Magazine Safeties- Revolver Safeties

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Redlg155

Redlg155

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I understand the principle of a magazine safety. An officer can hit the mag release to disable the firearm in case of a struggle, yet a significant portion of LEO agencies use weapons not equipped with this feature. Are these overated?

Revolver safeties...has anyone had an instance of failure with one of these? In addition, why not just make them accept a handcuff key to unlock? I'm not sure if posession of a cuff key is a crime in any jurisdictions.

Any opinions?
 
I understand the principle of a magazine safety. An officer can hit the mag release to disable the firearm in case of a struggle, yet a significant portion of LEO agencies use weapons not equipped with this feature. Are these overated?
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Magazine safeties are, in my opinion, a liability. What happens if the mag release gets hit accidentally during a struggle (or even when drawing), and you can no longer fire off the round in the chamber?

As for revolver safeties, you'll have to be more specific. Do you mean the integral locks featured on newer Ruger and Smith & Wesson revolvers? If so, I haven't had one fail on me (either locking when they're not supposed to, or failing to lock when they're supposed to), but I'm not too fond of them either. When I purchased my first S&W revolver with one, I tried its function out a few times, then threw the key into the box the gun came in, and have left it in the closet since (this was almost five years ago). I have no reason to use it. It hasn't caused any problems for me since, either.
 
The internal lock systems are not safeties. Other than those I can only think of one or two revolver models that included a safety, and nothing modern.
 
Even some of the Heritage Arms revolvers have a manual (keyless) hammer block safety.

My experience with keyed internal locks in revolvers are only with Taurus and Ruger. None have stopped from firing due to the internal lock becoming accidentally engaged so far.
 
Back in the day when revolvers ruled the LEO world , a couple of companies experimented with revolver safeties. One had you wear a magnetic ring that would cause the internal lock to disengage and you could fire, problem was if you switched hands and didn't have a ring on your other hand it didn't fire.
The second one was for S&W only the cylinder release would swing down for safe , problem was sometimes you hit it when you didn't want it to...
 
Magazine safeties have another practical use...I think I read it in an Ayoob column

For your nightstand/closet/desk/hallway gun, if you have kids, you can remove the magazine and render the weapon unable to fire. You can carry the magazine on you person and enable the fire controls of the gun as you pick it up
 
Korth revolvers (even new ones) have a manual safety.
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Where is it located and how does it work?

I've looked at a couple in person and many in photographs--a few in videos--read a review or two and have never seen a manual safety or even heard one mentioned before.

I also can't find any mention of a manual safety on their website.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMwULQ7xcjY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMBN5-nm3TA

The cylinder latch is the button/paddle up near the hammer and the only other button or control I'm aware or (or can see) besides the trigger & hammer is the cylinder release button on the right side of the frame in front of the trigger guard which can be pressed to allow the removal of the cylinder from the gun.
 
Forgive me, I was told by someone who claimed to own a Korth that the mechanism near the hammer was a manual safety, not the cylinder latch. I've never had the opportunity to handle/operate a Korth personally to confirm/deny. My mistake.
 
I was told by someone who claimed to own a Korth that the mechanism near the hammer was a manual safety,
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The Korth revolver is kind of one of my dream guns. It's not really that I plan to ever buy one, but I do enjoy looking at them/reading about them and drooling. I thought I had stumbled on a new nugget of information about them I wasn't aware of.

The damascus steel revolver they had at SHOT this year was truly amazing. The guys running the booth were kind enough to let me stare at it for awhile without making me feel too uncomfortable... :D

I don't think this is the same revolver, but you get the idea.

nibelungen_2.jpg

What's interesting is that after posting on this thread, I started doing some searching and found at least one other reference (posting on a forum) to a manual safety on Korth revolvers. Maybe your buddy is making the rounds!
 
The "mechanism near the hammer" is the cylinder latch. Korth claims it is easier to operate than the side mounted latch used on other revolvers. I don't agree, preferring the S&W latch, but then that is what I am used to.

Jim
 
I personally like a mag safety in a DAO pistol. It is useful when holstering and unholstering, storage temporarily, ie, remove mag, lock gun in toolbox, stick mag in pocket. For me I appreciate it when carrying my M&P 9 c. As far as IL's go,I can live without it.
 
I can't stand mag disconnect safeties.

Somewhere I seen a comment where a guy said magazine safeties are not a feature, they're a design flaw. Totally agree.
 
Mag disconnect safeties are a benign feature, IMO; they neither help nor hurt, except for complicating dryfire practice a little. I was just fine with them on the S&W metal-frame pistols that I had. BUT - one should not rely on them as a substitute for proper safety practices, in this case physically checking the chamber. The same goes for loaded chamber indicators.

Revolver safeties...has anyone had an instance of failure with one of these? In addition, why not just make them accept a handcuff key to unlock? I'm not sure if posession of a cuff key is a crime in any jurisdictions.
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These are more storage devices than "safeties." You're not going to carry a revolver and a key and unlock it before use ... use being a gunfight. :uhoh: There have been and still are revolver safeties, but these are mostly to make them "proprietary to the user," as Mas Ayoob puts it.
 
Magazine safeties were developed in the early days of auto pistols when many people thought that removing the magazine unloaded the gun. Some were proved wrong when they shot themselves or others.

Other "excuses" came later, like police popping the magazine if about to lose the gun.

And of course the magazine safety has now been taken up by the anti-gun gangsters as another demand on gun makers and by anti-gun lawyers as an excuse to sue gun owners and gun makers on behalf of the careless and the criminal.

Jim
 
Magazine safeties were developed in the early days of auto pistols when many people thought that removing the magazine unloaded the gun.
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Did the French military really care what many people thought back in 1922 when they wrote the specs asking for a Magazine Safety in the P-35?
 
"I can't stand mag disconnect safeties.

Somewhere I seen a comment where a guy said magazine safeties are not a feature, they're a design flaw. Totally agree. "


Here's another vote against magazine safeties: me!
 
I disconnected the magazine safety on my BHP. It improves the trigger pull.
I also prefer guns that will operate even if I lose the magazine and have to single load.
Seriously, if a cop looses his gun to a bad guy he has probably already lost the fight.
 
A nice thing about the M&P without the magazine safety is that it doesn't have the warning on the slide...plus the magazine safety is easy to remove
 
Hi, 9mmepiphany,

"Did the French military really care what many people thought back in 1922 when they wrote the specs asking for a Magazine Safety in the P-35?"

No, but maybe they knew the level of skill and training of their troops.

Jim
 
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