the trigger up tighter'n a drum.

I'm in the process of replacing this safety lever with a BHP ambi safety system anyway, but until I get it installed I'll have to be very careful with my gripping technique.

So you BHP/1911 fans might take note.....it really does happen. You might want to grip your pistol in your normal defensive grip and take a look at how close you're getting to pushing up on the safety. Naturally you want to empty the gun first. Hope you find this useful.

Best wishes.

MG

With the 1911 and the Hi Power your right thumb should ride the safety. Every Pro shooter I know does this.......Rob Leatham, Todd Jarrett, Frank Garcia, Max Micheal, etc.....etc.....etc.... It also helps you get higher on the gun and help with recoil management.

[Guest Matchguy]

I've known shooters who ride the safety, and it might be worthy of consideration with either the BHP or 1911 if it works for you. But it doesn't work for me or the friend I referred to, and, given the terrible reputation the BHP has for hammer bite, I seriously doubt that too many everyday shooters who have experienced it will warm up to the idea of holding the hand higher on this particular gun.

Since riding the safety doesn't work for me, my gripping technique has been to keep my thumb down out of the way of the safety, which has worked on all the 1911's and BHP's I've owned except for this one. My earlier post was intended for the ordinary shooter and HCP holder who may or may not have any training, and who may not know of this particular glitch or the need to watch out for it, and who has little interaction with competitive shooting.

MG

[Guest Matchguy]

I'm kind of confused, I grip all my guns the same way. What is a non-normal grip?

My definition of a non normal grip, within the context of my original post, would be one you get forced into because your hand won't fit the gun well enough to shoot it well....my friend has big, beefy hands and the Browning Hi Power is one of the more dainty double stack grip frames around. The two don't always go together, which is what I meant by "his normal grip." His hand is so big he can't hold or shoot the gun well because of his inability to grip it properly....i.e. not everybody can hold the same gun the same way, and unless you can correct the problem with grips or other mods, then choosing another gun is prolly the best option, which is what he decided to do. My hand is very poorly suited to the full-size SIG service autos, and I don't shoot them well, so I stay away from them even though I like the design and workmanship very much. I have a friend with hands so small he can't accomodate any double stack design, as is the case with a lot of wives. Hope this clarifies my earlier post.

[Guest Micromancer]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4584332856867071363

I encourage anyone that has not seen this video to do so, whether or not you have a good idea on how to grip a gun. I have been pimping this vid for around a year now, and so far everyone who has seen it has been able to get something out of it regardless of experience.

[Guest 1shot]

Manual external safeties can get you killed in a stressful situation. That is the reason that I carry a Glock. I have shot pistols regularly much of my life. I have many different types, revolvers and semi-autos and carry different ones. Because of a little thing that happened a while back while target shooting I have stopped carrying for self defense any pistol that has a manual external safety like my 1911. I was practicing self defense draw and shoot with the different pistols I then carried. I had just switched from a revolver to my 1911. When I drew the 1911 from my holster and tried to fire quickly it took me three pulls on the trigger to realize that I had forgoten to take the safety off. If this had been a real self defense situation I would most likely have been killed before I realized the pistol was on safe. I bought me a Glock and now only carry pistols that will go BANG with just the pull of the trigger. In a self defense situation you will not always be able to use the "proper grip" and you sure don't want murphy's law to come into play. If at the wrong time bad things will happen, Murphy's law.

[Kegger]

Training will help to correct a lot of these problems. Proper grip, being the key.

As for 1shot's comments, safeties don't get you killed. Not knowing and training with your firearm gets you killed. I won't carry anything that doesn't have an external safety, with the exception of revolvers.

You train enough, the dropping of the safety becomes part of your draw. I know many people, myself included, that can have a 1911 out of a holster with a shot on target as fast or faster than shooters with safetyless guns.

Training and muscle memory are the keys to this.